GENOA,ITALY (VINnews) — A leading Italian infectious diseases specialist claims that coronavirus is now much less dangerous than it used to be, and may die out without requiring a vaccine, according to a Sunday Telegraph report.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Professor Matteo Bassetti, an infectious disease expert at the Policlinico San Martino hospital in Genoa,Italy, claimed that the virus has weakened recently from being like an “aggressive tiger” to a “wild cat.”
Basseti based his claim on the fact that “even elderly patients, aged 80 or 90, are now sitting up in bed and breathing without help. The same patients would have died in two or three days before.” He added that “The clinical impression I have is that the virus is changing in severity. In March and early April the patterns were completely different. People were coming to the emergency department with a very difficult to manage illness and they needed oxygen and ventilation, some developed pneumonia.
“Now, in the past four weeks, the picture has completely changed in terms of of patterns.”
Basseti suggested that the widespread lockdowns mean that people are now getting much lower doses of the virus when they are infected. Alternatively, the present virus could be a genetic mutation which does not carry the same weight as the original COVID-19 infection.
However other experts strongly disagreed with Basseti’s analysis.
Dr Oscar MacLean of the University of Glasgow attacked Professor Bassetti’s comments in early June: “These claims are not supported by anything in the scientific literature, and also seem fairly implausible on genetic grounds.
“Whilst weakening of the virus through mutations is theoretically possible, it is not something we should expect, and any claims of this nature would need to be verified in a more systematic way.
Dr Angela Rasmussen, of the US’s Colombia University, was unequivocal: “There is no evidence that the virus is losing potency anywhere.”
A previous Italian study conducted by Dr. Massimo Clementi, the director of the microbiology and virology laboratory of San Raffaele, Milan, supported Basseti’s claim. The study compared virus samples from COVID-19 patients at the Milan-based hospital in March with samples from patients with the disease in May.
“The result was unambiguous: an extremely significant difference between the viral load of patients admitted in March compared to those admitted last month”, according to testimony by Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at the San Raffaele hospital.
Italy suffered one of the worst outbreaks in Europe of the coronavirus, with some 34,000 deaths from the virus according to John Hopkins University figures.
Well lets look at all the states where new cases rose exponentially, AZ & FL. Its been rising since the beginning of June. Yet deaths have not risen. Granted, deaths are a lagging indicator but its already 3 weeks since the steep incline. Back in March April, 3 weeks in, deaths spiked like crazy too. The data seems to point to what the dr is suggesting.
What virus???
COVID-19 only infected 15 people and went away on its own in April. It was like a miracle.
So you see how this goes, two Italian doctors – the place where the outbreak was the worst – say what they’re seeing with their own eyes, and that probably won’t be a need for any vaccinations, so they get attacked for saying what they’re seeing with their own eyes and they are professionals in the field, so they get attacked cuz we must have a vaccine, and there is no “scientific evidence” to their claim, what a joke.
So unfortunately the deaths usually lag for a few weeks so we don’t know the effect yet. The new infections are also much younger as the elderly are staying inside. The hospitals also have better knowledge and therapies than they did in the early days. Hopefully we don’t see increased deaths.
leading experts are arguing . sounds a little like bais shammai and bais hillel always arguing . Trump and Hillary , Trump and Biden Trump and the Swampy Democrats and the Fake News . Of course Trump always wins !!!!!! TRUMP 2020!!!!!!!!!!