Lockdown yes or no? The variants scare, but the experts are divided

And so we go back to talking about total lockdown. “The defense of the right to health comes first”. The Minister of Health Roberto Speranza thus responds to the criticisms coming from the Northern League Massimo Garavaglia, responsible for tourism. The ordinance on the stop to the ski facilities arrived 12 hours after the opening was just not liked.

The stop is until March 5, but many operators are now convinced that this season will not restart. It is not just a question of timing.

But also of spread of the virus in its variants (the English one is close to 20% of cases). For these many virologists are asking for a new one lockdown and the hashtag #lockdown is at the top of social trends.

Expert opinion

Per Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist at the Galeazzi hospital in Milan, “the timing of the stop was improvised, because it was known for a while, but the decision was right”. On Rai Radio1, guest of A Sheep Day, has also returned to the request that has been discussed the most in recent days, that of a new lockdown by the consultant of the Ministry of Health Walter Ricciardi. “It is the one that is most effective, Ricciardi is right but I realize that there is a social anger of those who have been suffering for months”.

Interviewed by Open professor Giovanni Sebastiani, a CNR mathematician, said that a lockdown similar to the one experienced between Christmas and Epiphany and the immediate closure of schools would be needed to block the spread of Covid variants, reaching a rate of positivity such as to be able to reactivate a contact tracing system effective.

The Technical Scientific Committee does not speak of lockdown, but asks, in order to “contain and slow down” the spread of the Covid variants, “rigorous observance, reinforcement and increase of risk mitigation measures both nationally and in specific local areas, avoiding further release measures “. As France and Germany are doing in Europe, but also Great Britain has reached 15 million vaccinated.

There are also those who say that total closure is not necessary. “Making total lockdowns is not necessary, targeted and surgical closures are enough where the need arises. The important thing is to apply rigorously and severely the rules that already exist to gain progressive freedom, and avoid the “roller coaster” of opening and closing accordion. We need balance », said the medical director of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute, Francesco Vaia a Rainews24.

Same opinion expresses Matteo Bassetti, Director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino Hospital in Genoa. «The numbers say we have 5% of the positives, hospitalizations have dropped and the situation is not an emergency. Looking at what happened a year ago with the first cases of coronavirus in the North, it is likely to think that this virus correlates with the winter season and there could be an increase in cases. This time, however, we have the tools to counter the pandemic. If there is an increase in cases and hospitalizations, it will be necessary to intervene at the local level with the closures “reports the Sole24ore.

One thing I tell you: it is very difficult for a vaccine to have greater effectiveness in the field than this. Now let’s hurry up. The problem is not solved with closures which only serve to save time. It resolves with the vaccine. Photo from @EricTopol pic.twitter.com/a4SGAEkAFo

— Roberto Burioni (@RobertoBurioni) February 15, 2021

«The problem is not solved with closures which only serve to save time. It is resolved with the vaccine », the virologist of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan writes on Twitter Roberto Burioni. One hypothesis could be to review the parameters of openings and closings, because it is evident that when a region goes into the yellow band, the progress made in red and orange is quickly lost.