Pope Francis, at the Vatican on December 8, 2020. -
Andrew Medichini / AP / SIPA
The leader of the Catholics is determined to lead by example.
Pope Francis announced on Saturday that he would be vaccinated "next week", in an interview with the Italian television channel Canale 5. He also considered that opposition to the vaccine against Covid-19 reflects "suicidal denial. ".
"Next week, we will start to do it here [at the Vatican] and I made an appointment, it must be done", he declared in this interview which is to be broadcast on Sunday evening but of which extracts have been made. been published by the channel.
Faced with the vaccine, "there is a suicidal denial that I could not explain, but today we must be vaccinated."
"I believe that from an ethical point of view everyone should be vaccinated, it is an ethical choice, because we put at risk our health, our life, but also the lives of others," he said. -he explains.
“When I was a child, I remember that there was the polio epidemic, because of which many children remained paralyzed and we were desperately waiting for a vaccine (…) When the vaccine came out we gave it with sugar, ”recalled the Argentine Pope.
"Then we grew up in the shadow of vaccines, against measles, against this, against that, vaccines that were given to children."
His doctor succumbs to Covid-19
“I don't know why someone says, 'No, the vaccine is dangerous', but if the doctors present it as something that can be good, that does not present special risks, why not do it?
Asked Pope Francis.
These statements come as the Vatican announced on Saturday the death at 78 of the Pope's personal doctor, Fabrizio Soccorsi, following “complications from Covid-19” while he was “hospitalized for a cancerous pathology”.
Fabrizio Soccorsi had been the Pope's personal physician since 2015.
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