Vatican starts COVID-19 vaccinations
Vatican starts COVID-19 vaccinations
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican, the world's smallest state, began its COVID-19 vaccination program on Wednesday but it was not clear when Pope Francis would get his shot.
A statement said the program started in the atrium of the large hall normally used for papal audiences. It gave no details but a source said the first doses were administered to doctors and other members of the Vatican health services.
Pictures released by the Vatican showed a medical examination table and a chair, both empty. Another showed a medical refrigerator in a room with a photo of the pope on a wall.
The Vatican said last week it had bought an ultra-cold refrigerator to store doses, suggesting it will use the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which must be stored at about minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit).
The pope told a television interviewer on Sunday that he would get the vaccine this week. The Vatican said it had no comment on an Argentine report that he was among the first to get the vaccine.
In the interview, Francis said people should trust doctors and not refuse the vaccine unless they had good medical reasons because their lives and those of others depended on it.
"I really don't understand why some people say this could be a dangerous vaccine. If doctors say it can work well and you don't have special dangers, why not take it? There is a suicidal denialism that I would not know how to explain, but the vaccine must be taken," he said.
Francis, who turned 84 last month, had part of one lung removed during an illness when he was a young man in his native Argentina, increasing his vulnerability to the disease.
The Vatican has only several hundred residents. Most of its employees live in Italy and they too will be getting the vaccine.
There have been fewer than 30 cases of coronavirus in Vatican City, most of them among the Swiss Guard, who live in a communal barracks.
Reuters:By Philip Pullella
Articles-Latest
- Using Vibrational Aromatherapy In Treatment - 2
- Taliban step up security ahead of supreme leader’s Kandahar mosque visit on Eid
- Using Vibrational Aromatherapy In Treatment
- The BI-Gendered God-She-male Gods & The Roots of Christianity
- Geometry and Myth-She-Male Gods & the Roots of Christianity
- Muslim Council Demands Investigation Into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party
- What does the Bible say about homosexuality? Well, for starters, Jesus wasn’t a homophobe
- King Charles attends Easter service, providing a glimpse of the monarch after cancer diagnosis
- We must stand up to religious extremism in the UK before it tears us apart,’ writes Frederick Chedam
- Trump compares himself to Jesus Christ – again
- Pope makes last-minute decision not to deliver Palm Sunday Mass homily
- New York City's mayor gets baptized in jail by Rev. Al Sharpton on Good Friday
- Pope Francis calls predecessor Benedict a key transitional figure
- Lawyers hit out at Vatican’s ‘trial of the century’ after Pope secretly changes law four times
- What we know about the killing of Detroit synagogue leader Samatha Woll
- Sodomy and theology: the feverish birth of the King James Bible
- Africa's Catholic hierarchy refuses same-sex blessings, says such unions are contrary to God's will
- After decades of struggle for a place in Israel, dozens of Black Hebrews face threat of deportation
- Purgatory in the Bible
- Pope’s new ruling on blessings for same-sex couples does not change Catholic teaching - bishop
Articles-Most Read
- Home
- Let There Be Light
- Plants that feel and Speak
- The Singing Forest
- The Singing Forest-2
- Introduction
- Meditation
- Using Essential Oils for Spiritual Connection
- Heaven Scent
- Plants that Feel and Speak-2
- Purification
- Making the Spiritual Connection
- Anointing
- The Sanctity of Plants
- Essential Oils: The unseen Energies
- The Aroma Of Worship - Introduction
- The Aroma Of Worship-Foreward
- Methods Of Use
- Spiritual Blending
- Handling and Storage