ROM – As Dr. Mario Sorlini puts patients in a vaccination center near the badly affected Italian city of Bergamo, explaining a possible complication of the coronavirus vaccine.
The second dose, he tells patients with horrified faces, will fall on a date during the summer vacation.
“‘But then I’ll be in Sardinia,'” he said, saying that some had responded with distress. Others moan about hotel rooms that they have already booked. Some, he said, get up and leave.
For months, Italians have been starving for vaccines that will give them security, freedom from lockdown and a taste of normal life. After initial pitfalls and hurdles, the vaccination campaign is finally accelerating, but it is entering the summer vacation, sacred to many Italians, and fears among officials that a significant number would rather get away than get vaccinated.
“I am sure that after such a tough year many will take the risk of delaying the vaccine,” said Renata Tosi, the mayor of Riccione, a beach town so identified with summer flights that she gave her name a new holiday anthem . This could pose a significant threat next fall, Ms. Tosi wrote in an open letter to the president of the region.
“The second shot blocks holidays,” read a headline in Messaggero Veneto, a newspaper in northeastern Italy, which raised concerns in newspapers, websites and social media accounts across the country.
An estimated 20 million Italians – mostly 40 and 50-year-olds – face the prospect of getting their second shots in mid-July or worse, in the flood of Italian August that draws people from cities to swelling coastal towns.
To avoid a potentially catastrophic summer freeze in the vaccination campaign and more economic troubles, the Italian regions are calling on the government to meet vacationers where they are and offer shots on the beach.
“We want to give tourists who do not come from Veneto the second dose,” Luca Zaia, the president of this region, which also includes Venice, told reporters. “And even foreigners, if they want, we can find a solution for them.” . “He has charged the government with pressure on the government to be more flexible in order to save the tourism season and loosen the rigid regional health system so that Italians in sun and surf regions far from home can be vaccinated.
Others are working on contingency plans. In Lombardy, another region in the north where the former health officer lost his job last year after refusing to recall nurses from the Christmas vacation, his successor has tried to avoid planning second doses in August.
The president of the mountainous region of Piedmont in the north-west has promised flexibility and proposed an agreement with the coastal region of Liguria that should allow their vacationers to exchange second doses.
Italy’s new government, led by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, prides itself on pragmatism and is desperate to get the tourism industry going. Mr Draghi recently announced that Italy would lift quarantines and restrictions on vaccinated international tourists, telling them, “It is time to book your vacation in Italy.”
Island paradises like Capri, preferred by many foreigners, have accelerated their vaccination campaigns and are now considered Covid-free. But when it comes to Italians who are still vaccinated during the summer months, the government has tried to strike a balance between being open to innovative ideas and scolding Italians for their spring and summer fever.
Updated
May 20, 2021, 9:17 p.m. ET
“When we do fancy flights and inventions, I’m not there,” said Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, an army general in charge of Italy’s vaccination efforts, on Tuesday, trying to throw cold water on the governors’ plans to vaccinate Italians where to go.
Such a policy would most likely disrupt rigid regional databases and the orderly process that has finally begun to lower deaths and contagions. Italians, the general said, should plan their vacations around the vaccination appointment near their home. “If you go on vacation, you should plan according to your appointment,” he said.
Massimiliano Fedriga, president of the Italian regional conference, also described the idea of vaccinating vacationing Italians as impossible.
“I hope everyone can see that there are millions and billions of tourists arriving in some places,” he told reporters. “And that it is technically impossible.”
He suggested leaving the vacation for a day and then going back.
But that is perhaps easier said than done, and many have complained that the government is responsible for changing reservations and creating confusion. To increase the number of Italians with some protection against the virus, on April 30, Italy allowed the waiting time between the first and second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to be extended from 21 to 42 days. Italians who received the AstraZeneca vaccine have to wait even longer between admissions, with those now receiving the first dose often coinciding the follow-up with the August Abyss.
The result has been a serious dilemma for Italians who have already planned their summer vacation and are weighing lost deposits against losing their vaccination slots.
Even in a normal year, summer holidays in Italy are a serious issue. For a certain, well-heeled section of society, summer plans, often a month away from work, are all they talk about, starting around March.
This year, people have sought vacations with such vengeance that tourism companies are using the term “vengeance trip” to describe how Italians are trying to cope with the gruesome months of lockdown as well. Surfing for vacation homes has become the new doom scrolling.
This week in Italy, Italians talked about how “holidays are sacred” and how the siren call of a vaccination wasn’t strong enough to keep them off the course of Sicily.
The less-at-risk 30- and 20-year-olds in the next category eligible for vaccination are even less likely to stay home during the summer.
Ms Tosi, the mayor of Riccione, said in her letter that she had received many appeals from people who received their first cans in Milan to take their second shots in their coastal city.
“We really want to answer” yes “and show that the country has the flexibility to fight the virus and save the summer.” We have to give citizens the opportunity to end their vaccination prices in vacation spots. “
Dr. Sorlini in Albino near Bergamo said that most of his patients accepted the summer follow-up appointment for the time being, but many asked, “Can I do this on the beach?”
He said he expects at least 10 people a day to give up their August dates for second shots, which means he will struggle not to waste those cans.
Ciro Mautone, 58, a security guard at Camponeschi, a café popular during the Rome holidays, said he selected Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine, which does not require a second shot in order not to partially interrupt a possible vacation.
But he said that after the brutal year that his work was impacted by company closings, he focused on making up for lost income rather than fretting about canceling a vacation.
“I wish I had this problem,” he said.
Emma Bubola and Gaia Pianigiani contributed to the coverage.
