MILAN
- Covid-19 "from a clinical point of view no longer exists". The San Raffaele head of Milan Alberto Zangrillo, director of intensive care, is convinced of this. Words that immediately ignited the controversy among the experts, with expressions of bewilderment and condemnation especially by the scientists who are part of the technical scientific committee.
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Coronavirus, experts divided on Zangrillo: the truth of the WHO
"Coronavirus does not exist"? WHO's reply to Zangrillo's statements
June 2 2020
The latest statements by Alberto Zangrillo have been around the world in recent days: "Coronavirus does not exist" , the doctor said, causing a sensation among the scientific community, and beyond. However, he replied punctually to the WHO , trying to clarify the matter and providing further details on the current trend of the virus.
Zangrillo's words
There is a lot of talk about Dr. Alberto Zangrillo in these hours. Responsible for intensive care at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan in Lombardy (the region most affected by the pandemic in Italy), many newspapers and newspapers are writing about him because of his latest claims on Coronavirus .
According to the doctor, a study carried out by a colleague of his would show that the virus is losing its potency and that - therefore - "no longer exists clinically". The research is by Dr. Massimo Clementi, director of the Microbiology and Virology Laboratory of San Raffaele hospital, and should be published shortly.
"The swabs that were performed in the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to those performed on patients a month or two ago," said Zangrillo on Sunday May 31 during his intervention in Rai.
These statements, however, were not liked by Franco Locatelli, Italian physician and academic President of the Superior Council of Health, who in turn, as reported by Ansa, said: "I can only express great surprise and absolute amazement for the statements made by the Professor Zangrillo. Just look at the number of new cases confirmed every day to have evidence of the persistent circulation of the virus in Italy ".
The authorities urge caution
Zangrillo's words, in fact, come at a very delicate moment. In view of the reopenings on June 3 , the Government is currently engaged in the management of Phase 2 ( here the QuiFinanza special) with an important objective: to allow travel and travel but always in total safety. Diminishing therefore the dangerousness of the virus could be more than dangerous for the security of Italy.
For this reason Sandra Zampa , Undersecretary to the Ministry of Health, said in a note: "Pending scientific evidence to support the thesis that the virus has disappeared, I would invite those who claim to be sure not to confuse the Italians ".
WHO's reply
The World Health Organization also distanced itself from Zangrillo's statements , which on Monday 1 June denied the news that the virus was becoming less lethal. "This is still a killer virus , " said Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergency program at the press conference. “We have to be exceptionally careful not to create the feeling that, suddenly, the virus, by its own will, has now decided to be less pathogenic. It's not like that at all, "he added.
Zangrillo, however, is not the only doctor to believe that the virus is weakening . Matteo Bassetti, director of the infectious disease clinic of the San Martino hospital in Genoa, also said that Coronavirus is no longer the same, but only on the basis of his experience (he would therefore not have scientific evidence to support his theory) .
However, WHO said it was willing to examine in detail studies and data that are able to demonstrate the opposite, reiterating however that to date the trend and danger of Coronavirus could be determined by the level of exposure to the virus of an individual. This means, as has been explained, that "the virus may not be becoming less potent" but that we, as a community, are successfully reducing the number, intensity and frequency of exposure to Covid.
https://quifinanza.it/editoriali/coronavirus-esperti-zangrillo-verita-oms/388911/
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Coronavirus, here is the San Raffaele study quoted by Zangrillo: ?Ten times weaker than in March?
Monday 1 June 2020
" Coronavirus no longer exists clinically." With this sentence Professor Alberto Zangrillo has triggered a real uproar within the Italian scientific community. Yet the doctor, director of the intensive care unit at San Raffaele in Milan , certainly had no intention of stating that the virus no longer circulates, which is absolutely false. In fact, what Professor Zangrillo meant is that Sars-CoV-2 , within two months, has lost its viral load and is replicating much more slowlythus causing a sharp drop in infections. This is demonstrated by a study conducted right inside the San Raffaele and carried out from March to May, in the two most dramatic months of the epidemic in Lombardy.
