“For this disease that we have known about for a few months and not for years or hundreds of years like malaria, tuberculosis or the flu itself, there is an absence of certainty. We are ‘learning’ it. But compared to the darkest hour nine months ago, today we are much better prepared”.
Giving a message of confidence in the midst of the wave of return of the coronavirus is a medical personality, Professor Roberto Cauda, Director of Infectious Diseases at the Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli in Rome and Professor at the Università del Sacro Cuore.
Interviewed in video-conference by Federico Guiglia as part of the meetings promoted by the Italian-German Academy of Studies, Professor Cauda explains the differences between Covid-19 and other historical pandemics, such as the dramatic Spanish pandemic of 1918, gives important advice to those who are forced to undergo home treatment because they are infected by the virus, and recommends vaccination against seasonal flu, “because, in addition to reducing the risk of flu, it can stimulate so-called trained immunity, i.e. a recruitment of defences against other types of diseases. According to scientific work that has yet to be extensively verified, it could perhaps – the conditional is a must – stimulate some sort of protection against Covid-19 as well.