VATICAN (CNS): The Vatican health service will begin vaccinating employees and Vatican citizens against the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) using the Pfizer vaccine, Dr. Andrea Arcangeli the director of the Vatican health service told Vatican News, on December 11.
“Only through a widespread and capillary immunisation of the population will it be possible to obtain real advantages in terms of public health to achieve control of the pandemic,” Arcangeli said.
“Therefore, it is our duty to offer all residents, employees and their families the opportunity to be immunised against this dreaded disease,” he said.
The Vatican News story said the vaccination programme would begin “in the first months” of 2021, but the Vatican official posted on Facebook on December 11 that employees were told they would be vaccinated in January.
“It is important to educate everyone that the vaccine is not only to protect one’s own health, but also that of other people,” the Vatican News story said.
Dr. Arcangeli said the Pfizer vaccine, developed in conjunction with BioNTech, was chosen because it is the leading candidate for approval in Europe and the United States, is already being used in England and has tested at 95 per cent effective.
“Other vaccines produced with different methods may be introduced after evaluating their efficacy and full safety,” he added.
Vatican News did not ask Dr. Arcangeli about reports that in the early stages of testing, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was tested on cells lines produced from cells that originally came from an aborted fetus. The vaccine, however, is not one of those that use abortion-derived cell lines in the manufacturing process.
The Pontifical Academy for Life and Catholic bishops around the world have said it is not immoral to be vaccinated with vaccines like the Pfizer-BioNTech product because any connection they have to aborted fetuses is extremely remote. Such cells derived from those fetuses were used only in a testing phase but not in the production phase.
Concerning the safety of the vaccine, Dr. Arcangeli said, “It is understandable that there may be some fears about a vaccine that has been developed in such a short time, but there have been very rigorous tests on safety.”
For the time being, he said, the Vatican will not be recommending the vaccination of anyone under the age of 18 since “studies including this age group have not yet been carried out.”
As an independent country, the Vatican has its own health service, with doctors’ offices, a pharmacy, a laboratory, a walk-in clinic and first-aid stations. Many of the services are free to employees and their family members as well as retirees; the service covers about 15,000 people, including the pope and cardinals resident in Rome.
