VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Saturday he plans to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as early as next week and has encouraged everyone to get a chance to protect not only their own lives but also those of others.
“I believe that ethically everyone should take the vaccine,” the pope said in an interview with TV station Canale 5. “It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but also with the lives of others.”
Vatican City, the smallest independent country in the world, with about 450 people, including Pope Francis, said it would soon launch its own vaccination campaign against the coronavirus.
‘Next week,’ the pope said, ‘we will start doing it here in the Vatican, and I discussed myself. It has to be done. ‘
Pope Francis, 84, had part of one lung removed during an illness when he was a young man in his native Argentina, which made him potentially vulnerable to the disease.
Vatican City said last week that it was expected to receive enough COVID-19 vaccine doses in the next few days to vaccinate all of its residents and workers living outside its walls in Rome.
As part of the vaccination plan, the Vatican said it had purchased an ice-cold refrigerator to store doses, indicating that it would use the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which is at about 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit). ) must be saved.
As excerpts from the interview were announced, Vatican News’ official website reported that the pope’s personal doctor, Fabrizio Soccorsi, had died of complications due to COVID-19.
Soccorsi, 78, was hospitalized and treated for cancer. He has been the pope’s doctor since 2015.
Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Written by Giulio Piovaccari; Edited by Peter Graff and Chizu Nomiyama