A potential coronavirus vaccine should be made available to all, Pope Francis said at the general audience Aug. 19.
“It would be sad if, for the vaccine for COVID-19, priority were to be given to the richest! It would be sad if this vaccine were to become the property of this nation or another, rather than universal and for all,” Pope Francis said on August 19.
The Pope’s comments followed a warning by the head of the World Health Organization that some countries may hoard vaccines. Speaking in Geneva on August 18, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed to world leaders to avoid what he called “vaccine nationalism.”
In his address, the Pope also said it would be a “scandal” if public money were used to bail out industries “that do not contribute to the inclusion of the excluded, the promotion of the least, the common good, or the care of creation.”