Towards a de facto lockdown for a “cold”, thanks to the government’s crazy rules
Many companies forced to stop, essential public services such as transport, health and school at risk of paralysis. This is due to the combination of a very contagious – but much less dangerous – variant of the China virus and the absurd rules still in force on the isolation of positives and contact quarantines, now outdated by events. Instead of relieving them, as various Western governments have begun to do with pragmatism, which have understood that with the Omicron variant one can and must live together, precisely to avoid the blockade of an entire country for little more than a cold, the Draghi government perseveres in its ideological approach: exclusion of the unvaccinated from social life and work, vaccination obligation and closures, in pursuit of the Covid-zero mirage and, perhaps, even more … In Italy the entire armamentarium of anti- Covid measures, from quarantines to Dad, he was frozen two years ago, when vaccinated was 0 percent and China virus was 10 times more lethal than today.
The result, we said, is that many companies are already forced to stop and essential public services such as transport, health and school are at risk of paralysis, only because it is still expected that the positives, even if asymptomatic, remain in isolation from a minimum of 10 days (if they are negativized) to a maximum of 21, and that close contacts, even if negative, remain in quarantine from 5 days (if boostered ) to 10. Unsustainable rules in the new context of Omicron , a variant that no longer makes 20-30 thousand, but 200 thousand daily infections (to date in Italy 2 million positives blocked at home, plus contacts), however, in the face of symptoms in the vast majority of cases very mild, little more than a cold, in a population over 12 vaccinated almost 90 percent.
The very high number of "chilled" inmates and related quarantined contacts cannot fail to have an impact on economic activities and public services. There are 180 regional trains, equal to 3 percent of the local offer, that Trenitalia has decided to cancel starting today, January 10, for the reorganization of the service made necessary by the increase in infections and related quarantines, while overall – between cancellations and substitutions with buses – 550 journeys will be affected, equal to 9 per cent of regional transport. Some cancellations also among the Frecce and in recent days also Italo had announced cancellations: from 7 January 6 services were cut, from 14 January 27 (of which 21 every day and a further 6 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays).
But the risk of paralysis also involves other essential public services, such as health and education. And the paradox is that in these sectors we find the two categories most vaccinated (96 percent) and subjected to vaccination for months: health workers and school staff.
If many hospitals are actually in trouble it is not for the number of Covid patients, but for the number of operators who tested positive, despite the booster , or contacts of a positive, or who have been suspended for not having vaccinated or posted to administer vaccines and certify tampons. Last Saturday, the ISS announced that for two weeks the percentage of positives among health workers compared to the rest of the population has been steadily increasing, even with a percentage of vaccinated people higher than about 10 points (96 versus 86). In the last week there have been over 6,000 more, going from 1.8 to 2.1 percent of the total cases.
The same problems risk blocking schools, despite a 96 percent vaccine rate here too. The association of principals estimates that starting today 10 percent of staff will be absent for reasons related to Covid , positivity and contact quarantines. The solution advanced by the presidents and many regional presidents and mayors is indecent, after two years of pandemic: the closure and continuation of lessons in Dad.
But to go straight and pretend nothing has happened, as the Draghi government does, thinking that it has merit in keeping schools formally open even if half of the classes still have to go to quarantine and in Dad, is very hypocritical: in fact, we must take note that with the number of infections from the Omicron “cold” and the current rules, the resumption in presence risks turning out to be a fiction, useful for the Draghi government to flaunt a normality that is, however, such only on paper.
The solution, of course, is not surrender, sending everyone into Dad until the end of January and beyond, but abolishing contact quarantines and freeing the asymptomatics prematurely. Positive staff and students should be allowed to go back to school when asymptomatic, if they are well, without tests and bureaucracy, like after any normal flu. Given that the risks are minimal for all stakeholders: for children Covid has always been at most an influence, even more so today with Omicron ; staff are 100 per cent vaccinated and parents 90 per cent.
But do you remember, in December, when we were told that the outbreaks were the schools and the new vectors of the virus the children? Well, the infections have increased exponentially with schools closed for the Christmas holidays …
So what is reality on the ground telling us? First , that vaccines are a weapon of personal protection from serious illness, but they do not stop or slow down – especially today with Omicron – the transmission of the virus. So super Green Pass and vaccination obligation, among other things with a vaccination rate already close to 90 percent, make no sense. And they are illegitimate, since the current jurisprudence of the Consulta considers the obligation compatible with our Constitution only on condition that the vaccine protects others from contagion, it is not enough that it protects the health of those subjected to the treatment. Second , that the risk of blocking the country's essential activities and services no longer derives from the virus, which affects in a much milder form, but from the rules still in force on the isolation of positives even if asymptomatic and on the quarantine of contacts, now obsolete. , overtaken by events.
Why risk blocking the whole country for a cold? Just to keep rules designed when we didn't have vaccines and far more lethal variants of the virus were rampant? Only out of stubbornness, out of pride?
In the countries where Omicron has long been dominant – South Africa, Israel, United Kingdom – there are data showing how the new variant could be less lethal than a flu. Scientists and government consultants are still thinking and evaluating: a little more or a little less lethal, but there we are, an influence.
As already in South Africa, even in the United Kingdom, where the Omicron wave is already in a downward phase, the surge in infections is not accompanied by a surge in hospitalizations and deaths. And this without closing schools, without restrictions, without health passes (except for major events) and without obligations. The number of new cases has been decreasing for five days, the number of ICU patients is at its lowest since October (after two weeks with 150-250,000 positives per day) and the number of deaths per day is not even one sixth of that. wave of a year ago.
As mentioned, several governments – USA and UK, but in continental Europe also the Spanish one, which has decided not to trace individual cases anymore – are seizing the opportunity offered by a more contagious but much less lethal variant to move towards a true normality. , while ours is stubbornly nailed to his ideological approach. And the culmination is that it seems that the government is the no-vax : keeping the country armored and in full psychosis as two years ago, despite the high rate of vaccinations and a "cold" variant, means not believing in the effectiveness of vaccines.
Prime Minister Draghi has lacked leadership in getting the country out of the emergency, as he could have done thanks to vaccinations and the arrival of the Omicron variant, milder for both vaccinated and unvaccinated. Instead, he preferred to please the parties, indulging their closed and illiberal appetites, and it cannot be ruled out that he did so with the back-thought (or "front-thought") of receiving their support to get to the Quirinale.
The impasse in which the Draghi government is struggling today, as regards both the pandemic and other fields, such as the energy one, seems to be photographed in this sentence by the American libertarian Ron Paul:
“Human life is infinitely complex. Attempting to plan it centrally always ends in failure. Planners inevitably lock themselves into a corner, where every move they make is the wrong move ”.
The post Towards a de facto lockdown for a “cold”, thanks to the government's crazy rules appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL https://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/verso-un-lockdown-di-fatto-per-un-raffreddore-grazie-alle-regole-folli-del-governo/ on Mon, 10 Jan 2022 03:50:00 +0000.