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March 26, 2020 "We are not yet out of the emergency crisis and we must not give up, we must stay home for at least 2-3 weeks". The director general of the Italian drug agency (AIFA) Nicola Magrini said this to Radio Capital, underlining how the latest data "are good and indicate a decrease in cases and deaths, and this is of fundamental importance" but "it should not be give up". The "change of direction - said Magrini - is evident. The latest data are good and I agree with the WHO forecast of the peak within the week".

The "number of new cases, which determines the number of hospitalized people - he underlined - has been falling for 4 days, in line with forecasts, and this means that the containment measures implemented have been of fundamental importance". As for communication with respect to the new coronavirus, Magrini found that "it is true that a virus more serious than the flu virus, but it is not the terror virus that is described in some transmissions. More serious - he said - were Mers and Sars" .

"Per drug at least 2 years, promising results from monoclonal antibodies"
"The process of discovery and validation of a drug is long, at least a couple of years. Let's think about the new monoclonal discovered by the Dutch people who were mentioned last week: they will not start experimenting on humans before a year and the data there will be no definitive before 24-28 months, "says Magrini. "There are several experiments in progress of already known drugs. And perhaps the drug on which the most attention has been focused, particularly in Italy, are these monoclonal antibodies that for several days have seen several hundred patients treated with promising results, we will see to confirm them within three weeks, "he adds. Antibodies on which, Magrini points out, "we have already approved four studies. Two other studies were approved yesterday, two more are being evaluated today. They were started as quickly as possible: what was previously a month or two, today is a day or two. " The anti-Covid drug we are talking about today, however, is different from the one for rheumatoid arthritis experienced in Naples: "They are two things not comparable", say the director of AIFA, "what we are talking about today is very far from arriving, and I would say that there is no need to deal with it in detail; the other drug was already known for its safety and overall profile in another pathology ".

"Terrifying virus? Mers and Sars have been more serious"
The AIFA dg has therefore defined the coronavirus "a bad virus but not a very bad one, because Sars and Mers had a much higher mortality. This is more serious, as a profile, than seasonal flu, but it is not the virus of terror that it can be seen in some broadcasts, which outline it with end-of-the-world audio and black and white images ". The head of the Civil Protection spoke of a number of the infected 10 times higher than the known, given that for Magrini "it is reassuring, it means that the inpatients are the tip of the iceberg". What about mass swabs? "In my opinion they have more of a research value. The idea that they have a therapeutic use, except for those who have symptoms ... for me it is not necessary".