ROME - Almost three months since the start of vaccinations in Italy, it is still a lottery, with every region adopting different criteria for those deserving of doses, and many regions still facing continuous setbacks.

  There are regions such as Emilia Romagna who have already finished with the vaccines for all those living in residential care homes, while regions such as Calabria are still vaccinating teachers and law enforcement.

  Prime Minister Mario Draghi said about the campaign, “We are going strong at a national level, but the regions are very inconsistent, some are nearing 25 percent [vaccinated], while others are at 5 percent.”

  There is a huge disparity in the proportion of delivered vaccines that have so far been administered, from 92.6 percent in Valle d’Aosta to 71.5 percent in Sardinia, and many have noted that the least efficient regions, in this regard, are those governed by right wing parties. Veneto, Lombardy, Calabria, Liguria and Basilicata, the five least efficient regions after Sardinia, are all governed by right or centre-right parties.

  Epidemiologist Roberta Siliquini said, “these diverse vaccination numbers on the basis of the region is a scandal of which the scope perhaps escapes us.” A scandal “because the vaccine is a health service that is essential, that by law should be guaranteed in equal measure to every citizen.”

  The problem, she continued, is that “we have 20 different booking systems, either with your GP, or in a pharmacy, or online, or through the ASL. It isn’t a surprise if we don’t know who is vaccinated and who isn’t.” We need a “change of pace,” she argued, such as “one national platform that allows for the vaccinations in the right order.”

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