Abstract. The article questions the political and criminal liability of political decision-makers on the management of the Covid-19 pandemic on the basis of the reconstruction of the global and national anti-pandemic prevention system and of the review of each regulatory act adopted by State and Regions (with specific focus on the heavily hit Lombardy Region) in emergency phase 1. The complexity of the culpability for crimes against the person or against public safety – due to cognitive or organizational lacks and to the discretionary nature of the political decisions taken by institutional subjects – suggests the highest caution in taking the path of criminal justice to assess their possible liability.
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SUMMARY: 1. Research hypothesis. – 2. Pandemic alert. – 3. International Public Health pandemic prevention strategy. – 3.1. The WHO’s surveillance, alert and epidemiological response system. – 3.2. The WHO’s system implementation through the national pandemic preparedness and response plans. – 4. National Public Health pandemic prevention strategies. – 4.1. Obsolescence of anti-pandemic plans and discrepancies in the risk assessment between the State and the Lombardy Region. – 5. Chronicle of an epidemic. – 5.1. Belated preparation for virus containment. – 5.2. A pandemic mitigation strategy geared to the natural disaster management model. – 5.3. The Lombardy Region’s late and trudged reaction. – 6. Final considerations. Any political decision-makers’ liability?
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