Vaccinations, the general’s plan to help slower regions

There is a clear imbalance in the management of vaccinations in the different regions. Not all of them have received the same number of doses and this is not even always proportional to the number of inhabitants, not all of the pandemics are hitting in the same way. The first goal of the new extraordinary commissioner Francesco Figliuolo is to balance these numbers: inhabitants of the Region, infected and vaccinated.

To make the vaccination speed up, to increase immunization and therefore curb infections without the need for red zone closures, the army and civil protection could come into play.

They would be ready to move people and resources to bring vaccines and get vaccinations done.

The commissioner’s task is this and he must do it quickly, obviously with the hope that the doses will arrive. Friday Figliuolo will meet the presidents of the Regions, with also the ministers Maria Stella Gelmini and Roberto Speranza and the head of civil protection Fabrizio Curcio.

Although health management is a regional issue, the pandemic is an exceptional case that provides for state intervention and the State will intervene to fill local delays or any shortcomings. In some regions the vaccination facility exists, but the doses are few, in others it is the opposite.

The first task of army and civil protection it should be to bring the doses to their destination faster. It will then be necessary to increase the number of vaccinators, also using military doctors. All with centralized logistics for mass vaccination that should be operational in April with a protocol established together with the presidents of the regions.

General Figliuolo has long managed the logistics in the army and he must do the same now for the civilians. Vaccination centers could be anywhere, including squares and parking lots, without the need for extra facilities. Gods should be created mobile units to make the inhabitants of the smaller and less accessible municipalities all together. You could also be vaccinated in the workplace.

There is also the issue of vaccine priorities. Without the older population, however not yet fully covered, it was established that they were the essential categories to have priority. There are regions that have already started vaccinating teachers, others that have chosen weaker sections of the population, still others that have given more vaccines to areas with more cases. There are those who send letters directly to the population with the time of the appointment, those who pass through the general practitioner, those who ask for a reservation online or at the pharmacy.

The goal is to administer 300,000 doses a day, now less than half of these are done. Since yesterday it is official that the second dose is not needed for those who have already had Covid. This was established by a circular signed by the Ministry of Health which will lead to the setting aside for another three million doses of the vaccine.