Row over expert's TV appearances in COVID probe

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 5 - A lawyer representing Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana on Sunday called on Bergamo prosecutors to halt the media appearances of an expert consultant in relation to their probe into allegedly criminal conduct in the handling of the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.
    Fontana is among 19 people under investigation, along with ex-premier Giuseppe Conte and former health minister Roberto Speranza, over the failure to make Nembro and Alzano Lombardo red zones early in 2020 as the authorities had done in other contagion hotspots in the province of Lodi.
    A Bergamo prosecutor has said that over 4,000 COVID-19 deaths could have been saved by declaring these towns red zones.
    On Sunday the expert, top microbiologist Andrea Crisanti, told Rai television that he believed serious misjudgements had been made in the early days of the pandemic.
    "If you say that we are all exonerated, I think it would open the path to a situation of unpreparedness next time," Crisanti said.
    "Closing your eyes to a disaster means opening the road to another disaster".
    Jacopo Pensa, one of Fontana's lawyers, said the defence team was "astounded" to see Crisanti "on television on a daily basis to reiterate his accusations.
    "The Bergamo prosecutor's office must warn its consultant about these insistent appearances," he added. (ANSA).