The bulletin of the Ministry of Health with the new coronavirus infections, the number of victims and the data on hospitalizations must remain daily. This is the opinion expressed by the Scientific Technical Committee, according to what has been learned, at the end of today’s meeting on the subject. Theme at the center of the debate among experts.
The daily bulletin of coronavirus infections “is required of us by international treaties and by the WHO. For our international obligations, we must give the number every day and communicate this number to the whole world and to all international organizations”, he clarified to ‘ The air that Minister Speranza’s advisor pulls on La7, Walter Ricciardi. “We cannot fail to classify all infections and communicate them to international institutions. Then – underlines the expert – how much and how this list of infections is communicated is a different thing. There are countries that do it in one way, countries that do it in another, but this is part of the communication not of the data collection which for us – he reiterates – is mandatory “.
Per Andrea Crisanti it is essential to keep a detailed bulletin. “The epidemic is a complex phenomenon that is measured through a series of parameters. And since we are in an epidemic that affects everyone, for transparency we must know everything. Giving numbers only on hospitalizations or deaths would mean hiding an important part of the truth” , he claims.
“I have been repeating this for quite some time: anyone who is in hospital and is asymptomatic for respiratory disease from Covid, but has a positive swab without having any compatible symptoms, should be considered on a par with all the other patients. He must be isolated , of course, but it cannot be considered as a Covid pathology and put in the daily bulletin “, he told Ruetir Salute Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the San Martino hospital in Genoa.
“It takes greater dynamism on the part of the Ministry of Health and the CTS in acknowledging the messages that arrive from those who are in the field – adds Bassetti – There is a distance between those who are in the Roman bureaucratic rooms and those who are in the field managing the sick . Let’s say what we see in our hospitals: putting the symptomatic and the asymptomatic all together is wrong. To count for the coloration criteria of the regions only those who have signs and symptoms from Covid “, is the opinion of the infectious disease specialist.
“In this still expansive phase of the epidemic, eliminating the daily bulletin would be a signal of free everyone while daily communication has the effect of reminding us of the situation we are in”, the virologist told Ruetir Salute in recent days. Fabrizio Pregliasco, professor of the University of Milan. “The data as they are communicated – admitted the expert – are a bit coarse and do not take into account the various distinctions, it is said that 34% of hospitalized people are also positive for Covid, but in quiet conditions and therefore the data should be better articulated. Then it is not only the data itself – the virologist underlines – but also how it is told, it is clear that if it becomes the first news of the Tg, told with emphasis “it can have an” anxiogenic effect “. “We are in a phase of transition so I would change once the peak is exceeded, with a communication perhaps made in a less coarse way if possible”. Or as Bassetti says, no longer counting among Covid patients those who go to the hospital because they break a leg and test positive for the swab? “Yes, but without losing sight of the contagiousness problem – warned the virologist – otherwise we will go back to the habits of the past”. “We are certainly in a phase of transition towards normalization – reassured Pregliasco – and if Omicron will take hold and it would seem by now to 60% of the sequences, it is clear that after this winter we will have other undulations, but they will return to an endemic dimension such as the influence. So – he concludes – it is right to plan a way for the future “.
