Professor Clementi reveals how coronavirus is a hundred times weaker than March

Who is  Massimo Clementi?

Massimo Clementi is a full Professor of Microbiology and Virology, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy (2001-present) Academic and institutional activity. Director of the Laboratory of Microbiology, San Raffaele Research Institute and Hospital – Faculty of Medicine, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy. Director of the Postgraduate School in Microbiology and Virology (2004-2011). Professor of Virology and Microbiology in degree courses of the Faculty of Medicine and in several postgraduate schools.

He said that Colleagues from all over the world, including Spain, tell us that they are observing exactly the same trend, which means that "the viral load of coronavirus today is a hundred times weaker than at the beginning of the month of March".

The result of the research coordinated by Massimo Clementi will be published shortly in the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. The professor also stressed that for weeks "the clinical picture has been changing and, in particular, the serious cases that we saw so much at the beginning of this pandemic are decreasing. We no longer welcome patients who must immediately enter ICU and undergo assisted breathing. "


Professor Clementi explained where these changes came from according to his laboratory found in the patients. Not to virus mutations but to the characteristic of virulence.

Virulence has several characteristics, but the main one is its ability to replicate and transmit a significant amount of viruses, with a very high viral load," after comparing the viral load of 100 patients hospitalized in the first 15 days of March ,a phase in which San Raffaele was under pressure for the large number of infections with that of another 100 monitored in late May there was "A giant surprise".

The amount of virus present in patients has decreased, compared to those hospitalized in March, in some cases "up to a hundred times less. It's an absolutely macroscopic difference.

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We contacted colleagues in the United States and Europe, including Spain. I can say that in Spain they are also observing the same trend, namely that the epidemic is in a containment phase. The interesting thing is that even in Florida, where social isolation measures have been much milder than in Spain and Italy, they are observing the same trend. Someone said that it is as if this virus has 'aged'.

Currently the new coronavirus is circulating less, that is, the viral load in circulation among the population has diminished and this is the effect of both the lockdown and the measures still in place such as use of the masks and distancing.

Don't worry, A lot of people are going to be asymptomatic, or have mild symptoms. And for those people what’s probably happening is that they’re basically controlling the virus before it gets into the lower respiratory tract.The antibodies directed against the cold viruses will not be able to do anything against this virus.Most healthy individuals have what’s called an innate immune response, which is where you don’t necessarily need to have previously seen this.