Updated
16/01/2022
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12:00
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EItalian Marco Melandri, former MotoGP rider and champion in the 250 cc category in 2002, assured this Saturday that he “voluntarily” contracted the coronavirus because he needed the health certificate to work and did not consider the vaccine “a good alternative.”
“I got the coronavirus because I tried to do it and, contrary to many vaccinated people, it took me tremendously to get it,” Melandri said in an interview with the Italian newspaper “Mowmag”. “I did it voluntarily to comply with the rules (for managing the pandemic in force in Italy) and it has not been easy. I was infected out of necessity, because I had to work and I did not consider the vaccine a good alternative,” added the Italian pilot.
“I know a lot of people who got two doses of vaccine and are trying to get it to avoid having to get the third. In any case, for me the health certificate was and still is blackmail. I use it only for work“, insist.
The statements of Melandri, 39, who competed in MotoGP and Superbike in his career, caused surprise and controversy in Italy, a country that has seen a vertical rise in infections in recent weeks. Come on, the sticks have rained down on him, among them the Undersecretary of the Interior Carlo Sibilia, who affirmed that “beyond the criminal profiles on which to evaluate the judicial authority, heThe conduct and the message are undoubtedly undignified and dangerous”.
Melandri rectified this last night and assured that it was all a joke, at least the caused contagion: “I find myself again in a great hurricane, due to an ironic and joking phrase. I made the joke ‘I get Covid so I will have the Green Pass , I do it out of necessity.’I will never go anywhere with someone to infect me, nor will I recommend it to the worst enemy. At this point I’m on it, I’m sorry if my words have been misunderstood“, for sure.
Unvaccinated Italians over 50 years of age will be fined 100 euros and those who try to go to work without having received the puncture will receive penalties of between 600 and 1,500 euros, while for accessing stores without at least presenting an anticovid test you will have to pay up to 1,000 euros, according to the new restrictions adopted by the Italian Government. There are many, we are talking about millions, and they organize themselves to circumvent the restrictive measures of the government, such as traveling together to work, etc.
The sanctions included in the new decree law of the Council of Ministers include fines of 100 euros, as of February 1, for those over 50 who are not vaccinated, imposed by the Administration, which will review the data of the vaccination registry.
“There are several reasons why a person does not want to be vaccinated, including because it is a new and different vaccine compared to the usual ones. One has the right to have doubts, especially if, like me, I have already had the disease. Those who get infected are more protected later. I tested positive and I didn’t even realize it,” Melandri closes.
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