ROME (Reuters) – Agostino Airaudo, 86, died of coronavirus on March 21. Ninety minutes earlier he had received an SMS telling him that, after weeks of waiting, he had an appointment to get vaccinated.
Ten days later, his wife, Michela, 82, also died of the disease.
Unlike many other European countries, Italy did not give automatic priority to its army of pensioners when it launched its inoculation campaign in December, even though they were suffering from the weight of the disease.
According to experts, the lack of faster protection has cost thousands of lives and angered a fragmented health system under which regions make most decisions and the central government has struggled to impose a clear strategy.
“People could have been saved,” said Giorgio Airaudo, the son of Agostino and Michela, and the head of the powerful FIOM metalworkers union in the northern region of Piedmont.
“As soon as the vaccines arrived, there was no justification for not giving priority to the frail and the elderly …,” he told Reuters by telephone.
“It simply came to our notice then. The government made suggestions and each region did what it wanted. “
More than 110,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Italy, the seventh highest number in the world. Their average age was 81 and 86% of them were 70 or older, according to data from the ISS National Health Institute.
Many countries, including Britain and the United States, vaccinated the elderly first, recognizing their great vulnerability.
The Italian government also said that those over eighty should have priority, but a random deployment has allowed professionals such as lawyers, magistrates and university professors to move to the front of the queue in many places.
As the mortality rate has fallen in much of Europe thanks to the early impact of vaccines, Italy’s has remained stubbornly high and the average daily number of 431 over the past week has been the highest. of the continent, according to Reuters data.
Acknowledging the problem, Prime Minister Mario Draghi – the epitome of the calm measured during his eight-year term at the helm of the European Central Bank – on Thursday made a plea to his Italian colleagues to wait their turn.
“How consciously does someone jump out knowing they are leaving a person over the age of 75 or frail at real risk of dying?” Draghi told reporters.
“Stop vaccinating people under 60,” he said, raising his voice.
‘DEATH, PAIN AND PAIN’
Earlier this year, the 20 regions of Italy focused almost exclusively on the protection of health workers, even those in their twenties without contact with patients. Most sites did not begin mass vaccinations for more than eighty years until mid-February.
At that stage, France and Germany had already given a first dose to 20% of their over-eighty-year-olds.
Since then, Italy has caught up with the EU average, with data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control showing that it had shot at least 62% of its over-eighties. But only 13.4% of 70-year-olds have had a first dose, the lowest rate in Europe after Bulgaria.
Regional governors say they followed government guidelines and blamed delays in slower-than-expected vaccine delivery.
They also say they were blinded in January when the national drug regulator warned that the AstraZeneca / Oxford shot should only be used for under-55s.
They planned to give this shot to older residents and had to change strategy. Now, the guide has turned around again with the recommendation that it should only be used for those over 60 after the concern arises that it can cause rare blood clots in young adults.
Matteo Villa, a researcher in the ISPI think tank, says other EU countries facing the same problems were more agile. His analysis suggests that Italy could have saved 11,900 lives if it had focused more on the elderly.
“The central government did not control the situation and, surprisingly, many of the regions were not carefully prepared for deployment,” Villa told Reuters.
He said some regions competed with each other to see who could manage more shots and that it was easier to corral health workers than the elderly.
“This is not a race … It is a situation where there is death, pain and sorrow,” union leader Airaudo said.
His parents lived in Piedmont, in the center of Turin. Both had serious illnesses and had registered with their doctor to get the vaccine. An algorithm adopted by the region decides who gets vaccinated and when.
Piedmont health officials did not answer questions about why they had not received timely shots.
“AN INCREEDBLE MESSAGE”
In addition to the confusion, each region uses its own reservation system.
Franco Perco, 81, lives in the central region of the Marche, a COVID-19 focal point. He is still waiting for an appointment with the vaccine despite numerous phone calls to helplines and efforts to book online.
“I am just scared. There is no clarity, “said Perco, the former head of one of Italy’s leading national parks.” I will go out as little as possible. “
According to the constitution, Italian regions have broad autonomy over health decision-making, even during a pandemic.
In Tuscany, Abruzzo and Sicily, magistrates and lawyers were given priority status. In the southern region of Molise, journalists were allowed early vaccination. Lax supervision in Sicily meant that a priest could vaccinate his congregation regardless of age.
“It created an incredible mess. It has served as a lesson for us to be more careful, “said Angelo Aliquò, director general of the health agency of the Sicilian city of Ragusa.
Undersecretary of Health Andrea Costa, who took office in February, told Reuters that mistakes had been made in not clearly identifying priority groups.
“There will be time in the future to analyze what happened, but now we need to get vaccinated as soon as possible that will allow us to return to normal life,” he said.
Angry at the sudden death of his parents, Airaudo hopes there will be a calculation.
“I always thought that decentralization was about being close to the people. Instead, today we have confusion, difference, injustice and delays, ”he said.
Report by Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante; edited by John Stonestreet