“In China, a neglected outbreak can turn into a serious widespread epidemic of COVID-19 even when the vaccination campaign has begun.” These words, apparently lapidary, well summarize the heart of the study that the journal Nature Human Behavior published last June 22 and which addresses the recent escalation of local COVID-19 outbreaks in China. The article, which includes Valentina Marziano among the authors, is the result of a close collaboration between the Health Emergencies Center of the Bruno Kessler Foundation, the Fudan University (China) and the University of Indiana (USA) which stresses the need to maintain a certain level of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) even after the vaccination campaign has started. These interventions range from the control of imported cases, social distancing, the use of masks, the isolation of cases, as well as the possible closure of schools.