Vatican letter: Francis strongly condemns those who “accumulate vaccines”

ROMA.- The dad Francisco, which more than once demanded access to vaccines and anti-coronavirus treatments for all, “especially the most vulnerable”, has gone further today. In a letter he wrote to Argentine judge Roberto Andrés Gallardo to thank you for the work you are doing in dealing with the problem of the vaccine shortage in collaboration with the Pan American Committee of Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine, denounced those who “accumulate vaccines”.

“Those who hoard vaccines, those who emphasize intellectual property, those who block the supply of drugs, are wrong and will ultimately be victims of their own myopia.”, Pope Francis warned, in an epistle to this magistrate who visited the Vatican on several occasions, where he constituted in June 2019 the Pan-American Committee of Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine.

Francisco wrote to him in response to the document that last Monday Gallardo, who is a trial judge in administrative and tax litigation for the city of Buenos Aires, sent him as chairman of the aforementioned committee, telling him that he had sent it. . to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), to warn of the urgent and necessary review of the mechanisms for the production, marketing and distribution of vaccines. In the document, the committee, also citing François’ words, not only urges these two bodies to act, but also calls on the magistrates to act.

“I received the document (…) and I share the concern”wrote the Pope, thanking Gallardo for the work of his Committee. “Humanity is saved and the virus is neutralized with vaccines and medicines for all, regardless of the country to which they belong,” he reiterated. “Even countries which have more and better vaccinated need to be vaccinated in other countries to keep their borders open and regain normalcy in international relations,” he added, continuing by condemning “those who accumulate vaccines “.

“I hope that the Committee’s communication to the WHO and the WTO will help alleviate these circumstances,” concluded Francisco, who was vaccinated at the Vatican in early January and returned on Monday from his historic tour of Iraq, which he said. performed. despite the ongoing pandemic.

During his first speech in this country, last Friday in Baghdad, before the authorities, the diplomatic corps and the civil society, he of course also raised this question of vaccines, reiterating the need for an “equitable distribution of vaccines for all “.

“But that’s not enough,” he continued. This crisis is above all a call to rethink our lifestyles, the meaning of our existence. It is a question of coming out of this period of trial better than before; that we build the future based on what unites us, rather than what divides us ”.