Pope Francis knocks anti-vax misinformation

AFP – Pope Francis On  Monday, January 9 urged the international community to “continue efforts” to vaccinate the population and to combat the spread of “baseless news” about the coronavirus.

“It is important that efforts continue to immunize the population as much as possible. This requires a multiple commitment at the personal, political level and from the international community as a whole ”, assured the pontiff in his traditional speech at the beginning of the year to the diplomatic corps.

The pope also condemned the spread of “unfounded news” and invited everyone to impose “a real cure” for the coronavirus pandemic.

“Unfortunately, more and more we see how we live in a world of strong ideological contrasts. Many times we allow ourselves to be influenced by the ideology of the moment, often based on unfounded news or poorly documented facts, “he told ambassadors and representatives of the 183 countries accredited to the Holy See.

“The pandemic imposes a kind of ‘reality cure’ on us, which requires facing the problem and adopting the appropriate remedies to solve it,” the pontiff warned.

“Vaccines are not magic instruments of cure, but they certainly represent, together with the treatments that are being developed, the most reasonable solution for the prevention of the disease,” he explained.

The 85-year-old Argentine pontiff has spoken out on numerous occasions in favor of vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 and again asked: “that monopoly rules do not constitute further obstacles to production and to organized and coherent access to treatments worldwide ”.