Pope calls for global cooperation to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatment

Stressing that health is an international issue, he appeared to criticise so-called ‘vaccine nationalism’, which UN officials fear will worsen the pandemic if poor nations receive the vaccine last

Pope Francis chose his traditional Christmas message and blessing to urge political and business leaders to not allow market forces and patent laws to take priority over making COVID-19 vaccines available to all, condemning nationalism and “the virus of radical individualism”.

Due to the pandemic, the Pope delivered this annual message virtually from a lectern inside the Vatican instead of from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. Italy is under a nationwide lockdown for much of the Christmas and New Year holiday period, and people are not allowed to go to St. Peter’s Square or the basilica for papal events, all of which have been moved indoors this year.

“At this moment in history, marked by the ecological crisis and grave economic and social imbalances only worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, it is all the more important for us to acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters,” he said.

Stressing that health is an international issue, he appeared to criticise so-called ‘vaccine nationalism’, which UN officials fear will worsen the pandemic if poor nations receive the vaccine last.

“I beg everyone, heads of state, companies and international organisations to promote cooperation and not competition, to find a solution for everyone – vaccines for all – especially for the most vulnerable and needy in all areas of the planet,” he said.

“The most vulnerable and needy must be first,” he said, in the Vatican’s Hall of the Benedictions, with only about 50 Vatican staff wearing masks sitting along the long walls.

“We can’t put ourselves before others, putting market forces and patent laws before the laws of love and the health of humanity,” he said. “We cannot let closed nationalisms block us from living like the true human family that we are.”

The Pope also appeared to criticise people who have refused to wear masks because it violates their freedom, an attitude that has become widespread in nations such as the United States.

“And neither can we allow the virus of radical individualism to triumph over us and make us indifferent to the suffering of other brothers and sisters,” he said.

(With edits by Team EH)