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The virologist Palù: “No lockdown, enough hysteria”
“There is a lot of alarmism. There is no doubt that we are facing a second wave, but the circulation of the virus has never stopped, even if in July the cases seemed to have disappeared, thanks to the warm weather, the open air, the ultraviolet rays that kill the virus. Then there was the return from vacation, the reopening of many activities and, above all, the return to school ”. Thus the virologist Giorgio Palù, past president of the Italian and European Society of Virology, interviewed by ‘Il Corriere della Sera’. “We are talking about ‘cases’ – he adds – meaning people who are positive to the swab. Of these, 95% have no symptoms and therefore cannot be defined as ill ”. Furthermore, “it is certain that these people have been ‘infected’ but it is not certain that they are ‘contagious’. They could, if they had a high viral load, but at the moment, with the tests available, it is not possible to establish it in time to avoid infections “. According to Palù, ultimately, “we should take action if clusters are identified”. Compared to the daily bulletins, “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 ”. The current surge for the expert is attributable “certainly to the reopening of schools. The problem is not the school itself, but the public transport on which eight million students have begun to travel. Keeping schools open is, however, essential “. Lockdown? “I am against it 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 ”.
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