Roberto Burioni

Roberto Burioni (born December 10, 1962) is an Italian virologist, physician, and academic who became the most publicly prominent scientific voice against the antivaccination movement in Italy. A Professor of Microbiology and Virology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, he runs a laboratory developing human monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics against infectious agents. He holds an MD from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome and a PhD in Microbiological Sciences from the University of Genoa.

Burioni's rise to public fame began in May 2016 when he appeared on a popular Italian television talk show alongside two vaccine opponents and, given limited airtime, delivered the line: "The Earth is round, gasoline is flammable, and vaccines are safe and effective." The statement went viral on Italian social media, attracting more than five million responses, and transformed him overnight into the country's leading public face of pro-vaccine science. He was subsequently described as the "most famous virologist in Italy" and was credited with shifting national discourse on vaccination at a time when Italy faced serious measles outbreaks linked to declining vaccination rates.

In 2017, Burioni authored Il Vaccino Non È Un'Opinione (The Vaccine Is Not an Opinion), which won the Asimov Award that year. In 2018, he founded Medical Facts, a website staffed by credentialled scientists and health professionals providing evidence-based health journalism in Italian. He has been described by public health experts as having had a major impact on Italian public understanding of vaccines and science. His approach — blunt, direct, and unapologetic about scientific consensus — drew both widespread praise and significant controversy, but his influence on Italian vaccination policy debates was substantial.