Enough infodemic on Covid. Advice and criticism by Giorgio Palù (Aifa)
What does Giorgio Palù, virologist and new Aifa president think, of information on Covid in Italy, vaccines, lockdowns, coronavirus variant and government line
“There is no democracy in science. You can't make a talk show of it ”. So Giorgio Palù, president of Aifa, consultant virologist of the Veneto Region and former president of the Italian and European Society of Virology, rejects the chatter of experts and less experts around Covid.
Chatter, according to Palù, which led Italy to suffer from an infodemic. Meanwhile, the president, who effectively rejects the anti-Covid government line, advises to get vaccinated.
Let's go step by step.
THE WORDS OF PALU '
Let's start with the latest statements. For Giorgio Palù, new president of Aifa, Italy suffers from Coronavirus infodemic. In recent months it is the “nonsense that circulates uncontrolled in the ether, we need serious scientific communicators, as happens abroad”, Palù affirms speaking at the daily press conference of the governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia.
In America, says the well-known virologist, "only Fauci speaks".
PALU ': THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY IN SCIENCE
In Italy, however, the rumors about Covid are many. “Here we have all talked: there is no democracy in science, it cannot be put on a talk show. You can't hear people mistaking infection for disease, ”added Palù.
EXCESSIVE ALARM ON ENGLISH VARIANT
And a lot, in recent days, for example, we talk about the English variant. "There was excessive alarm on the English variant", explains the president of Aifa.
The variant “is already in Italy and is also present in subjects who have never been to England. If there is also in Veneto, sequencing will say it ".
COVID: LOW LETHALITY
Palù claims that the lethality of Covid is low.
“This is a virus that has low lethality measured between 0.25-0.50 percent, we will find it as a pandemic influenza virus. Certainly its cumulative impact has an impact on intensive care and hospitalizations ”, the president of Aifa underlined .
PALU ': COVID IS NOT THE PLAGUE
Words, those of Palù, which are not surprising. Already in recent months the new president Aifa, in an interview with Corriere della Sera , had had the opportunity to express his idea, indirectly also rejecting the bulletins of the Civil Protection: “What really matters is knowing how many people arrive in intensive care. In any case, this virus has a relatively low lethality, it can kill, but it is not the plague, ” he told Corsera.
AND LOVE THE LOCKDOWN
And in that same interview, Palù also rejected a new lockdown. “I am against a new lockdown as a citizen because it would be suicide for our economy; as a scientist because it would penalize the education of young people, and as a doctor because it would mean that sick people, suffering from other pathologies, especially tumors, would not have access to treatment. All this in the face of a disease, Covid-19, which, all in all, has a low lethality. We must put a stop to this hysteria ”.
PALU ': VACCINATE
How to get out of the Covid tunnel, therefore, according to Palù? Thanks to the vaccines. "Vaccines are safe and must be done with confidence, especially by over 65s. The West has regulatory bodies that carefully examine the efficacy and safety of vaccines," said Palù, host of the television program L'aria che tira su La7. .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/palu-covid/ on Fri, 25 Dec 2020 17:34:35 +0000.