Italy’s anti-Covid policy has been one of the most consistent in Europe. The new Meloni government puts an end to this with the vaccination requirement for doctors and nurses to be abolished – but that’s not all.

New Health Minister Orazio Schillaci is in a hurry to reverse Italy’s anti-Covid policy. Already today, in the first cabinet meeting after the vote of confidence, the Meloni government wants to decide to abolish the obligation to vaccinate doctors and nurses.

Giorgia Meloni had announced in her government statement that her cabinet would “under no circumstances” continue what she considered too hard a line of the Draghi government in the fight against Covid.

Meloni and her ministers are moving in a dangerous direction, warns microbiologist Andrea Crisanti, one of the best-known corona experts in Italy during the pandemic and senator for the opposition Democrats since the election: “What Meloni says is proof that the memory is obvious vacation.”

Crisanti criticizes that she had forgotten “that Lombardy, in particular, has contributed dramatically to the high number of deaths and infections in the pandemic”.

Cancelling the vaccination requirement for medical staff is only part of the measures planned by the Italian government. In future, the current Covid numbers will no longer be announced daily but only once a week.

At the weekend, Finance and Economics Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti issued a temporary amnesty for those who refuse to vaccinate.

The Meloni government has stopped punishing those who refuse to vaccinate. Formally, the fines (each over 100 euros) are only suspended until June 30 next year – but this allowed the government to order the measure immediately.

Image by Wikimedia (Vox Espana)/ Attribution CC0 1.0 Universal