“I would have never thought of finding myself in the middle of such a difficult situation. I work as a doctor, and a doctor usually looks for solutions. If one can be useful and obtain results at a given moment and in some circumstances, then one can be satisfied with their job”. The solution, according to Paolo Ascierto, oncologist and researcher at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori Pascale in Naples, is Tocilizumab, a medication that is still being tested. It is used in the fight against the Covid-19 and, during the worst phase of the pandemic, it represented a concrete hope of recovering. This is why Ascierto has soon become one of the symbols of the emergency, a reference point for a way of experimentation that has given important results. Paolo Ascierto has taken part in Giffoni Impact and has been awarded the Prize Giffoni50 by Claudio Gubitosi, the director, and Pietro Rinaldi, the president of Ente Autonomo Giffoni. “A prize - Gubitosi said - that we give to good people that do some good. We trust you, Dr Ascierto, and we rely on you. Such a good example helps make society more human. Just as Giffoni aims to do”.
“When we first thought of using the medication - the oncologist continues - we have discussed this with the Chinese. We chose them because they had more experience than us, and because we already cooperate with different Chinese realities. Now, this kind of cultural exchange is also here in Giffoni. It’s thanks to exchange that ideas can be improved. The Chinese told us that they had been using the same treatment and with good results. This verification with the Chinese gave us an extra boost. The pharmaceutical company producing the medication did the rest, because it made available four thousand treatments for free. That’s no small thing”.
Ascierto makes no secret of the emotions he felt in such hard days as those ones: “The studies we carried out say that Tocilizumab works better on patients who are not intubated. We had to decide who to give it to. It happened that we had a small number of vials. For instance, we treated a guy born in ‘93 and we have had good results. It is not true that Covid infects only old people. There was a phase when the hospitalised patients were all born between 1955 and 1966, they were all in intensive care and they all suffered from hypertension. We understood that the virus does not respect anyone in particular. Today, it is much more likely to affect young people. The average age of the people currently infected is around thirty years old”.
Young people, Giffoni’s beating heart, are vital to Ascierto’s research: “I’m happy, grateful and honoured - he said - to be here. I’ve known Giffoni very well. I have a team of young people, I trained them. We are about thirty people and every day we do research. We discuss every day.Young people give you satisfaction and move forward with determination. We have published more than three hundred international works. This is the result of all the work we did together. To you in Giffoni I want to say that when there’s passion and determination the results will eventually come. After the lockdown - the oncologist concluded - we have had three openings: May 4th, May 18th and July 3rd. All things considered, we have understood that we could coexist with the virus, with masks and social distancing. Giffoni made sacrifices too but it made it, it didn’t stop and now it’s happening, interesting and formative as usual”.
