"Faced with the thousands of deaths and the advice that tells us that these could possibly have been avoided, we could not close with a filing": so said the
prosecutor of Bergamo Antonio Chiappani
speaking of the investigation that has just closed on Covid in the Bergamo area.
"Our choice - added Chiappani - was to offer all the material collected to other eyes, which will be those of a judge, of a debate with the defenders because it is right that the reconstruction be given by the interested parties and from all this to derive the experience not only of a judicial nature, but also of a scientific and administrative nature" therefore "a lesson, a great reflection".
The prosecutor's hope is that "beyond the accusations, the controversies that will undoubtedly arise" this will be "a tool for reflection".
There was an "insufficient risk assessment.
Regarding the issue of the pandemic plan, one of the chapters of the investigation into the Covid pandemic, Chiappani explains that "our problem was indeed that of the
failure to update the pandemic plan
, and this concerned a ministerial aspect, but also the failure to implement those preventive measures that were already foreseen in the anti-flu plan dating back to 2006 ".
It was a "mammoth job" that of the Bergamo prosecutor's office in the investigation into the management of the Covid pandemic.
"It took us three years but I understand - says the prosecutor - that a parliamentary commission has not even been started yet. In three years we have carried out an investigation".
The work included "rebuilding hundreds of lives, a set not only of measures but thousands of emails and text messages, three consultations lasting over a year - he listed - rebuilding all relationships, including those of a foreign nature (I recall the speech by the WHO, the failure to implement and update the pandemic plan), reconstruct all the activities by the administrations".
"We are in Lombardy - he concluded - therefore also of the individual Lombard administrations:
governor Attilio Fontana
- that a person who was heard at the beginning of the investigation as a person aware of the facts discovers from the newspapers that he has been transformed into a suspect.
It's a shame that I don't know if any magistrate in this country thinks they are investigating.
Surely nothing will happen.
Even in other trials in which I was acquitted - he adds - I learned from the newspapers things I didn't know".
Fontana
- writes the prosecutor -
would have caused "the spread of the epidemic"
in Val Seriana with an "estimated increase not less than the contagion of 4,148 people, equal to the number of fewer deaths that would have occurred" if the "red zone had been extended starting from February 27, 2020".
before the prosecutor.
With them was the lawyer Consuelo Locati, who coordinates the legal team.
"There is great gratitude now - the family members underlined - because
history is being rewritten for us at this moment
. It is now clear that it was not a sudden tsunami and that someone should have intervened".
The relatives of the victims brought with them the complaints presented at the time right in the prosecutor's office in Bergamo.
"My main motivation and that of the public prosecutor's office was to give back to the Italians the truth about the decision-making processes that led to certain choices. With the advice, a logical map was provided on what happened".
It is the comment of
Andrea Crisanti
, microbiologist at the University of Padua and now senator of the Democratic Party, who signed the maxi consultancy filed with the prosecutors of Bergamo in the investigation into the management of Covid in the Bergamo area.
Silvio Brusaferro
, president of the Higher Institute of Health and others, including members of the CTS and ministerial managers, under investigation for a culpable epidemic together with Attilio
Fontana and Giuseppe Conte,
had "at their disposal", at least since 28 February 2020, "all the data" to "promptly extend" the red zone to Val Seriana as well
.
They were contained in the "Covid Plan drawn up by some members of the CTS coordinated by Prof. Stefano Merler".
Document that "already envisaged" the "most catastrophic scenario for the impact on the health system".
The Bergamo prosecutor's office writes it in the notice of closure of the investigation.
The director of the ISS
Silvio Brusaferro
, despite the recommendations and alerts launched by the WHO starting from 5 January 2020,
would have proposed "not to implement the Pandemic Plan, proposing alternative actions
,
thus preventing the timely adoption of the measures envisaged therein
".
The prosecutors of Bergamo write it in the closing notice of the investigation into the management of Covid in which Brusaferro is being investigated for a culpable epidemic and refusal of official documents with, among others, the former Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, Claudio D 'Amario former director of prevention of the ministry, and with Angelo Borrelli, former head of the Civil Protection.