For the former director of Spallanzani: «There is no reason to be afraid of the hantavirus. Irresponsible media.”
Francesco Vaia, member of the National Guarantor Authority for the Rights of People with Disabilities, was director of Spallanzani and general director of health prevention at the Ministry of Health. And when he talks about hantavirus he is one of the few who do not play with easy alarmism.
«Let’s say things clearly, very clearly: we absolutely must not be afraid. The most serious thing that can happen to us is to enter psychosis. This morning I received several phone calls from simple, normal people, who called me to ask: “Professor, but should we worry? There is a bit of anxiety in our house”. The clear message that must be, in my opinion, sent by the media is that we must not be afraid of this hantavirus. It is a disease that occurs mainly in animals, particularly in rodentstherefore in rats, in mice, and which is transmitted from animal to animal. Under certain conditions, as appears to have happened, there may be one spilloverthat is, a leap of species from animal to man. Very rarely – let’s underline this word: very rarely – there can be a human-human contagion».
And under what conditions can this happen?
«There has to be a very close contact: I sleep with this person, I have sex with this person, I breathe with this person… So in these exceptional cases there can be an exhibition of contiguity, but it is not enough to get close once. So let’s not get anxious. I hear people say: let’s stay away from people, let’s distance ourselves, let’s put on masks… Be careful, let’s not get caught up in these anxieties that fortunately we have overcome. One more thing.”
Say.
«Do we need to get vaccinated? Absolutely not, we don’t need to get vaccinated or invent a vaccine new vaccine».
Well it is said that the vaccine could already be ready…
«Yes, maybe from an American company… Look, here too we need to be clear. There science he must continue to do his job, he must continue to experiment, verify and so on. But we must not confuse the objective with the instrument. That is, we cannot always use a drug, a vaccine, to solve problems. There are many possible solutions, indeed there is a need for certain actions to be taken to prevent. If every time I have a cold, flu, etc. I have to take a drug, I will have to spend my whole life getting vaccinated at all times. And this is a serious mistake. So it’s not a question of not experimenting, not innovating, not funding research: this must be done. It is good that it is done in Italy, it is good that Trump does it in the United States too. But we cannot now take advantage of this virus to continue implementing policies whose excesses have proven to be absolutely negative, especially for psyche of Italiansand more.”
There seems to me to be no doubt about this.
«It is known that I think that the Vaccine It is a very useful tool, but it must be used in necessary cases and it must not be misused. I say this not only now, but as you will remember, I said it in periods in which the Covid was raging, I said clearly that children should not be vaccinated, that the risk-benefit balance leaned too much on the risk and not on the benefit. So I am not suspected of bias on this issue.”
Aside from vaccines, then, what should be done in your opinion?
«The media should also be called into question here. We can’t talk about certain topics only when there is one emergency or something similar. We have to do it disease prevention. It doesn’t mean, as I said before, that for everything that happens you have to take a drug or a vaccine and use this shortcut. Prevention means something else.”
Meaning what?
«For example: what do we do in cities to keep people away rodentswild boars, animals that can be sources of contagion, be carriers of infectious diseases? The mosquitoes will be here soon and I already know that many of your colleagues will also call us. But here too: instead of asking us when the mosquitoes arrive, we rather ask them Municipalities in February and March what do they do to prevent. When I say let’s not overdo it with the vaccine, I am ready to repeat it until boredom. It’s a shortcut, we can’t solve all problems like this. What kind of society do we want to build? A company that keeps in mind the centrality of prevention or not? Let’s ask ourselves again: how are social places maintained today? They are increasingly outcasts, poorly cared for. We think a lot, and rightly so, about cell phones. People are on social media too much. But what do we give as an alternative? We must build a society that increasingly focuses on active prevention at 360 degrees, which is not medicalised. I am against a medicalized society: pharmacological innovations are very important, but they must be used at the right time. We must build a society that avoids the consumption of the drugnot that it increases it.”
