Research refers to a common effort, to the circulation of information and ideas, to collaboration between different countries, different continents, different cultures. We verified this in the days of fighting the Covid epidemic. A global network sprung into action, soon providing large-scale protections, quickly building effective defenses, and accelerating the weakening of the virus. The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, said this at the celebration of "The Days of Research", underway at the Quirinale.
Yet today, in addition to the resources that are taken away from senseless wars and attempts to extend the military conflict to every dimension of the earth and even into space, we are faced with new material and immaterial barriers that are rising in various fields, hindering international action called to prevent and combat existing outbreaks and the risks of new pandemics. From the achievements of research and medicine, from the fight against cancer, a lesson emerges that goes beyond the confines of laboratories: the person remains at the top of the scale of social values.
Reflecting on the successes achieved, some striking contradictions of our time stand out. Research and science save human lives, in ever-increasing numbers, yet we still have to see that irrational beliefs and destructive fake news are spreading, nailing parts of the population, albeit small, in fear. Prejudicial opposition to vaccines is one of the most disconcerting symptoms: when we find ourselves faced with painful news events, with adults or children risking or even losing their lives that they could have easily defended, we feel the need to counter the work of those who try to poison opinion.
The National Health Service was created to make the right to health a full right of citizenship. Its function would be nullified if the available resources, or the offers of care, or the quality of structures and infrastructures, widened rather than narrowed inequalities. For Mattarella, the resources allocated to research - research in every field one might add - are among the most productive resources. They are the ones that make the most money.
The community of scientists, researchers, doctors and volunteers who support AIRC is an extraordinary civil resource. There are many citizens who benefit from your commitment. Sometimes we lose awareness of this, because the research takes a long time and the applications are not immediate. As soon as we think back to the road traveled in the fight against cancer, we realize how great the leap forward has been made in just a few decades. Research thinks about the future. He prepares it. He builds it. Always: after each stage, after each success. In order not to lose the meaning and value of his work, including its social value, it is useful, every now and then, to stop and remember where we started from. The Research Days derive from an intuition that united the founding scientists of AIRC just over sixty years ago. The driving idea was as simple as it was surprising to the common sense of the time: cancer can be cured. And the tool, the path, to win is research. There was even caution when pronouncing the name of the oncological disease. And when a person discovered its presence, not infrequently, he even risked having to suffer an absurd social stigma.
