19 Facts About Roberto Burioni

Roberto Burioni was born on 10 December 1962 and is an Italian virologist, physician, and academic.

Roberto Burioni attended the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Wistar Institute of the University of Pennsylvania as a visiting student in the laboratory of Hilary Koprowski and Carlo Maria Croce.

Roberto Burioni has been a visiting scientist at both the Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of California, San Diego, and at the Scripps Research Institute.

Roberto Burioni was appointed Assistant Professor at the Medical School of Rome's Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in 1995, before moving to Assistant Professor in Virology at the Medical School of the University of Ancona in 1999.

Roberto Burioni moved to the medical school at the Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan in 2004, first as an Associate Professor and later as Full Professor of Microbiology and Virology.

Roberto Burioni is an active campaigner against the antivaccination movement and rose to fame in Italy after an appearance on the TV talk show Virus in 2016, on the national TV channel Rai 2.

Roberto Burioni was left with only a few minutes in which to rebut the misinformation.

In 2017, Roberto Burioni authored the book Il vaccino non e un'opinione: Le vaccinazioni spiegate a chi proprio non le vuole capire, which won the 2017 Asimov Award, an annual award established by the Gran Sasso Science Institute of L'Aquila awarded to books of science dissemination published in Italy during the previous year.

In January 2020, an article about Roberto Burioni was published in the news section of the journal Science, which reviewed his public outreach activities and celebrated his fight against anti-vaccination movements, presenting him as the person who has fought the most for the accuracy of medical-scientific information in Italy in recent years.

Roberto Burioni is known for his matter-of-fact approach when dealing with antivaccination activists.

In June 2020, the Vaccine Confidence Project found that opposition to a COVID-19 vaccine was very low, with Roberto Burioni commenting that the antivaccination movement in Italy had nearly disappeared.

In early February 2020, Roberto Burioni commented that COVID-19 was far more dangerous than the common flu, and that due to its highly contagious nature, it was important not to underestimate it and rather to deal with it decisively.

Roberto Burioni further cited the importance of diagnosing cases as quickly as possible and isolating people who were or might get infected.

Later the same month, Roberto Burioni again emphasised the importance of self-isolation and avoiding crowded places; he said that Italy had so far been unable to limit the rapid spread of the virus.

Roberto Burioni backed the measures taken by the government COVID-19 pandemic in Italy to halt the spread of the virus, calling it an "indispensable measure".

Roberto Burioni received criticism on social media for doing this but responded saying that books on the epidemic were needed now in order to help people understand what was happening.

Roberto Burioni further suggested that anyone found to have COVID-19 should be isolated at a hotel or other facility rather than their home; he warned that, without these measures, COVID-19 could spread anew and result in having to start the lockdown all over again.

Roberto Burioni said that it was humiliating that medical and health workers had to be forced to be vaccinated and was concerned over the implications of the high number of health professionals refusing to do so.

Roberto Burioni suggested that the selection process used for obtaining a medical licence was not effective enough.