Gualtiero Ricciardi, keynote speaker at this year’s virtual Europe Biobank Week, is professor of hygiene and public health at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome where he is also director of the Department of Public Health and deputy head of the Faculty of Medicine. He holds several advisory roles within EU and global decision makers. He is president of the Mission Board for Cancer of the European Commission, president elect of the World Federation of Public Health Associations, Italian representative in the Executive Board of the World Health Organization and scientific advisor to the Italian Minister of Health for the corona pandemic. Interviewed by the German Biobank Node (GBN), Gualtiero Ricciardi speaks about his view on the course of the pandemic and why raising awareness for biobanking especially in times of Corona is key.
What are your conclusions after more than half a year of fighting the pandemic?
Gualtiero Ricciardi: Countries that were affected by SARS in 2003 have spend the time since then preparing for another pandemic. China, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam - they understood that, facing COVID-19, actions had to be taken quickly and particularly aimed at containment. Also, New Zealand and Australia learnt this lesson very soon. These countries have seen minimal impact of the pandemic during the first wave, while the rest of the world paid an incredible toll. I am not speaking about the United States and Brazil which of course were biased by their administrations but Europe as well was largely unprepared. In my opinion, only Germany drew the necessary conclusions and succeeded in limiting the impact of the first wave. But when it comes to the second wave, all European countries were unprepared - and this is an absolute shame.
How do you expect the pandemic to develop over the winter and how should it be managed based on the experiences made?
Ricciardi: Most European countries were forced to go into a lockdown - maybe a bit „lighter“ than before. They lost the battle for containment and engaged in the battle for mitigation. The lockdown measures will certainly lead to a flattening of the curve, certainly not in days, but in the long run. Then it is up to us: if we relax again, we will have a third and a fourth wave. This virus is not going to disappear. It has specialised in spreading, it is quite smart and cheating us. In particular, it is cheating governments not to act sooner. They are then forced to take mitigation measures while they should have fought for containment in the first place.
What do you think about the European cooperation during the pandemic?
Ricciardi: There is a gap between the willingness of the European Commission and Commissioner to cooperate and the limitations to that imposed by the member states. The member states’ governments were rather reluctant for the Commission to play a stronger role and engaged in decision-making at national level instead. We have to find a way for the future here - European cooperation has to become quicker and more effective.
What do you think about the possible impact of a maybe soon to be available vaccine?
Ricciardi: To be honest, I would be happier if this kind of announcement would be made by regulatory agencies and not by the press. At this moment there are no official data, only media announcements, consequently high expectations and a strong impact on stock exchange. I hope of course that the promises will be kept. The earlier the vaccines are submitted for approval, the sooner it will be possible to assess this.
What are your experiences with biobanking?
Ricciardi: Scientists and researchers fully understand the relevance of biobanking. What is important now is to inform citizens about it. If you ask people on a street in Berlin what BBMRI is, they most definitely will not know. But if you ask them if they liked to have a drug for their disease, the answer certainly will be yes. It is necessary to explain to them that BBMRI is the prerequisite to get that. And we have to be clearer, we have to better explain why biobanking, why the sharing of samples and data is so important. Especially in the framework of this pandemic a more active communication strategy is key.
Are the European biobanking networks „ready“ for this pandemic?
Ricciardi: Yes but we have to build on them, get to a second phase. In the past, many European networks and infrastructures were „founded“. Now they have to be built. That means we have to intensify our efforts and demonstrate that this kind of infrastructure serves as the basis for replying to the needs of citizens.
The interview was conducted by Verena Huth.
