The vaccine rush and false illusions - The editorial by Paride Pelli

The reality of things tells us that, to date, we can speak at most of «virtual vaccines», since none of us have yet touched any safe medical solution; Not only that, the scientific community has been skeptical about some announcements - by Vladimir Putin in the first place, but others will probably follow - that they assumed an antidote to COVID-19. A scenario that has dragged us into a frenzied collective hope that sometimes comes close to certain hysteria experienced during the lockdown, with an alternation of excitement and discouragement that makes us feel, once again, as if it were needed, on a roller coaster. This is a delicate period, almost of suspension, waiting for something to happen that might not happen, and for this very reason calm and coolness are needed. The world has had many viruses, very many, and he will still have many. We are certainly not suggesting to «settle down on the pandemic» and we do not suffer from any «Stockholm syndrome» - in fact we will never get used to this anomalous and decidedly sinister world, made up of masks, disinfectant and social distancing - but, on the other hand, we cannot even get up every morning hoping that it is the right day for the discovery of the vaccine and that the next day will finally open a golden age for society, the economy and science.

Also because the vaccine will not be immediately for everyone and will not be - it can never be in a democratic state - mandatory, if not possibly in some totalitarian country. In short, the vaccine race is becoming a sometimes grotesque race, now also good material for an electoral campaign, it should be said, «on the skin of the citizen»; a race, and perhaps it would be better to say a run-up, accompanied by controversies and mutual attacks that risk losing sight of the number one goal of all these experiments, that is to protect us and make us return to a life that resembles as much as possible to that of which we were understandably used to.

Although the WHO has clearly stated that mass vaccination programs cannot begin before mid-2021, individual countries are working to find the fastest possible solution, even at the cost of overriding some scientific or diplomatic precautions. The latest update in this regard, however, is a sensible and responsible cold shower, with the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, associated with the University of Oxford, which yesterday announced the suspension of its tests due to the appearance of an adverse drug reaction by a patient in the UK. The disappointment is objectively great because the hope was that their vaccine could be one of the first to arrive on the market, after the success found in phases 1 and 2.

So - as we have been writing for some time - let’s try to live the present to the fullest, let’s roll up our sleeves and take advantage of those small and big daily improvements that remind us that the worst is behind us. The vaccine, if and when it is discovered, will probably not be the recipe for happiness, much less for an invulnerable economy. So let’s get closer - with due sanitary precautions and the right distancing - to our daily life, to our affections, to work, to the positive and negative sides of life (which were there even before, let’s not forget it) and let’s count on man and his genius, but without distress if the vaccine, as it seems, should be late in arriving.