Virus, ministry alerted in January. But why didn’t he do anything?

Daily fact it reconstructs what happened exactly two months and 21 days ago, when the executive was already able to vaguely imagine the danger that he could have run the country in a few weeks. On the contrary: in early February there was the certainty that the mysterious virus from China would collapse the intensive care of the entire boot.

We rewind the tape and go back to Januaryon the eve of Befana. In those days the Italians listened with apprehension to what is happening in China, in Wuhan, 10 thousand kilometers away. At first the news is not so dramatic but in short the situation worsens. The initial dozens of cases of severe pneumonia become hundreds and, for the first time, there is talk of Covid-19. WHO tries to understand what is happening, recovers data and passes it on to governments around the world, including Italy.

Just on January 5 the Ministry of Health sends to the various bodies, including the Higher Institute of Health, the Spallanzani hospital in Rome and the Sacco in Milan, a three-page note entitled “Pneumonia of unknown etiology”. From the ministry they explain, in short, the Chinese affair: from the closure of the Wuhan fish market to the precise symptoms to recognize the contagion triggered by the virus.

The underestimation of the risk

The document explains in detail that “the signs and i symptoms Clinical findings consist mainly of fever, breathing difficulties, while chest radiographs show invasive lesions in both lungs“. Days go by and the situation in China worsens, until the lockdown of Wuhan and the province of Hubei.

In short, everything had already been put black on white in January, that is, a couple of months before the advent of hell that would have overturned theItaly. Daily fact furthermore, stresses that the top management did not transmit the symptoms of the virus to general practitioners operating in the area; only after February 21, that is, when the notorious patient 1 appears, did we return to talk about mysterious pneumonia that occurred between December and January. The first meetings therefore begin, but the new coronavirus is still considered a distant risk.

Germany reports four Covid-19 cases in late January. L’Italy, looking only at China, it closes flights with the Asian giant and the government announces that it is “ready“. The problem is that the virus, meanwhile, already circulated undisturbed in the country, coming from Bavaria. In all of this, the executive does not send clear lines to doctors or take care of preparing hospitals. The days pass and, thanks to an excessive underestimation, the Covid-19 makes scorched earth.