Etruscan Museum, director explains reasons for green pass: effective tool

On an issue that is heating up tempers more and more, that of the green pass in museums, few are exposing themselves: last Monday, August 2, the news of the resignation of Fabrizio Masucci, president and director of the Sansevero Chapel Museum in Naples, who left his post in protest against the application of the health certificate, caused quite a stir. In his view, in fact, the security measures that museums impose on the public would already be sufficient to avert the risk of contagion, plus museums should not become a tool to be used to achieve purposes unrelated to their purpose.

Among the very few who have spoken out on the matter is Valentino Nizzo, director of the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome, which, moreover, was one of the first museums to notify its public of the health pass requirement as of Aug. 6, receiving in return, however, many insults from users who resent the idea of having to show a certificate before entering a place of culture. Nizzo has openly declared himself in favor of the green pass and explained his reasons with some posts on his Facebook profile, which were much commented and shared.

“The state could make the vaccine mandatory (art. 32 constitution),” Nizzo explained, “but not right away since what we are taking are exceptional measures and even the treatments identified, although approved by all the medical bodies in charge, still have a preliminary character. Science has long times, the virus has short and lethal times, not so much for direct mortality as for the dynamics of infection, such as to congest in a few days health systems such as ours that provide care for all, without discrimination (always art. 32). Except those dictated by the lack of resuscitation stations for covid or other conditions, then yes in that case everyone’s freedom and health is at stake.”

According to Article 32 of the Constitution, “The Republic shall protect health as a fundamental right of the individual and an interest of the community, and shall guarantee free care to the indigent. No one may be obliged to a particular health treatment except by provision of law. Under no circumstances may the law violate the limits imposed by respect for the human person.” Nizzo then also evokes Articles 16 and 13: at 16, the Charter states that “Every citizen may move and reside freely in any part of the national territory, subject to such restrictions as the law may establish generally for reasons of health or security. No restriction may be determined for political reasons,” while 13 states that “Personal freedom is inviolable,” but also that “In exceptional cases of necessity and urgency, exhaustively indicated by law, the public security authority may adopt provisional measures, which must be communicated within forty-eight hours to the judicial authority and, if the latter does not validate them within the next forty-eight hours, they shall be deemed revoked and shall remain without effect.”

“No politician,” stresses the director of the National Etruscan Museum, “will ever take it upon himself to impose by law vaccines that, while effective, are still being monitored, even if new data are published every day. This is why we act on other constitutionally mandated tools such as restricting the movement and risk situations (Art. 16 and Art. 13). The regulatory tools put in place by the government are in line with the exceptional nature of the situation and have the force of law (Art. 77).” Article 77 is where it is stated that the government “may not, without delegation from the Chambers, issue decrees that have the force of ordinary law,” but also that “when, in extraordinary cases of necessity and urgency, the government adopts, under its responsibility, provisional measures with the force of law, it must on the same day present them for conversion to the Houses which, even if dissolved, are specially convened and meet within five daysWhen, in extraordinary cases of necessity and urgency, the Government adopts, under its responsibility, provisional measures with the force of law, it must on the same day present them for conversion to the Houses which, even if dissolved, are specially convened and meet within five days.”

Nizzo then goes into the merits of applying the green pass to museums, and he does so with several arguments. First, the director explains, “a vaccinated positive has a lower viral load than an unvaccinated positive, which is why the green pass is still an effective prevention tool. You can’t impose it on transportation or in certain activities for obvious (I hope) reasons, so you are trying to act by progression.” Second, “the most insidious aspect of the disease lies in its high asymptomaticity and mode of transmission. Remember last year’s talk about the virus staying on surfaces? Here it is. Imagine an asymptomatic positive in a museum. He wears a mask and is spaced out. But he touches a display case or a handrail. That handrail automatically becomes a contagion vehicle for everyone and for several days because no matter how hard we try to clean no one is perfect. So we have to prevent this possibility, and a state museum has more ethical and moral obligations than a mall or a café and can give up some ’customers’.”

“It is not easy to apply the rules and there is no shortage of internal resistance as well as instrumental difficulties related to provisions that are often extemporaneous as only an emergency can be,” Nizzo concludes. “But we represent the state and, regardless of who is chosen to govern it, we apply the rules. In the face of an epidemic, civil disobedience produces only the results the virus expects: to act parasitically on the organism and replicate as much as possible. Unfortunately, affecting even those who abide by the rules, because the virus does not discriminate against anyone, but affects everyone indiscriminately and without the knowledge of those who are infected and those who are infected.”

In the photo: Villa Giulia, home of the National Etruscan Museum

Etruscan Museum, director explains reasons for green pass: effective tool

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