Covid-19 in Italy: should sociology matter?

The worldwide spread of the novel Coronavirus is a major public health issue. However, it poses problems that extend beyond the simple and exclusive fields of virology and epidemiology, so that it is necessary to mobilize knowledge that also relates to other disciplinary fields. From this perspective, the way in which the Covid-19 health emergency has been dealt with in Italy, but probably also in other European countries, demonstrates the extent to which the role of sociologists of various specializations (health, science, environment, organization, economics, media, etc.) is important in the management of a problem as complex and articulated as a pandemic. In spite of this, from the outset of the spread of Covid-19, the epidemic has been presented as an exclusively virological and epidemiological issue, and the adoption of a mono-disciplinary rather than an interdisciplinary approach was the preferred approach: the in the first (and more important) months experts and, members of both the national technical-scientific committee (supporting the Government) as well as regional (supporting the Governors), were recruited almost exclusively among physicians. In any case, they were certainly not recruited among the ranks of psychologists, economists, sociologists or anthropologists. Despite this the spread of Covid-19 is not merely a viral or clinical issue but poses problems that go far beyond the strictly medical field (which clearly remains central). The choice of following a mono-disciplinary and virological approach has most likely led to a reductionist perspective, and therefore to the implementation of policies which have significantly underestimated the economic, relational, organisational and psychological aspects of the epidemic; without taking advantage of previous experiences and studies (such as those relating to policies for combating AIDS) which have demonstrated that collective wellbeing and health are not solely the responsibility of doctors, but on the contrary, are the concern of everyone.