Pope Francis has said the Vatican will begin Covid-19 vaccinations next week and that he is in line to receive the shot.
The pontiff made the comments during an interview with Italy’s Canale 5 channel, set to air on Sunday night.
“It is an ethical duty to take the vaccine, here in the Vatican we will start next week, I am also in line to take it,” he said, according to a news anchor for the channel in a preview of the interview, which was released Saturday.
“When I was a child, I remember there was the polio epidemic, which left many children paralysed and we were desperately waiting for a vaccine… When the vaccine came out, we gave it with sugar,” the Pope said. “Then we grew up in the shade of the vaccines, against measles, against this, against that, the vaccines that we used to give to children”.
The Vatican has previously said that it’s “morally acceptable” for faithful to receive COVID-19 vaccines whose research used cell lines from tissue obtained from abortions. Vatican City has had at least 27 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
