While men and women of all ages struggled between life and death supine on the beds of the intensive care unit, attached to a ventilator, he stood on the other side of the glass, outside the ward, and filmed empty corridors. While thousands of Treviso families were mourning grandparents or parents killed by the virus, he posted that video made with his mobile phone to say that Covid was all an invention.
Today, 46-year-old Francesco Fella, a convinced denier and author of the surreal video almost four years ago, will have to answer for this before the judge: he will appear in court on 8 July, accused of defamation, trespass and illicit interference in private life . Ulss 2 reported it after the publication of the “report” in November 2020, in the midst of the second, very violent wave of the pandemic, with healthcare personnel engaged in a huge effort to cope with the growing wave of hospitalizations.
VIDEO
«Zero emergency, zero panic»: this is what Fella said in the video, however filming the Ca’ Foncello emergency room and the outside of the intensive care unit, a department to which, for obvious health reasons, he had not been allowed to access. The video had gone viral on social media, had reached thousands of users and in its own way contributed to the spread of a denialist sentiment which in the Marche, in the following months, would also be evident in the crowded street protests of the No vax galaxy. That November day, however, more than someone had cried foul, starting with those who, in intensive care, had actually ended up there due to Covid, coming out alive but bringing with them very painful memories – as well as physical problems – which not even time would never fully heal.
THE RESPONSE OF THE USSR
The general director of the health company, Francesco Benazzi, immediately intervened at the time to respond to the fake news contained in Fella’s video. And he did it, together with the healthcare staff, with another video, made inside the real intensive care unit, in which the real situation of the department was shown. Which was what everyone was talking about: intubated patients, all the beds occupied, superhuman efforts on the part of the healthcare staff. The Ulss followed up the video with a defamation complaint against the man. “We cannot accept, that video is an offense to the suffering of our patients and to the commitment of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers” Benazzi said at the time. Now the ball is in the court of justice: the trial will begin on July 8th. The man is defended by the Treviso lawyer Helga Lopresti.