IN DEPTH
The study , coordinated by virologist and microbiologist Massimo Clementi and carried out on 200 Covid patients hospitalized at San Raffaele, will be published shortly in the journal Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine. As TgCom24 also explains, the research has made it possible to establish that
the virus has not changed, but has lost its viral load and now the replication rate is much lower than in March. The practical demonstration comes from the molecular analysis starting from the swabs carried out on the patients in March, when the dramatic impact of the coronavirus had led to the lockdown of all Italy, and in May, when a progressive relaxation of the restrictions was possible. All this, on the other hand, is also reflected in the lower commitment of intensive care.
Massimo Clementi , coordinator of the study, explained: ?
There is a macroscopic difference between Covid patients hospitalized in March and those hospitalized in May, the viral load and the replication rate of the virus was 10 times less than two months before. Other viruses, such as that of HIV or those of hepatitis B or C, have behaved in this way: the greater their replication, the faster the progression of the disease. I don't know if this will be enough to explain the observed clinical difference, but we will continue the study on other patients and, thanks to Guido Silvestri, we will also extend it to patients in the United States ".
Last updated: 23:50
https://www.ilmattino.it/primopiano/sanita/coronavirus_ecco_studio_san_raffaele_citato_prof_z angrillo_dieci_volte_piu_debole_rispetto_marzo-5262668.html
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Coronavirus, viral load and mutation: what we know today
In hospitals throughout Italy there are fewer and fewer serious cases, what is going on? The virus has not gone away but something may have changed
by Cristina Marrone
Less aggressive virus or even gone. Presumed mutations and less strong viral load. These days we are chasing announcements and news about the coronavirus, which finally seems to give us respite. But what do we really know today? In the meantime the virus has never disappeared . Nobody ever said it, not even Professor Alberto Zangrillo , director of Anesthesia at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan who cited a study being published in the Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory medicine of his colleague Massimo Clementi , director of the Laboratory of Microbiology and Virology. Professor Zangrillo reported that, based on the data collected, "the virus is clinically non-existent, disappeared". It means that the new ICU and sub ICU admissions are few or no. In the last few weeks, few patients have arrived in hospitals, including in Lombardy, all with mild symptoms.
The virus tries to adapt to the host
However, the virus is far from gone, it still seems to kill less . Because? When a microorganism reaches man it looks for a way to adapt to the host. The interest of the virus is to survive inside a body and then spread to other subjects, which cannot happen if the patient dies from the infection. Roughly speaking, if he kills the infected too quickly, he has one less "tank" to spread from . Here then, less "bad" variants may have started to circulate, which is precisely why they are more likely to resist in the long run, since they save the life of the organism that hosts them.
The viral load
Among the hypotheses also that Sars-CoV-2 has a less powerful viral load . It is always supported by the San Raffaele study that analyzed 200 patients by comparing the viral load present in the samples taken with the swab: it emerged that s i was greatly weakened in May patients compared to those admitted to the Milanese hospital in March. However, some scientists point out that at the beginning of the epidemic, due to the tsunami of patients, swabs were made only on the most serious cases in which the viral load of Covid-19 is on average 60 times higher than that of mild or asymptomatic cases, tested only lately. Others argue that the least viral load isdue to all the precautions taken during the lockdown period , from hand washing to social distancing. Staying away and also using masks, fewer viral particles circulate than in March when we did not know how to defend ourselves from coughs and sneezes from infected subjects.
No genetic mutation
The lower replicability observed (10 times less than that of March patients) could instead explain why the disease worsens less quickly. On one aspect, scientists seem to agree almost all: the virus does not seem to have changed significantly from a genetic point of view . Of almost 35 thousand sequences entered from all over the world in the database, to date, none goes in this direction. Since the virus seems less aggressive, can we abandon the habits of social distancing? Absolutely not precisely because these measures have certainly contributed to what we are observing today. And leaving is a moment.
June 2, 2020 (change June 2, 2020 | 09:30)
https://www.corriere.it/salute/mala...26-11ea-b19d-c124828d4b5b.shtml?refresh_ce-cp
