Vittorio Agnoletto: scientists at the service of politics and mainstream media Big Pharma megaphone
Science has put itself at the service of politics and the mainstream media resemble megaphones from pharmaceutical companies. A very tough stance, which does not come from a standard bearer of the No Vax front, but from a highly respected doctor such as Vittorio Agnoletto, professor of Globalization and Health Policies at the University of Milan. Former national president of LILA (Italian League for the Fight against AIDS), as well as spokesperson for the Genoa Social Forum at the 2001 G8, Agnoletto is also host of “37, 2 °”, which is broadcast on Popular Radio.
During a live broadcast on the Milanese broadcaster, Agnoletto spoke about the complex relationship between politics, science and information in the era of COVID-19: “The first mistake was to confuse the areas of intervention of information, science and politics. Science is important, but it must remain in its role. It must say: ‘Up to now we have certainties, from here on we have hypotheses to verify, besides we have some question marks yet to be fully explored’. At that point, communication must do a very complex job: transforming this technical-scientific information into a language that everyone can understand, certainly establishing which news to give first, those in the second and those in the third, but try to pass them all the fundamental ones. Politics, faced with those scientific data, must assume the responsibilities, the right and duty to decide without bending science to your desired. And science must not allow itself to be bowed to the wishes of politics ”.
Errors on Astrazeneca, vaccines and herd immunity
Asked whether science has actually bent to politics from the outbreak of the pandemic to today, Agnoletto replied: “Totally! This is the point: science (in large part, then there are always exceptions) has let itself go and say what politics at that moment wanted to hear ”. Agnoletto also cited some cases in which this happened: “For example, saying that we would arrive atherd immunity, or that with the vaccine we could have all led a quiet life, or even the exaltation of the Open Days of Astrazeneca. For anyone involved in public health, the Astrazeneca Open Days are a contradiction, because health interventions are aimed at the single person: for each one it is necessary to evaluate whether a vaccine is good or not, what previous pathologies he has, what allergies he has and on saying. They are not a popular festival where people queue, ‘ahead of one and the other’! In addition: it is true that we had strong residues of Astrazeneca, but this was not enough to say that they had to be used on a population for which research had already come out that said it was not the most suitable vaccine. And the science of all this has been silent, has been silent, and this is absolutely not good ”.
“Mainstream media are Big Pharma megaphones”
During the broadcast “Prism”, Agnoletto added that “politics needed to say that we had a vaccine that solved everything with a single administration (Johnson & Johnson) and science has followed suit. But this is a very very important point: the division of roles. Let’s not talk about the mainstream media: they have now become gods megaphones of the press releases of pharmaceutical companies! There is no attempt to go deeper, to dig. But behind – apart from the problems of dependence and conflicts of interest with the power of Big Pharma – there is an idea: to consider Italian citizens a bit like children, as incapable of taking responsibility. There is always a tendency to simplify the message and so there is also the risk of saying stupid things which are then denied (…). We have had EMA statements that after two or three weeks have been denied, just think of Johnson & Johnson or Astrazeneca which was initially said that it should absolutely not be used with elderly people and then exactly the opposite. Here is the role of EMA: the European regulatory body does not have financial autonomy, so it cannot go directly to verify trials and possibly redo them, but only and exclusively works on the documentation presented by pharmaceutical companies. In addition, there is a revolving door, so sometimes at the top of EMA there are those who were previously in the pharmaceutical company and vice versa. EMA needs to be reformed. It must have greater autonomy and therefore greater scientific credibility ”.
How many silences on the side effects of vaccines
“I do not think it is a useful work that the big media are silent about the side effects of vaccinations. The last episode of ’37, 2nd ‘, on this very subject, it could have lasted another two hours. We have answered questions that are generally eluded by infectious disease specialists. There are side effects. Some are mundane, simple, resolving in 48 hours, but there are also heavier side effects that can last for weeks and months. If this is not said, when one gets a vaccine and then develops side effects afterwards, he gets very worried because he thinks he is an almost unique case and the first thing he does is tell those around him to wait for the vaccine. If, on the other hand, the side effects are explained, relativizing them also in their number (i.e. in the incidence they have on vaccinated people), also explaining that the relationship between risk and benefit is in any case favorable to the latter, if it is explained that those who have certain pathologies previous it is good to get the vaccine in the hospital and consult a doctor first, etc., not only would we reduce the side effects, but we would send a more correct message, which somehow reassures people, but above all establishes a relationship of truth . At that point, we would go and take away a fundamental weapon from the No Vax, which otherwise say, ‘You see, people get infected even if they get vaccinated.’ If you have not said before that vaccines are mainly used to stop the evolution of the disease, you are caught off guard. And the same goes for the side effects, if you haven’t talked about them before ”.
On the subject, read also:
Carlo Freccero and the news crisis: “For the mainstream, only one is enough”
Case “Libero” – “La Verità”, Feltri: “It is no longer me who decides the line”
Mattarella: too much prominence in the media for those who do not follow science
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