“I believe that continuing to talk about Covid, making it a front-page topic in newspapers every time there is an increase in the number of cases, while the thousands of people who die every day in Italy from infections caused by resistant bacteria never have any limelight, is a a glaring communication error, which continues to fuel conspiracy theories and the anti-vax world“. This was highlighted to Adnkronos Salute by Matteo Bassetti, director of Infectious Diseases at the San Martino Polyclinic Hospital in Genoa, taking stock of the current Covid situation and the messages reaching citizens.
To give an idea, the expert also publishes on X the screenshots of an email received in which the sender talks about Covid, hypothesizing international conspiracies and laboratory manipulations. Bassetti then broadens the reflection and points out: “Many cases of colds or mild forms of Covid, almost all at home. Almost no one in hospital is serious and no one in intensive care. Does it still make sense to talk about Covid with the emphasis of the last few days? We continue to make the same communication mistakes that have already been made. In Italy we are unable to turn the page unfortunately“. And for the infectious disease specialist this means that “conspiracy theories are fueled. The message I received this morning is proof of this. It was enough to say very simply that elderly people, over 80 years of age, and the very frail, must get vaccinated once a year. Thanks to this, the virus is no longer a problem for the general population: between vaccines and various Covid infections that have stimulated our immune system, today it looks more like a cold virus than the pneumonia virus of 2020”.
“After that – Bassetti insists – if we have to look at what is hurting Italians and the entire world today, let’s talk about the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria: we already have 5 million people dying every year in the world” because of this. “Do we want to talk about problems that can affect anyone, those who go to the hospital, those who stay at home with cystitis, those who have a skin infection? This is not talked about and we continue to make mistakes”, underlines Bassetti referring to the inappropriate prescriptions of antibiotics that continue to be recorded. “It is the real present problem. We are talking about something that already exists. Then, for goodness sake, let’s also look at avian flu, Dengue, which however are problems that could exist” in the future. “But today” on the communication front “there is a continuous turning around Covid, which has certainly been a huge problem, but which we must be able to put behind us”.
Now, he concludes, “we have to look forward, because this continuing to talk about Covid causes conspiracy theorists to say: ‘See, I told you, it’s Bill Gates who wants to sell leftover vaccines’, or similar things. Enough, it’s time to turn the page. I think there is someone, I don’t know who and I don’t care, who every time you try to turn the page is ready to say something” that prevents it. For example, “did we rightly remove the obligation to wear masks in hospital on June 30? Immediately a week ago people started saying emphatically that there are cases of Covid. I think there is a desire not to turn the page and not doing so on this topic unfortunately fuels conspiracy theories”.
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