Italy. The patient’s appeal straight from the hospital. “Vaccinate. I didn’t do it and I regret it”

The patient’s appeal was posted online – at her request – by health workers from the province of Agrigento, where she comes from and where the woman is currently being treated. Maria Paola Grisafi, 56, in a video that lasts just over a minute, asks everyone to get vaccinated. Without hiding her emotions, she admits her mistake – she says that she should not have resisted the vaccination.

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In her film, she explains several times that the severe course of the disease was a painful experience for her. – I’m here because I fell ill with COVID-19. I felt terrible. Thanks to the care of the staff it is getting better – says Grisafi. – I wanted to tell you all: vaccinate. I did not do it and I regret it, I was wrong. I risked my life – he adds later. He explains that there are only unvaccinated people in the hospital room where he is staying. – We’ve all got it wrong. We all regret it now. It is a very serious disease – argues the woman.

She recorded the video without taking off the apparatus that gives her oxygen 24 hours a day. The 56-year-old is slowly recovering, but is still under the constant care of doctors, currently in the Fratelli Parlapiano hospital in Ribera.

According to data released by the Italian government, 33,485,151 people were fully vaccinated in the country by 5 August – or 62 percent of citizens over the age of 12. The group most likely to vaccinate are adults aged 50-59 years (70 percent of this group has already taken both doses of the preparation or vaccinated with a single-dose vaccine).

On Friday, the obligation to show a pass confirming vaccination, recovery from infection or a negative coronavirus test (made within the last 48 hours) comes into force in Italy. It will be a condition for entering indoor dining venues, sports facilities and cultural institutions.

The circles of people against such a solution are announcing a loud protest in the capital on Friday. Similar demonstrations took place last Saturday all over the country – among others, representatives of the catering industry, who are afraid of a drop in the number of customers, manifested.

Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said the government understands their concerns, but vaccinating as many Italians as possible is the only way to return to normalcy, and this is what the authorities care about most. “We do not have any sanitary ‘dictatorship’. Vaccinations are necessary to win the pandemic, and all recent government measures are aimed at protecting and caring for citizens,” La Repubblica quotes.

Opposition politicians, including Matteo Salvini, the leader of the right-wing Northern League, were also opposed to the pass. He called the pass “complicating life”. – Making life difficult for Italians with the obligation to “Green Pass”? Let’s not be kidding. We cannot stop the tourist movement in the middle of the summer holidays, which has just barely recovered – he said on July 21 in the Rai TV program. He added that he was opposed to encouraging teenagers to vaccinate and the compulsory vaccination of school workers, which the government is currently working on.

Two days later, he himself took his first dose in a hospital in Milan, which he discreetly announced on his social media: he posted a photo in which internet users saw the QR code that is obtained in Italy after vaccination.

The discouraging approach to vaccination was commented last week by Prime Minister Mario Draghi. – Appeals not to vaccinate are invitations to die or cause someone else’s death. If we do not get vaccinated, we either get infected and die, or we infect someone and thus lead them to death – he said at a press conference he convened. “Without vaccinations, we will be forced to close the whole country again,” he said.

According to an Ipsos study published in La Stampa on August 1, 7 percent of Italians declare that they will not get vaccinated, and 10 percent do not know if they will, because they have considerable doubts. 24 percent are against the introduction of flaps. The number of people with this approach grows along with the decline in the indicator of the level of education and economic status of the respondents.

The daily “Il Fatto Quotidiano” presents the results of the ResPOnse Covid-19 study by the Sps Trend laboratory from the University of Milan. Researchers have shown how the number of people willing to get vaccinated has changed in recent months. In December 2020, 12 percent of respondents declared that they would definitely not get vaccinated, in the period March-June 2021 it was only 5 percent. At the same time, the number of “doubtful” people also fell from 18 percent to 8 percent. Journalists of “Il Fatto Quotidiano” emphasize that the main fear of these people is the fear of unknown side effects of vaccines.

All Italians over the age of 12 will have to present a Covid-19 pass issued on the basis of a vaccination certificate, recovery from infection or negative coronavirus test result from Friday. The requirement also applies to hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists on vacation.

The penalty for the lack of a pass in places where it is required will be up to 400 euros. In the case of catering establishments and other establishments that are subject to the obligation to inspect them, there are administrative penalties for violating the regulations – a closure order from one to ten days. From September, the passes are to be extended to planes, trains and ships.