After numerous appeals from medical unions and industry experts, the government moves to provide legal protections to healthcare workers engaged in Covid-19 vaccinations. “I believe it is a fair and understandable request and that we must take on as soon as possible”, said Health Minister Roberto Speranza, responding to requests for introduction of a criminal shield for doctors: “I think the government should work in the next few hours to give a positive response to this request.”
As highlighted by the Sheet, it is not only a question of protecting the professional category most exposed to the coronavirus emergency, but also of guaranteeing the effectiveness of the vaccination plan, which could be affected by a “witch hunt” climate in the judiciary, on the wave of what happened in Sicily. “We have full confidence in the judiciary, but the current system, for which the registration in the register of suspects of the doctors who administered the vaccine is considered a duty, risks being a strong deterrent. And it puts the vaccination campaign at risk, just at the moment when the entire medical profession has given its availability “, explained Filippo Anelli, president of Fnomceo, the national federation of orders of surgeons and dentists, resuming the appeal launched by Anaao-Assomed.
GPs are also asking for safeguards, for the moment on the sidelines of the vaccination campaign, but who, in the intentions of the government, will have to be increasingly involved personally in the administration (“We find ourselves faced with new vaccines that are safe, but if something should happen, the fault cannot be the doctor’s”, underlined Silvestro Scotti, secretary of the Fimmg). The appeals received the bipartisan consensus of politics, even of the 5-star Movement, traditionally allergic to any form of “penal shield”. Now we need to move from words to deeds.