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Audio Interview

The impact of asymptomatic infections: the Italian municipality of Vo’ as a case study

Published on March 15, 2021   13 min

Other Talks in the Playlist: Interviews on Covid-19

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Interviewer: Professor Andrea Crisanti, thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview with us today, to discuss your recent findings which emerged from your study of viral transmission over a period of time within the Italian municipality of Vo at the start of the pandemic last year. First of all, could you provide us with some background to the research you published in the journal, Nature, presenting new insights into the incidence of asymptomatic infections within the local COVID outbreak. What was the initial rationale for the research? Prof. Crisanti: Well, first of all, I have to say that, while I was traveling to Australia, I heard the news that we had a case of COVID in Veneto. This is one of the administrative districts of Italy, many of you may be familiar because it's the place where Venice is. The news was that, not only that person was infected, but soon emerged that many other people were infected. What happened, the Italian government and the local authority imposed a lock down on the city where this person was coming from. At the same time, the regional authority took an unprecedent decision. They decided that everybody in the community had to be tested with the pharyngeal swab to search for infected individuals, thereby, creating a unique epidemiological situation because never has happened that at the beginning of an epidemic, an entire village was sealed, so nobody could come out and nobody could come in. So without any confounding factor, everybody was tested.
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The impact of asymptomatic infections: the Italian municipality of Vo’ as a case study

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