NursingUp. "We have learned in these hours, with no small amount of concern, of a new dangerous outbreak of infections, in another Region, Sicily, which we have carefully monitored in recent weeks as one of the most at risk, together with Lazio and Lombardy, for the resurgence of infections.
In the Palermo operations center, at least 12 health workers have reportedly been infected in the last 48 hours: the conditional on the numbers is a must, given that no spontaneous and official communication has been received from the Health Authorities, as has already happened in Lazio.
In the next few hours our territorial delegations will send an official request to know the exact number of infected people and the reference qualifications.
From our preliminary internal investigations, it would appear that at this moment, there are 6 nurses among the infected subjects in the Sicilian capital, but there could be even more.
Since most of our colleagues are on duty at 118, we ask ourselves, insistently, what exactly is happening in the Italian health system. And we demand to know if the top brass of the Ministry of Health are aware of this attitude on the part of certain local administrations. In short, when the safety of patients and health workers is at stake, the lack of spontaneous, timely and exhaustive information on the part of certain health companies represents an extremely serious fact”. Thus Antonio De Palma, National President of Nursing Up.
“Our contacts tell us about healthcare companies with an “incomprehensibly closed” attitude, and about nurses who, for the umpteenth time, are afraid to speak and tell what is happening in hospital settings before their eyes.
The case of Palermo is emblematic: healthcare professionals who would have discovered they were infected overnight. We are talking about people who should have already been vaccinated, we have very few doubts about this because the percentage of those who have not yet received the double dose is too low. And because Italian nurses believe in scientific evidence, consequently in the effectiveness of the vaccine as the main prevention tool, proof of which is the fact that they have been vaccinated en masse with awareness and consciousness and were the first, as employees of the NHS, to have been involved in the campaign since the months of January and February.
Strengthened by this evidence, we now ask to know, because we are directly interested and because this information is rightfully ours, what is the time window of effectiveness of the vaccine to which we have voluntarily subjected ourselves.
And we also want to know, without further delay, whether or not the immune coverage generated by the vaccine decreases at a certain time after the administration of the product. Should we perhaps think "that for the majority of healthcare workers" a third dose is not considered necessary by AIFA because it does not serve the purpose of maintaining optimal immunity levels?
And if so, is there anyone who can take responsibility for reassuring us that the surge in infections among healthcare workers, which according to IIS data in the 30 days between July and August went from around 250 cases to as many as 1951, was not due to a decrease in the effectiveness of the vaccine?
In short, we operate daily in high-risk environments and we consider it a precise right/duty to protect our safety and, consequently, to protect the health of the social community we care for.
And we still wonder, since, at least from what we read, not all nurses who have undergone the first two administrations will be able to receive the third dose, who will be responsible for deciding, because we also lack this information, whether or not a hospital nurse, one of the approximately 267000 colleagues employed in public health, clearly at greater risk than any other category of workers, can and/or should carry out the third dose or not?
Who will be able to decide which others, among the aforementioned operators, should be excluded from the administration?
And what will happen if this nurse or others like him were to get sick again while waiting?
Ultimately, does anyone take responsibility for telling us, in no uncertain terms, whether the third dose of the vaccine is useful or not, corroborating this assumption with precise, exhaustive information and, above all, supported by scientific evidence?
While waiting to know the information we are asking for, which of course if provided exhaustively would be enough to nip in the bud any legitimate concern or doubt among nurses, we are quite concerned that the AIFA, the Medicines Agency, in relation to health workers has in mind to act "case by case".
Furthermore, it would appear that screenings for measuring antibody levels are not carried out regularly in some healthcare companies. Furthermore, in Sicily, our contacts indicate that in some institutions, a healthcare worker, in order to request a swab, seems to have to declare very specific reasons. But how is all this possible? Shouldn't the swabs be carried out spontaneously and periodically by the company, which is legally responsible for the safety of its employees? How many healthcare companies do this? Above all, how do they do it?
We are even receiving information, which we are investigating further for all intents and purposes, according to which some of the professionals who were infected in Palermo, evidently unaware of their conditions, also infected other colleagues, patients and perhaps even their family members.
In short, events of this type should be immediately and spontaneously communicated by the individual health companies involved from time to time, to the Trade Unions, first and foremost, to put them in a position to activate all the procedures of competence and to monitor and protect the right to the physical and psychological safety of workers. And at the same time to the press, given the particular interest of the entire social community, to receive precise and timely information for any event that could represent, even only potentially, a danger to health conditions and public safety".
Article published on 15 September 2021 - 14:03
