Coronavirus: How was the summer without a vaccine in Europe?

Julio Algañaraz

08/07/2020 - 13:57

• Clarín.com
• World

It was expected that this boreal summer in Europe would show that the coronavirus behaved like the other respiratory viruses and totally loosen its contagion and aggressiveness. It was not so .

Contagions are rising again even in Italy, which after being the country hardest hit by the pandemic in March, April and part of May, became the most virtuous, with a decided drop in the epidemic curve.

In the last two weeks there have been many controversies among scientists and those who affirm that there is nothing to be done : the virus is still there. And there is no vaccine.

What is Coronavirus? How is it spread and what are its symptoms?

In these days of August, things got worse as in the rest of Europe. This Friday the worst figure of the summer was reached: 552 infected. Gone is the optimism of two weeks ago when it fell below 200 daily cases.

It is the death toll that shows the effects of the improvement. This Friday there were only three deaths in all of Italy. They are the ones that were infected a month ago and their scarcity shows that much progress has been made in the country in the fight against the invisible, inhuman enemy.

The increase in those infected in midsummer shows that heats do not extinguish the virus. And everyone knows that this means that you have to prepare for what will happen with the autumn-winter colds that will begin in September, which will give it new vigor.

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Even the Italian Army has been mobilized to face the expected deterioration. The mobilization so far has proven effective. The 230 outbreaks in the Italian territory have been quickly attacked and isolated: the situation is under control.

But here and there there are pockets of up to a hundred infected, which require a lot of effort, especially to trace the movements of the virus and its carriers. Especially the asymptomatic, who do not feel the contagious symptoms.

A summer with younger patients

A novelty of the summer, and not only in Italy, is the rejuvenation of the infected lists. From an average of 61 years in the worst moments of the pandemic, currently the level of infected registers an average age of 40 years . The elderly know that contagion can mean a death sentence and they do not leave their homes , they rigorously put on their chinstraps, maintain safe distances and wash their hands ten times a day. They spread little.

A sign appeals to keep your distance on a beach in Bournemouth Beach./ Reuters

Young people defy the virus , they believe that if it catches them they will come out gracefully and go en masse to the movements, especially in Italy and Spain, piling up especially on weekends.

They organize clandestine parties , dance encounters on the beaches taking advantage of the summer. A study whose results "Clarín" published on Thursday showed that in Italy the infected are actually one and a half million out of 60 million inhabitants.

No tourists or flights

Tourist movements have been nationalized because the arrival of foreigners is measured with a dropper. Flights are rare, fears abound. For Italy, which received more than 80 billion euros per year from international tourism, the summer has consolidated the reality of an economic disaster without consolation.

Summer remembers that on September 14th comes the litmus test of the reopening of schools of all levels and universities.

Summer has consolidated the reality of an economic disaster for tourism. / Reuters

In Italy it is already the dominant theme because among students, teachers and professors, staff and families, between twelve and fourteen million people will move per day. Will safety-equipped schools function? Sources of contagion in this reality that Italians feel so much would produce a national shock.

With August ends the summer that should be more benevolent with the punished Italians and the rest of the Europeans, who see how the coronavirus is a terrible enemy.

Every day there is more anxiety waiting for the vaccines that will arrive next year. And a new hope: also in Italy, rapid progress is being made towards the effective cure promised by super potent monoclonal antibodies, drugs that would thoroughly attack the virus by sterilizing it until the blessed vaccines arrive.

Rome, correspondent