Vaccines averted 150,000 deaths in Italy guild tells Gemmato

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 15 - Vaccines averted 150,000 deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, the head of the national federation of medical guilds said after Health Undersecretary Marcello Gemmato appeared to question their efficacy on Tuesday.
    Gemmato disputed the fact that the pandemic would have been worse without vaccines, only to walk back his statements by saying vaccines were precious and he had been taken out of context.
    "Vaccines are fundamental: just today Premier Giorgia Meloni recalled their importance," the president of the National Federation of Medical Guilds, Filippo Anelli, said in an interview to ANSA. "According to calculations made by the Higher Health Institute (ISS), the vaccination campaign has averted 150,000 deaths in Italy.
    "The Lancet, indeed, proved that the deaths averted in the world in a year were twenty million". (ANSA).