Thread by @chicoharlan

Italy recorded 627 covid deaths yesterday, a stunning number for a country 3+ months into its vaccination campaign. Then, another 487 today. Part of the reason? It has been giving too many doses to the wrong people, leaving the elderly still vulnerable. wapo.st/3uCThP5

Italy’s death rate is no different than it was on “V-Day,” Dec 27. There are many different factors. At this point, it’s a race between variant and vaccine. Lockdowns are also part of the equation. But let’s just take a closer look at vaccine factor...

Incredibly, Italy has given nearly as many doses to people in their 30s as people in their 70s. (Even though 26,000 people in their 70s have died of covid in Italy, compared with 205 in their 30s.)

And these aren’t just young front-line workers. Italy, according to its own data, has given several hundred thousand doses to people in their 20s and 30s who are neither teachers, law enforcement nor HC workers. They are simply categorized as: “Other.”

Given the lag between infections and deaths, Italy is also paying for its mistakes of February, when it was methodically vaccinating health care workers — those on the front line and not — while leaving the 80s to wait.

Italy is now racing to catch up. Among EU members, it’s gone from back-of-the-pack to middle-of-the-pack in its coverage of the 80+ crowd. But it’s those elderly people, exposed and then infected in March, who are dying now.