Italy Doctor Says Coronavirus Losing Potency, WHO Rejects Claim

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New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) has pushed aside an argument by an Italian doctor, claiming that new coronavirus no longer exists clinically and is losing potency.

Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at Italy`s San Raffaele Hospital in Lombardy, has also served as the personal doctor of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The doctor cited a study at San Raffaele which compared samples of COVID-19 patients admitted in March with that of those infected in May.

“The result was unambiguous: an extremely significant difference between the viral load of patients admitted in March compared to those admitted last month,” Zangrillo told Reuters.

However, WHO experts and other scientists refuted the statement on the grounds of lack of proper evidence.

“There is no data to show the new coronavirus is changing significantly, either in its form of transmission or in the severity of the disease it causes. In terms of transmissibility, that has not changed, in terms of severity, that has not changed,” WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove and other experts were quoted as saying by Reuters.

Besides, according to Zangrillo, the change could be due to unidentified characteristics of the virus in the infected patients.

“We have never said that the virus has changed, we said that the interaction between the virus and the host has definitely changed,” the doctor told the media.

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