ROME – Pope Francis said he would be vaccinated against the coronavirus as early as next week, calling it an ethical obligation that saves lives and the refusal to make him suicidal, according to statements made on Italian television news.
He also said that the attack on the United States Capitol surprised him and should be condemned.
In an interview with the TG5 news, due to air on Sunday night, Francis asked everyone to get the vaccine. A transcript of the pope’s statements on vaccination, which was not immediately confirmed by the Vatican, was provided by Fabio Luca Marchese Ragona, the Vatican TG5 reporter who conducted the interview.
“It is an ethical choice, because you are playing with health, with life, but also with the lives of others,” Francis told the station. “I subscribed. You have to do this. “
According to the transcript, the pope added: “I don’t understand why some say, ‘No, vaccines are dangerous.’ If it is presented by doctors as something that can go well, that has no special dangers, why not take it? There is a suicidal denial that I could not explain. “
Francisco is sometimes criticized for not wearing a mask during the pandemic, and some have expressed concern that world leaders and other participants in papal hearings may be putting him or themselves in danger.
The Vatican insisted that social distance measures and tests are used to maintain security, although some prelates, including cardinals, tested positive for the virus within days of interacting with Francisco.
The virus forced Francisco, who is excited about the trips, to stay home for much of last year, and the Vatican had to cancel or severely limit even its most important celebrations. In presiding over ceremonies in front of a vast and empty St. Peter’s Square, the pope underlined not only the way the virus changed people’s daily lives, but also the life of the church.
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Answers to your vaccine questions
While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, most are likely to put medical professionals and residents of long-term care institutions first. If you want to understand how this decision is being made, this article will help you.
Life will only return to normal when society as a whole obtains sufficient protection against the coronavirus. Once countries authorize a vaccine, they will only be able to vaccinate a few percent of their citizens, at most, within the first two months. The unvaccinated majority will still remain vulnerable to infection. An increasing number of vaccines against coronavirus are showing robust protection against disease. But it is also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they are infected, because they have only mild symptoms or none at all. Scientists still do not know whether vaccines also block coronavirus transmission. For now, even vaccinated people will need to wear masks, avoid crowds indoors and so on. Once enough people are vaccinated, it will be very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people to infect. Depending on how quickly we, as a society, achieve this goal, life may begin to approach something normal in the fall of 2021.
Yes, but not forever. The two vaccines that will potentially be authorized this month clearly protect people from getting sick with Covid-19. But the clinical tests that provided these results were not designed to determine whether vaccinated people could still spread the coronavirus without developing symptoms. This remains a possibility. We know that people naturally infected with the coronavirus can transmit it as long as they have no cough or other symptoms. Researchers will be studying this issue intensively as vaccines are launched. In the meantime, even vaccinated people will need to consider possible spreaders.
The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is given as an injection into the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection will not be different from the one you took before. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines and none have reported serious health problems. But some of them experienced short-term discomfort, including pain and flu symptoms that usually last for a day. People may need to plan a day off from work or school after the second injection. Although these experiences are not pleasant, they are a good sign: they are the result of your own immune system facing the vaccine and developing a potent response that will provide lasting immunity.
No. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use a genetic molecule to prepare the immune system. This molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse with a cell, allowing the molecule to slide inward. The cell uses mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. At any given time, each of our cells can contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules, which they produce to make their own proteins. After these proteins are produced, our cells fragment the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules that our cells make can survive just a matter of minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is designed to resist the cell’s enzymes a little more, so that cells can produce extra proteins from the virus and stimulate a stronger immune response. But mRNA can only last a few days at most, before it is destroyed.
Images of some of the pope’s statements were made public in a clip promoting the interview, including his reaction to the invasion of the United States Capitol on Wednesday by a crowd that supported President Trump.
“I was amazed,” said Francis, “because people are so disciplined in democracy, aren’t they?” But even in a mature society, he added, there is always “something that is not right, something with people who follow a path against the community, against democracy, against the common good”.
“This movement must be condemned, regardless of the people,” said the pope, clarifying that he referred to the violence. “Violence is always like that, isn’t it?”
He said that all societies were affected by violence over time and that people must learn from history so that the seeds of discontent are understood. “We must understand well, not repeat. To learn from history, ”said Francis. “Those disobedient groups that are not well integrated into society, sooner or later” will turn to violence.
In the interview transcript, Francis also reflected on his own experience with vaccines, recalling a polio crisis when he was a child who drove mothers to despair to find a vaccine.
“We grew up in the shadow of vaccines, measles, vaccines they gave us as children,” he added.
In his message “Urbi et Orbi” on Christmas Day, Francis asked for “vaccines for everyone”, especially the most vulnerable people in the world.
“Today, in this moment of darkness and uncertainty because of the pandemic, different lights of hope appear,” he said in his Christmas address, “like the discovery of vaccines.”