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Coronavirus: Pope Francis calls for patent waivers to ‘allow universal access to vaccine’
- The pontiff condemned the ‘virus of individualism’ that ‘makes us indifferent to the suffering of others’
- His comments come after the US announced its support for a global waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 jabs
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Pope Francis offered his support on Saturday for waiving coronavirus vaccine patents to boost supply to poorer countries, in a video message to the “Vax Live” concert.
The Argentine pontiff backed “universal access to the vaccine and the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights” in the recording made in his native Spanish.
Francis, who has repeatedly spoken of the need to share vaccines, condemned the “virus of individualism” that “makes us indifferent to the suffering of others”.
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“A variant of this virus is closed nationalism, which prevents, for example, an internationalism of vaccines,” he said.
“Another variant is when we put the laws of the market or intellectual property above the laws of love and the health of humanity.”
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His comments come after the United States announced its surprise support for a global waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines.
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