"Vaccination coverage this year has been unsatisfactory. There's widespread rejection of the Covid vaccine, which has also spread to the flu vaccine and is now creating enormous problems for unvaccinated older people."
Fausto De Michele, director of the Pulmonology Department at Cardarelli Hospital in Naples, told ANSA. He is dealing with the first days of severe respiratory complications for the elderly and is now anticipating the worst weeks of winter, right after Christmas. "Already in previous years," De Michele observed, "people, especially unvaccinated people over 1, have been a major challenge for us because they are generally frail and at extremely high risk.
This year, vaccination coverage is particularly unsatisfactory: less than 10% of people have been vaccinated against Covid, and the flu vaccine has also had a negative impact. So we're facing the winter in less favorable conditions, with poor vaccination coverage and with Covid now raging, not with severe forms, but worsening fragile starting situations. If an elderly person is immunocompromised, they often catch flu and Covid together. Covid isn't particularly serious today, but the risk of infection remains high, and therefore, an organizational impact on hospitals, making everything more complicated.
The overcrowding in the pulmonary department now affects all hospitals, particularly Cardarelli, where twenty beds in De Michele's ward are already occupied, as are the others in the second ward. In total, 48 beds are fully occupied, with a small opening of temporary beds deemed necessary to address this challenging period. "In my ward," explains De Michele, "there are currently seven positive COVID cases, which is having an organizational impact that is slowing down patient flow and requiring optimal bed management; in short, it's placing a new burden on the management of the traditional influenza epidemic." The older the patient, the more at risk are the unvaccinated: "With less significant vaccination coverage for vulnerable patients," explains the head of pulmonary medicine, "those over 65 and over 75 arrive here at Cardarelli in more critical conditions than in previous years.
The severity of pneumonia is high, with severe pneumonia in people aged 80-85. Unfortunately, the widespread rejection of the Covid vaccine has spread a very superficial, general mistrust of vaccines, which has led to a knock-on effect for which we are now paying a high price. And in the next two to three weeks, we fear even worse consequences. As recent history tells us, we are now in the 15 days following the Christmas and New Year holidays, which are making living close to the elderly a costly affair. The vulnerable, vulnerable populations are primarily those with chronic blood conditions, diabetes, and many elderly people with three or four conditions who are at risk from the winter flu, as well as cancer patients who are immunosuppressed and frail. If I had an elderly person who hasn't been vaccinated, I would try to get them vaccinated right now, but by next fall, strong communication is needed to get people vaccinated.
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