The Vatican’s coronavirus commission and the Pontifical Academy for Life issued a joint statement calling for a coordinated international effort to ensure the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide.
The document highlights the “critical role of vaccines to defeat the pandemic, not just for individual personal health but to protect the health of all,” the Vatican said in a statement accompanying the document.
“The Vatican commission and the Pontifical Academy of Life remind world leaders that vaccines must be provided to all fairly and equitably, prioritising those most in need,” the Vatican said. The pandemic has exacerbated “a triple threat of simultaneous and interconnected health, economic and socio-ecological crises that are disproportionately impacting the poor and the vulnerable,” the document said.
“As we move toward a just recovery, we must ensure that immediate cures for the crises become stepping-stones to a more just society, with an inclusive and interdependent set of systems.”
Pope Francis established the Covid-19 commission in April with the goal of expressing “the Church’s concern and love for the entire human family in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.” The new document issued a set of objectives, particularly around making the vaccines “available and accessible to all.” Part of that process, the document said, would be to consider how to reward those who developed the vaccine and repay “the research costs and risks companies have taken on,” while also recognising the vaccine “as a good to which everyone should have access, without discrimination.”
