Italy’s old pay high price for regional vaccine lottery – By Crispian Balmer, Angelo Amante (Reuters) / April 9 2021
ROME (Reuters) – Agostino Airaudo, 86, died of the coronavirus on March 21. Ninety minutes earlier he had received an SMS telling him that, after weeks of waiting, he had got an appointment for a vaccine.
FILE PHOTO: A funeral service worker looks at coffins of two victims of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during a burial ceremony in the southern town of Cisternino, Italy March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo
Ten days later, his 82-year-old wife Michela also died of the disease.
Unlike many other European countries, Italy did not give automatic precedence to its army of pensioners when it launched its inoculation campaign in December, even though they were bearing the brunt of the disease.
The failure to provide swifter protection has cost thousands of lives, experts say, and stoked anger about a fragmented health system under which regions take most of the decisions and the central government has struggled to impose a clear strategy.
