Italy fears mob has infiltrated vaccination campaign

ROME — The Italian mafia is diverting vaccines away from those who need them the most, lawmakers fear.

With Italy struggling to get its faltering vaccination campaign on track, the parliament’s anti-mafia commission is investigating whether crime syndicates are redirecting vaccines to their friends at the expense of the elderly and vulnerable, particularly in the south where they often exert control over health authorities.

The continuing increase in COVID-19 deaths in Italy, as the rate has slowed dramatically in neighboring countries, has led some, including Prime Minister Mario Draghi, to blame younger people for jumping the queue to get vaccinated.

At a press conference on Thursday night, Draghi said: “With what conscience does someone jump the queue, knowing that it leaves another person vulnerable, who is more than 65 years old or is fragile, and who has a concrete risk of death?”

The Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) think tank estimates that 8,000 lives in Italy could have been saved since January if vaccines had been more focused on the elderly.

But there are growing concerns that the mob is using its power to get people vaccinated ahead of time. The number of health care workers — part of the first wave of those to be vaccinated — has grown suspiciously large, particularly in regions such as Puglia. Administrators, communications consultants and even builders working on health sites have been given their jabs after being added to the priority list.

And a loose interpretation of Health Ministry guidelines permitted Italy’s 20 regions, which are in charge of health care, to allocate jabs to well-connected individuals and groups such as politicians, lawyers, judges and journalists. Three southern regions — Sicily, Calabria and Campania — have given out as many or more of these priority doses as they have to people aged over 80.

At least 1,000 suspected queue-jumpers are under investigation by various police forces and prosecutors in Italy, including 150 in Palermo alone. The mayor of Corleone in Sicily resigned after he was accused of abusing his position to get vaccines for himself and his councilors.

This has prompted the anti-mafia parliamentary commission to demand the names of those vaccinated. Mario Giarrusso, a member of the commission and long-standing anti-mafia campaigner, told POLITICO it had solicited lists of names from several southern regions with suspicious numbers.

He said: “People are being vaccinated who are outside of any priority category specified by the government, particularly in some regions where there is high density of mafia, and we suspect that the mafia is managing the vaccinations.”

In regions such as Calabria, authorities have frequently been put under the control of central government because of mafia infiltration, Giarrusso noted.

But even in areas where the mafia exert far less influence, the vaccine rollout has failed to prioritize older citizens, experts say.  

Members of the military and prison inmates have been given priority status, as well as more than 1 million school and university workers, even though most teaching has moved online. 

According to Matteo Villa, a researcher at the ISPI think tank, the reason for the wider failure in the government’s strategy is a lack of clear guidelines.

Like other countries, Italy prioritized those over 80, care home workers and health care workers. But under pressure to be a leader in the vaccination race, Italy gave jabs to healthcare workers at a much faster rate than to the over-80s. “All healthcare workers were vaccinated by the end of January. But it did that at the cost of the elderly, ” said Villa.

At the end of January, seven out of 10 vaccines had gone to under-60-year-olds. And by March 31, Italy was well behind the EU objective of 80 percent of over 80-year-olds having received at least a single dose.

Even now, more under-60 year-olds have been vaccinated than over-80s, according to official figures.

Draghi on Thursday complained that the number of health workers was continually growing and ordered the focus to be put on the elderly.

“We need to vaccinate as a priority all people aged over 70,” he said.

Draghi has appointed Francesco Figliuolo, an army general and logistics expert, to get the vaccine rollout back on track. But with Italy recording 718 coronavirus deaths on Friday, the largest daily increase since December, it continues to count the cost in lives.

Giarrusso, the anti-mafia senator, vowed to tackle the mobsters. “We need to verify who has jumped the queue. These people are taking the vaccine away from those whose lives are at risk.”

This article is part of POLITICO’s premium policy service: Pro Health Care. From drug pricing, EMA, vaccines, pharma and more, our specialized journalists keep you on top of the topics driving the health care policy agenda. Email [email protected] for a complimentary trial.