Maybe we are ready for the new Pandemic Plan 2024-2028. We had lost track of it since January after the draft was released and the political controversy over restrictions and obligations. The document is on the home straight and the offices of the Prevention Directorate of the Ministry of Health are finalizing some parts. But the ‘heart’ of the new plan, which marks a paradigm shift compared to the past, has been outlined. The principle is the responsibility of people and institutions, following however the international guidelines that in the field of infectious diseases are the beacon for all countries, as we learned during the Covid pandemic. Responsibility and more attention to the principles of individual freedom also for access to vaccination. So goodbye to the era of obligations.
The history of the long-awaited document that should make Italy safe in the event of a new pandemic is very complicated. The plan was developed by the Prevention Directorate and presented last January at least in a first draft to the Regions – to then sign the agreement in the State-Regions Conference – but from that moment, with the political controversies that followed, it ended up in limbo. In the meantime, from Covid we have moved on to the H5N1 avian flu that has started to scare again, with outbreaks in US farms.
The draft plan published in the media had raised criticism from a part of the government majority – with questions to the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci – for the confirmation of the restriction measures in the event of a pandemic, as foreseen by every Pandemic Plan. A nightmare for those who had seen the 2020 Dpcm launched by the then Prime Minister Conte against Covid as smoke in the eyes.
At the end of January, Schillaci had responded to a question from Lega senator Claudio Borghi on the revision of the guidelines in view of the adoption of the Pandemic Plan for the period 2024-2028 and on the discontinuity of the plan compared to the previous one. “I feel I must clarify that, to deal with an unknown pathogen with a very high mortality rate, it may be necessary to adopt restrictive measures that must however be issued – the minister had clarified – only if strictly indispensable, remain in force for the time strictly necessary and be proportionate to both the probability and the extent of the event”. A clarification to calm those in the center-right majority who cannot stomach the restrictive measures and obligations already experienced during Covid.
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