Failure to implement the pandemic plan: the accusations of the Bergamo prosecutor’s office

4 March 20231 year ago babelfish

The investigations by the Bergamo Public Prosecutor's Office: from the failure to implement the pandemic plan (old from 2006) to the case of non-existent PPE censuses

Four thousand dead. There are many deaths which, according to the Bergamo prosecutor's office, could have been avoided if the red zone in Val Seriana had been established in a timely manner, if we had had an updated pandemic plan and if the Alzano emergency room had remained closed. These are the three lines of investigation with respect to which the Prosecutor of Bergamo is investigating.

THE SUGGESTED BY THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

As part of these investigations, the Prosecutor issued notices of guarantee against those who found themselves managing that emergency. Among these are: the former prime minister Giuseppe Conte , the former health minister Roberto Speranza, the president of the Lombardy region Attilio Fontana , the former councilor for welfare Giulio Gallera , the president of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità Silvio Brusaferro , the then head of the Civil Protection Angelo Borrelli and the president of the Superior Health Council Franco Locatelli. The prominent suspects, politicians and administrators are joined by the managers of the Bergamo health companies and of the Alzano hospital directly involved in emergency management.

THE INVESTIGATIONS ON THE FAILURE TO IMPLEMENT THE PANDEMIC PLAN

The failure to implement the pandemic plan was reported in the first months of the emergency. On May 13, 2020, WHO published a 102-page document in which it assessed Italy's management of the early stages of the pandemic as " unprepared for a similar flow of seriously ill patients ", while the initial response from hospitals was "improvised, chaotic and creative”. The document had been drafted by a team of 11 European WHO scientists, including the Italian Francesco Zambon , but 24 hours after its publication, Ranieri Guerra , a doctor with a robust curriculum in health diplomacy, asked for it to be cancelled. The line of investigation into the non-implementation of the pandemic plan involves the national level (D'Amario, Brusaferro and Borrelli) and the regional level (Cajazzo and Gallera). The Pandemic Plan was stopped in 2006 but, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, if at least that one had been applied, the spread of the virus would have been reduced.

REPORTS FROM INTERNATIONAL HEALTH AUTHORITIES

All the international health authorities, starting with the WHO, had already issued an alert on 5 January "which confirmed the transmission of the new virus from person to person" and invited to apply the control measures already implemented for Sars and the Mers. Without forgetting that on 31 January the WHO had declared an "international emergency", that on the following 4 February it had urged to "deal with the pandemic emergency also with the flu plans in force" and that since 2014 coronavirus diseases were "equated to those of the flu”.

THE ACCUSATIONS OF FRANCESCO ZAMBON ON THE NON-Implementation of the PANDEMIC PLAN

Even Francesco Zambon , a former WHO official, who left following pressure from the organization, underlined that the pandemic plan was not activated in our country in a timely manner. “Italy had a national pandemic plan, albeit dated to 2006 and never updated – said Zambon in an interview with la Repubblica -. But there was. Well, I think that from January to February 21 many things could have been done that weren't done . Rather than donating the masks, it was necessary to store them, check the Italian warehouse, train the health personnel. Italy would not have been saved from the pandemic, but we could have greatly reduced the damage. But it wasn't just an Italian problem. The most important front is the international one”.

PANDEMIC PLAN NOT SUITABLE

The magistrates are also trying to understand why it was decided to commit energy to rewrite a new anti-covid plan from scratch. At the time, the former health minister Speranza explained that the pandemic plan in our country was not, in any case, adequate for the situation. “According to our technicians, that pandemic flu plan was not sufficient – concluded the minister – and therefore a Covid plan was put in place suitable for a new case that had emerged. Covid is not a simple flu ”.

DELAYS AND LACKS: MASKS, GLOVES AND PROTOCOLS

The acts of the prosecutor retrace the shortcomings of politicians and administrators called to manage, it is useful to underline it, an event that was believed to be confined to the history books. Among the shortcomings is the failure to implement protocols to monitor travelers arriving from risk areas with indirect flights, and the lack of census and supply of masks, in particular for health personnel, furthermore, " a reserve of antivirals , Dpi, antibiotic vaccines, diagnostic kits and other technical supports for rapid use in the first emergency phase" and, at the same time, the methods of supply "in the immediately following phases" would not have been defined. This verification was carried out only on 4 February. To this the magistrates add that only on February 24 were the infectious disease departments and the number of ventilators counted . These delays, according to prosecutors, allowed the virus to circulate uncontrollably throughout the north of the country. Having to defend themselves against these accusations are the then head of the Civil Protection Angelo Borrelli and Claudio D'Amario, former director general of Prevention at the Ministry of Health in 2020 , and currently head of the Health Department of the Abruzzo Region

BRUSAFERRO'S REPLY

The president of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità Silvio Brusaferro is contested for the failure to implement the pandemic plan "proposing alternative actions, thus preventing the timely adoption of the measures envisaged therein". This responsibility is rejected by the offices of the Higher Institute of Health, which have issued a note in defense of the president. “ It is not within its powers to adopt pandemic plans or follow up on their execution – we read -. The line followed by the Institute throughout the period of the pandemic and from the outset was marked by maximum precaution and maximum scientific rigor and caution was the figure that characterized its guidelines".

WHO SHOULD HAVE UPDATED THE PANDEMIC PLAN

Between 2014 and 2017 Ranieri Guerra was director general for prevention at the ministry of health , precisely in the years in which Italy should have updated its pandemic plan, which was stopped in 2006. Furthermore, Guerra was the sent to Italy by the WHO and consultant to the first Scientific Technical Committee created by Minister Speranza. The WHO report that had assessed the reaction of the Italian system to the pandemic started precisely from the “old pandemic plan, which was only 'reconfirmed' and not updated in 2017 – as Zambon told the Guardian -. The team looked into this thoroughly and found that all plans after 2006 had simply been copied and pasted , without a word or comma being changed in the text."

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/mancata-attuazione-del-piano-pandemico-le-accuse-della-procura-di-bergamo/ on Sat, 04 Mar 2023 09:04:38 +0000.