Why Zaia and Crisanti are biting each other over the Abbott Covid tests…
From the acclaimed Venetian model of the president of the region Luca Zaia to the study of the microbiologist Andrea Crisanti who dismantled the effectiveness of the rapid tests purchased by the Veneto (and which may have been responsible for an anomalous increase in deaths). The war continues and some interceptions published by Report emerge. All the details
"I've been breaking my balls for sixteen months, we are about to bring him to crash and you are going to agree on the letter to remove the chestnuts from the fire in the Academic Senate, to fix Crisanti!", so the president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, would have thundered , speaking on the telephone with an interlocutor under interception.
It is a preview of what will be broadcast tonight on Rai 3 during the Report programme, which will explore the theme of Panbio rapid tests produced by the American company Abbott.
ABBOTT TESTS IN VENETO
In the first months of the pandemic, Veneto and its president Zaia had been praised for their management of the pandemic and the idea – innovative at the time – of buying Abbott's Panbio antigen tests to track cases had seemed far-sighted until it was the microbiologist from the University of Padua and now senator of the Democratic Party, Andrea Crisanti, arrived to break the eggs in the basket.
THE STUDY BY CRISANTI ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TESTS
Indeed, on 21 October 2020 , Crisanti communicated to the Veneto region the results of a study on the Abbott rapid antigenic tests.
The analysis, conducted together with the infectious disease department and the emergency room of the Padua hospital, showed that the tests were effective in only 70% of cases, a lower percentage than that declared by the manufacturer. The microbiologist therefore claimed that 3 out of 10 positives would have tested negative but in reality they would have continued to spread the virus as false negatives.
However, Abbott indicated in the package insert that rapid antigen tests were not recommended for screening, confirming what was already supported by the European Union and the World Health Organization (WHO), while in Veneto they were used to test health professionals, staff and guests of Rsa, as stated by Crisanti in an interview with Corriere del Veneto .
THE PROPHECY OF CHRYSANTS
In the meantime, the study had cost the microbiologist a complaint from Azienda Zero, the operational arm of the Veneto region which, as Crisanti reported to Corriere , "had spent over 200 million euros on antigenic swabs".
Accused of defamation, the professor had said : "The work of a researcher has not been contested since the time of the Inquisition against Galileo […] If they continue, they will make a fool of themselves in front of the international scientific community".
In March 2021, the magistrates therefore opened a file to proceed against Crisanti.
HAS THE VENETIAN MODEL FAILED?
During the second wave, however, in the autumn of 2020 Veneto is no longer the exemplary model to follow, on the contrary, "from a virtuous region it becomes one of the worst" – wrote Il Sole24Ore – as it recorded the highest number of victims in relation to the Population: 1,600, says Report .
And from here the doubt arises whether this primacy has something to do with the bogus Abbott tests…
THE INVESTIGATIONS ON ROBERTO RIGOLI, THE ELON MUSK OF THE VENETO
A new character enters the scene in the second wave: the director of microbiology of Treviso, Roberto Rigoli, defined by Zaia as "the Elon Musk of the Veneto", who takes over from Crisanti in the management of the pandemic and plays a fundamental role in the green light for the tests Abbott.
Rigoli, in fact, according to what Repubblica writes, had the task of "confirming the clinical-scientific suitability of the swabs". He claims to have carried out the necessary tests, following which he gave the go-ahead for the 2 million euro supply, which is only part of the maxi 148 million euro order.
In July, however, the Padua prosecutor's office, following the investigation launched by Report , asked for Rigoli to be indicted because the magistrates discovered that "to justify million-dollar contracts for rapid swabs, there would be false scientific attestations" . On the same occasion, Patrizia Simionato, pro tempore general manager of Azienda Zero, the regional purchasing center, was also indicted.
INTERCEPTIONS AND ZAIA'S (FAILED) STRATEGY AGAINST CRISANTI
But the interceptions announced by Report could now add further embarrassment to Zaia, who blurted out on the phone with Roberto Toniolo, the general manager of Azienda Zero, for having screwed up the plan to destroy Crisanti's image.
Zaia, according to Repubblica , claimed to have something to refute the conclusions of Crisanti's study: "I have a very authoritative report in my hand, which took it and opened it like an artichoke…", he would have said to Toniolo, unaware that he was intercepted.
Toniolo, however, continues the Roman daily, wrote "to the University of Padua specifying that no complaint against Crisanti has been filed with the prosecution (in fact it is a complaint), precisely at the moment in which the Academic Senate is evaluating a motion in favor of the scientist".
A move that Zaia did not like at all who thundered in another phone call on May 14, 2021: "I've been here to break my balls for sixteen months, we're about to bring it to crash and you go and agree on the letter to remove the chestnuts from the fire to the Academic Senate, to settle Crisanti! […] We have been aiming for this for a year… Now he is the savior of the country”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/perche-zaia-e-crisanti-si-azzannano-sui-test-covid-abbott/ on Mon, 02 Jan 2023 13:13:04 +0000.