Rome – Both Pope Francis and the retired Pope Benedict received the first doses of coronavirus vaccine, the Vatican confirmed Thursday. The pontiff and his predecessor received the first half of their vaccinations as part of a campaign launched Wednesday for Vatican residents and employees.
Pope Francis is 84 years old, and Pope Emeritus Benedict is 93 years old, so only their age puts them both at increased risk of complications from the virus. In addition, at the age of 21, Francis had part of his lung removed due to a recurrent lung infection. He spent months in a hospital, unsure if he would live or die.
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“I have some sense of how people with coronavirus feel as they struggle to breathe on fans,” he said. wrote recently, remembering his health crisis more than half a century ago.
Francis has been a strong supporter of COVID-19 vaccinations, considering that the refusal of inoculation is ethically unacceptable.
“You play with your health, with your life, but you also play with the lives of others,” he said in a recent interview with Italian broadcaster Canale 5. He said “anti-vaxxers” live in an inexplicable “suicidal” denial. . “
The Vatican’s doctrinal bureau in December said it was “morally acceptable” for Catholics to have a coronavirus vaccine, even if it was developed using cell lines from aborted fetuses.
However, the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference said that although all three major vaccines – by Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford / AstraZeneca – had a “very distant” connection to aborted fetal stem cells, the AstraZeneca vaccine was ” more moral ”compromise,“ and thus “should be avoided if alternatives are available”.
It is believed that Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict both received the Pfizer vaccine. In December, the head of the Vatican’s health service said the small city-state would launch its Pfizer vaccination program.
Francis was a strong man advocates for a fair and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines from around the world, especially for those most in need.
The Vatican’s immunization program includes Vatican City residents, employees and their families.
The Vatican has had less than 30 cases of COVID-19, including some in the same residence of the hotel where Pope Francis lives. However, most of the cases were among members of the Swiss Guard, who live in communal barracks.