Chai Brady
Church-charity Trócaire has welcomed Pope Francis’ call for universal access to Covid-19 vaccines and a suspension of intellectual property rights on the vaccines.
The Pope made the call in a video message to the ‘Vax Live’ concert, an event promoting a more equal global distribution of Covid-19 vaccinations.
He said a “variant of this virus is closed nationalism, which prevents, for example, an internationalism of vaccines… Another variant is when we put the laws of the market or intellectual property above the laws of love and the health of humanity”.
Trócaire CEO Caoimhe de Barra said: “The Holy Father’s endorsement of the campaign for vaccine equality is a significant moment. The Covid-19 crisis was unique in that it affected every country in the world at the same time. The virus knows no borders, and neither should our response.
“The poorest countries are being left behind. People are being plunged into extreme poverty by this virus with little hope of vaccination on the horizon.”
She added that the Pope has “offered huge moral leadership throughout the pandemic” and his comments on waiving patent protections are another example of that and the Irish Government and EU counterparts should back his call.