The plan was never applied
At the center of this story are public officials in charge of dealing with prevention who did not keep a pandemic plan alive, which, without updates, exercises, staff training, storage of personal protective equipment, and a census of ventilators and beds in intensive therapy remained a dead letter.
Attorney Consuelo Locati explained: “The plan has not been updated with the WHO guidelines of 2013, 2017, 2018, not even with those of the European Commission of 2005 and 2009, with the decisions of the European parliament in 2013 and much less with those of the International Health Regulations of 2005.”
However, “in Italy’s self-assessment questionnaires sent periodically to the WHO and the EU – crucial documents that we came into possession of, which we filed with the prosecutor in Bergamo – it appeared that our country was prepared for a pandemic emergency.
“They are false claims. The latest, sent by the Italian government to the WHO on February 4, 2020, also demonstrates the responsibility of the current Minister Speranza.
“The 2006 plan was never implemented by the Scientific Technical Committee. Agostino Miozzo, coordinator of the CTS [the Comitato Tecnico Scientifico is a committee of 24 experts advising the Italian government on the pandemic, led by National Civil Protection], in an interview with Repubblica on September 5, 2020, admitted that “there was no provision for necessary masks, beds to free. Above all, there were no stocks.
“We had to quickly prepare an anti-COVID plan to be used immediately.”
But in the minutes of the first meeting of the CTS of February 7, 2020 it was stated that “the measures implemented by the Italian government […] represent, in current conditions, an adequate barrier for our country.”
Who was to take care of this “adequate embankment?”
The prosecutors of Bergamo, coordinated by the Chief Prosecutor Antonio Chiappani and by the Deputy, Maria Cristina Rota, listened to ministerial leaders, former ministers, members of the CTS, and – twice – Speranza.
Rota, on the Rai3 Report program, said: “When asked who should have done something, but also just sent a document, we were told: Who? The ministry. Almost as if there was fear in indicating a name.”
Rota calls it “a reticent attitude” and adds a detail: “WHO had asked the ministry for vigilance over the work of the prosecutor. We never wanted to poke our noses into WHO affairs but shed light on that famous report and on the pandemic plan, which is of great interest to the Bergamo prosecutor’s office in relation to the events that took place in the Alzano Lombardo hospital.”
