A cancer researcher and professor of epidemiology by the name of Paola Muti, remained stranded during the health crisis in her family home on the small island of Giglio. She feared a very rapid spread of coronavirus on the island. A concern shared by the only local doctor, the Doctor Armando Schiaffino who, too, envisioned an epidemic. “Every time an ordinary childhood illness, like scarlet fever, measles or chickenpox, strikes, within a few days virtually everyone is infected,” he explains. Indeed, several visitors had fallen ill from having contracted the virus and one of them had died.
The concern of Paola Muti However, eventually diminished, while her curiosity was piqued by the fact that none of the inhabitants of Giglio Island had developed symptoms of Covid-19. And this, despite the narrowness of the streets, the daily gatherings and appointments of residents, visitors and the proximity of homes.
At the end of April, the inhabitants of the island underwent a blood test. Of the 800 residents of the island throughout the year, 723 volunteered to take it. Among them, only one man was found to have antibodies, and he had taken the same ferry as a visitor carrying the virus. Finally, since the lifting of confinement at the beginning of June and with the arrival of tourists, the observation is the same: no other case has appeared on the island.
For the moment Paola Muti still does not know why the virus does not seem to interact on the islanders. They may not have been exposed enough to the virus to become infected, she says, or it may be a “genetic variant.” Other researchers evoke a still unclear situation, luck or chance. One thing is certain, the inhabitants are happy to be able to benefit from this very healthy environment.
–
