(by Rosangela Cesareo, Head of Institutional Relations Aidr) We met the honorable Member of the League and doctor Luisa Regimenti. We asked her about the pandemic that Italy is experiencing.
Mrs you are a doctor, how do you live this pandemic? What do you feel like saying to your frontline colleagues in the fight against Coronavirus Covid-19?
"I am a coroner and my thoughts turn to all the doctors and health professionals who have been assisting Covid-19 patients for weeks and are engaged in the search for a cure for the virus. Their dedication is admirable, also because they are often forced to work in inadequate health conditions. The doctors involved in the front line for this dramatic health emergency, in addition to being forced to make do because of the lack of personal protective equipment, must be made a mockery of sensational errors in the delivery, when it occurs, of this material. While discussing peaks and curves of contagion, with dramatic daily bulletins, it is inadmissible that hospitals are still looking for useful tools to ensure the safety of those who work inside Covid-19 structures, where, however, there is a condition of widespread managerial precariousness. New needs also emerge, as in the definition of suspect cases, difficult for asymptomatic patients, for example. The high number of deaths among patients, but also among doctors themselves, creates alarm and concern and the Italian State has a duty to protect the work of health professionals. I hope that the Government will consider the possibility of inserting a rule in the next legislative provision that will allow doctors to avoid finding themselves, in the future, the subject of compensation for alleged medical malpractice related to the Covid-19 epidemic.".
What steps have you taken as a MEP to tackle this crisis?
"First of all, I would like to remind you that as early as January 29, when the Coronavirus crisis seemed to be still far away, I spoke at the Plenary session of the European Parliament to alert the institutions about the serious danger we were about to face. On the same date, I also signed a priority parliamentary question to ask the European Commission to intervene with urgent measures, several days before the intervention of the World Health Organization.
My parliamentary activity has not ceased in recent weeks and, despite the restrictions on movement, with distance voting we have been engaged in some urgent dossiers, such as the mobilization of investments in the health sector and health care for countries, such as Italy, facing this serious emergency.
Thanks also to the votes of the League delegation to the European Parliament, it was possible to guarantee Member States access to € 37 billion in cohesion funds to strengthen health systems and support small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as to change the scope of application of the EU Solidarity Fund to also include public health emergencies, in addition to natural disasters. This provision will allow Member States to respond to the most urgent needs during this pandemic. I was also co-signatory of some parliamentary questions to clarify how the European institutions are dealing with the pandemic, such as the request to the European Commission for timely data and information on imports of medical devices and active pharmaceutical ingredients within Union".
The Italian government is, between ups and downs, facing the health crisis that has inevitably also generated an economic crisis. In your opinion, what should be done in the short and long term?
"In the short term, action must be taken with the utmost urgency. As already mentioned, I think the first step should be to protect doctors in the best possible way and to enable them to carry out their work in the safest and most serene way possible, both from the point of view of medical material and that of legal protection.
At the same time, I agree with the proposals of the League: the 600 euros promised are not enough. The only possible solution to restart Italy is a fiscal white year. Self-employed workers, small and medium-sized enterprises and VAT numbers are unable to recognize the taxes that are required of them from the State.
In the long run, it will be appropriate to reevaluate this government in the light of how it dealt with the virus emergency. The judgment, so far, however, is not at all positive. Masks and oxygen are missing, there are thousands of people in difficulty in nursing homes, many mortgage payments are collected by banks, there is no certainty on the timing of disbursement of the Redundancy Fund, there is no aid for those who cannot pay rent and bills. The problems are clearly many. Now we await the facts from the Conte government".
The spread of the virus made a digital revolution, long awaited in Italy, necessary. Not only telemedicine, but also smart working and the need for different applications in the most varied areas. What do you think?
"This crisis, and the need for the use of smart working and e-learning systems, has shown the side of all the structural problems of the internet in Italy. The result is a picture of strong backwardness compared to other European countries, which risks causing further discrimination for the most fragile categories. I can only be worried about all the students, and in particular for those coming from poorer families, who do not always have devices suitable for the connections required by schools. Italy must be able to exploit this situation as a driving force to improve its network architecture and develop a culture of data protection, which is currently insufficient. In fact, that of the strong disservices and the lack of security of databases and public administration sites is a question that arises regularly, and implementing a digital revolution is now increasingly inevitable and urgent. This is demonstrated by the INPS website that has gone haywire these days, and whose bad functioning is not only forcing thousands of users to a real ordeal but has allowed the dissemination of hundreds of personal data. The alert level for cyber attacks is at the highest levels: our hospitals of excellence have been victims of ignoble hacker attacks, which have put the computers intended for the analysis of Coronavirus tests out of use. Our citizens must, now more than ever, be vigilant to avoid falling into the trap of computer fraud of jackals who shamefully take advantage of the current emergency situation".