Pope Francis confirmed in an interview with an Italian broadcaster that he is committed to receiving the anti-COVID vaccine when the Vatican starts its vaccination program next week.
In an interview with the Italian television channel Canale 5, the pontiff also said that everyone should get the vaccine, calling it an “ethical option, because you are playing with your health, with life, but also with the lives of others” .
Excerpts from the press conference were released by Mediaset on Saturday, the day before the scheduled air date.
It is the first confirmation that the 84-year-old pope who lost part of a lung will receive the vaccine, although the Vatican has already announced that it will begin administering the vaccines later this month.
“Next week, we will start doing here [in the Vatican] and I already made an appointment, it has to be done “, he said in the interview, which should be broadcast on Sunday night.
“When I was a child, I remember that there was a polio epidemic, which left many children paralyzed and we were desperately waiting for a vaccine … When the vaccine came out, we administered it with sugar,” said the Pope. “Then we grew up in the shadow of vaccines, against measles, against this, against that, the vaccines that we gave children”.
The Vatican said earlier that it is “morally acceptable” for believers to receive COVID-19 vaccines whose research has used tissue cell lines obtained from abortions. Vatican City has had at least 27 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
“I don’t know why someone says, ‘No, the vaccine is dangerous’, but if doctors present it as something that can be good, that it poses no particular risk, why not do it,” he added.