Doctors, nurses, social and health workers, auxiliaries, cleaners: the categories they work in hospitals and residences for the elderly they are “under observation” because of the small (or less small) percentage who do not want to be vaccinated against Covid. The “bomb” exploded in Piedmont: the pandemic crisis unit denounces that only 10-20 percent of RSA operators intend to get vaccinated. Fear and critical positions prevail, perhaps thanks to the fact that the Region carried out the monitoring before the package leaflet was translated into Italian. But there are also 10 thousand elderly people (out of about 40 thousand guests of the structures) who for now will remain without vaccines because they are unable to understand and want and do not have the support administrator appointed by the Court. Critical situation also a Brescia, where only 20 percent of RSA operators have signed up to the first administrations. “Too little, I don’t understand why,” admits the director of the local ATS, Claudio Sileo.
20 percent say no to the vaccine
On the eve of the arrival of the second load of doses – almost 470 thousand – the agency Ansa estimates that 20% of health professionals would not intend to get vaccinated, that is on average one in five (but in some regions, however, membership already reaches peaks of 90%). There is no obligation for now, but the recommendation to protect themselves is very strong, especially for those who work in essential services. Nurses, as well as doctors, are required to comply with the Code of Ethics, which prohibits “unscientific” behavior and practices. But those who (for now) refused the injection are not all no vax or deniers.
“The first monitoring in hospitals was done before AIFA was approved and without being able to read the leaflet, which is why some operators decided to wait – he explains Antonino Gentile, spokesman and general secretary of the Union of health workers, as well as a nurse at the ASL Roma 3 in Ostia -. With the first 9,750 doses, exponents of the various health professions were vaccinated, from doctors to auxiliaries. And, as far as we know, membership is (and will be) high from all of these categories. However, we cannot think that the vaccine is the solution to all problems: in Italy there is a lack of staff and beds. 60,000 more nurses and even health workers would be needed: in hospitals and emergency rooms the former often do the work of the latter, who are missing ».
The problem of RSA
The situation is even more dramatic in the Rsa, residences for the elderly. “Assistance is entrusted to social and health workers and it may happen that there is only one nurse for more than one hundred guests – complaint Barbara Mangiacavalli, president of the National Federation of Orders of Nurses (Fnopi) -. We have asked the Minister of Health several times to review the quality of the workforce and also the accreditation criteria of private RSAs, but for now there have been no concrete answers ».
Social-health workers do not have to respond to a code of ethics and do not risk warnings or sanctions if they have no vax ideas and behaviors. “But the choice not to get vaccinated may also be due to other arguments – continues Mangiacavalli -. For example some fellow nurses who suffer from chronic diseases, rare diseases or allergies they are discussing with specialists to understand which of the vaccines already available or on the way is best suited to their health condition. Failure to adhere to the first administrations may also be due to these reasons “. “I believe that in a hospital, a health facility, an RSA can only enter those who have had the vaccine,” he said shortly Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at San Martino di Genova. IS Massimo Galli, head physician at the Sacco in Milan: “For those who do this job, an attitude of refusal is incompatible”.
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