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news
Pippo Pozzato 'wins' 2013 Roma Maxima (picture Gian Mattia d'Alberto, LaPresse, RCS Sport)"Don't mess with fire, I burned myself": Unvaccinated Filippo Pozzato hospitalised with severe pneumonia after catching Covid
Former Italian pro Filippo Pozzato is in hospital being treated for severe pneumonia after contracting Covid two weeks ago. Pozzato, who won Milan-San Remo, two stages of the Tour de France and a stage of the Giro d'Italia during his 19-year career, said Covid is not "bullshit" and called himself an "idiot" for being unvaccinated.
The 40-year-old fell ill on October 22 and his condition deteriorated earlier this week, causing him to be treated at San Bortolo hospital in Vincenza. Pozzato has been given oxygen, but is not yet on a ventilator.
"I have severe pneumonia. I am attached to oxygen to open my bronchi, but if I get worse they will put the mask on me," he told Tuttobici. "I started to feel bad with a bit of a fever: 37 and a half, then 38. I immediately do the swab, it's Covid. Then I was 39 and a half for almost 10 days.
"Three days ago, my fever went away, but my oxygen saturation plummeted, I went down to 87, then 86, I had oxygen tanks at home, it went to 83, I couldn't even stand up and they brought me here."
Pozzato had not been vaccinated and was due to receive his first dose on October 25, but tested positive in the days before. He said he had been an "idiot" for thinking he was strong enough to not need the vaccine.
"Why hadn't I been vaccinated before? Because I have always felt strong, I have been among people who had Covid and nothing had ever happened. I was an idiot, and I have taken a good beating," he continued.
"Everyone says that Covid looks like bullshit, but when you take it you understand that it is not at all. I hope to get over this very bad moment as soon as possible. Guys, don't mess with fire, I've already burned myself."
Back in January, fellow Italian pro Riccardo Riccò, who is serving a lifetime ban and was chucked out of the 2008 Tour de France for testing positive for an EPO variant, said he would not be getting the "who knows what shit" vaccine, during a rant about talk of mandatory vaccines.
Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.
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21 comments
Isn't this site willing and/or able to delete obvious Grade A anti-vax nutters? I admit that it's very easy to just ignore his entries as I ignore The Usual Idiot but allowing bog-standard Trumpian Flat-Earth Evolution denying Anti-Vax dimwits to take up so much space ought to be embarrassing.
Sorry for not spotting this sooner. Our general feelings are that when it comes to health matters/global pandemics then we're only happy with comments that quote facts and figures from recognised sources such as the NHS and WHO websites. If you disagree with what they say then that's fine, but you 'think' something rather than you 'know' otherwise we'll delete the comment.
Thanks Jack. Not sure its reasonably to expect someone hawk eyed to spot it over the weekend - but thanks for the monday morning tidy up.
Excellent! A firm application of NutterGone seems to have done the trick.
All the best, hope you make a safe recovery!
Everyone makes bad choices, it takes bravery to own up. Thanks for using your platform for good.
Is there a word for a feeling beyond schadenfreude, where you are so tired of peoples shit that you can't even take any joy out of their stupidity?
Look forward to all those on here who say that fit normal weight individuals have nowt to worry about explaining this one...
Clearly he must have put on weight since he retired. The only possible explanation.
Oh my. I need to buy popcorn.
To bulk up?
Thing is, élite athletes are quite vulnerable to illness. They aren't really "healthy" individuals. They've pushed their bodies to extremes and cyclists, in particular, to quite unhealthy extremes.
That's a relief, I'll no longer worry about reducing my weight as it seems to be unhealthy. I'll just accept being slower up the hills.
Being serious for a moment, you are right that obesity is a major risk factor with covid, and, of course, for multiple other conditions.
Where you have been consistently wrong, however, is in that thinking that fat-shaming in any way helps address this, when the reality is the complete opposite.
Isn't asthma also a major problem with Covid?
To my mind, we'd be better off focussing on improving the UK's air quality to reduce the incidents of asthma (which would be sensible with or without covid). Maybe a renewed focus on building infrastructure for active travel could drastically reduce the number of people driving for short journeys and thus reduce air pollution on busy streets.
Also, by encouraging active travel, maybe some people would improve fitness, health and even reduce obesity?
Surely us asthmatics should just take some personal responsibility, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and start breathing more determinedly?
Have you tried being richer and moving somewhere greener?
Absolutely. I'm not asthmatic and never have been so I don't see why anybody else should be, why can't you people take a leaf out of my book?
No, you should immediately apply for a TUE and get on the drugs!
Possibly. Alternatively, we could just blame the cyclist in any incident where they are endangered by a motorist and shout "oi fatty, who ate all the pies" at anyone with a BMI over 25.
It's a toss up, really.
Also the curve for death (and admission) is J shaped and those with a low but still "healthy" BMI actually have an increased risk of death vs some of those classified as overweight, but that does not fit with the narrative being pushed here.
Absolutely a key public health priority should be to tackle obesity. However, I haven't seen a single post from you with any constructive suggestions on how to do that, quite the opposite in fact.