One”completely inadequate vaccination campaign against Covid and flu” is the reason why ” for weeks Our country's emergency systems are in chaos“. This is the complaint from Foce, the Confederation of oncologists, cardiologists and haematologists, faced with “nightmare emergency rooms and hospital wards under siege, with many hundreds of patients awaiting transfer to ordinary hospitalization or intensive care departments, times that can even last several days. Indeed, in some regions, doctors on leave have been called back into service to deal with this new serious emergency“. A situation which, according to experts, “beyond the chronic shortage of hospital beds and medical and nursing staff”, has as “main cause” is a “combination of the acute symptoms produced simultaneously by the Covid infection and the flu”. A 'mix' that the vaccination campaign, according to Foce, was unable to avoid.
“Covid underestimated and growing”
As for Sars-CoV-2, we read in a note from the Confederation's Board of Directors, “the level of infections from September-October to today is increasingly increasing. Furthermore, it should be considered that the data on positive people does not reflect the true dimensions of the Covid infection, because not all citizens undergo tests and many who do cannot be documented. But what is certain and what makes us extremely worried – the specialists point out – is the progressive increase in mortality from Covid, which has never stopped in the last 6 months. In 2023, from 40-50 deaths per week in July-August it went to 150 deaths in October, to 290 in November, to 425 at the end of December. To arrive, in 2024, at 371 in this last week“.
It is therefore “evident – the experts observe – that What someone said at the end of July is not true, that is, that the Covid pandemic was 'over in the numbers'. The virus never disappeared. On the other hand, the very term 'pandemic' blatantly contradicts such a statement: the actual pandemic phase may be over, but the fact is that the virus continues to circulate at high levels and the burden of disease it causes has added to that of aThis year's flu is particularly contagious and aggressive. Statements of this kind and others – attacking oncologists, cardiologists and hematologists – have therefore generated the belief in the population that everything was over. We have witnessed a total elimination of Sars-CoV-2, it is as if the virus had been forgotten. As a result, the vaccination campaign was completely unsatisfactory.”
The numbers of the vaccination campaign
“From the beginning of the autumn-winter campaign to 4 January 2024 – recalls La Foce – in our country just 1,927,035 citizens were vaccinated: in particular 13.6% of those aged over eighty, 10.3% of the age group between 70-79 years and only 4.7% of citizens between 60-69 years. Vaccinations have collapsed from a peak, let's say, of 256 thousand in the week from 14 to 21 December 2023, to 75 thousand in the following week, to only 59 thousand in the last 7 days. Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and Lombardy continue to be the regions in which the majority of doses administered as part of the campaign are concentrated, while all the regions of the South, Lazio, Marche and Abruzzo have produced very low numbers”.
But for the Confederation of Oncologists, Cardiologists and Hematologists, “the current acute emergency room crisis is also due to the lackluster and insufficient flu vaccination campaign, with extremely lower coverage data compared to previous years”. Not only that: “There is also – add the specialists – the negative effect of the easing of distancing measures and tools and of masks, which contribute to the cause of this tragedy which is further affecting our healthcare. The ones who pay the price are the elderly and frail patients, including those suffering from the pathologies we are interested in.”
“Foce – concludes the note – can only demonstrate all the concern and dismay over this alarming situation, due to the lack of any planning and organization of an already difficult vaccination campaign. The waste of public resources, due to the failure to use enormous quantities of vaccination doses already purchased by the State, must also be highlighted.”
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