Covid, Bassetti: “If the rules don’t change, the system will blow up, the flu will worry more”

“On the Covid situation, we are looking at the straw and not the beam. Continuing to chase it with old rules is a mistake. Fiaso data tell us that, out of 100 people who enter both intensive care and the medical area, 70 do not have Covid, but positive swab and are asymptomatic” in relation to Sars-CoV-2. “The problem is the old rules”, for example “buffing everyone who enters the emergency room is a mistake that is bringing hospitals to their knees. It is not normal for those who enter with the flu to be placed with other patients, even immunosuppressed with all the risks we know, and those who instead enter with a positive but asymptomatic swab for Covid are put in a bunker. It’s all wrong: no more swabs for asymptomatics. The risk is that, if the rules are not changed, at Christmas the system blows up”. He explains it to Adnkronos Salute Matthew Bassettidirector of infectious diseases of the San Martino Polyclinic in Genoa, commenting on the weekly data of the Covid-19 monitoring of the ISS-Ministry of Health control room.

“There is a frightening increase in non-Covid infectious diseases – he underlines – I am talking about the flu, syncytial viruses, pneumococcus, and more, there is an aggressive Omicron variant on those who are not vaccinated. We are chasing Covid without considering others virus – Bassetti remarks – I’m more worried about the flu than from Covid, we have few vaccinated for the first time and we haven’t seen it for practically 3 years Christmas is a difficult period, where there are few general practitioners and even in the hospital are more organizational difficulties”.