Pope Francis blasts COVID-19 'disinformation' as a human rights violation
"To be properly informed, to be helped to understand situations based on scientific data and not fake news, is a human right," Francis said
January 28, 2022 1:35pm
Updated: January 28, 2022 1:36pm
The head of the Roman Catholic Church said on Friday that spreading disinformation on COVID-19 and vaccines is a direct violation of human rights.
According to Reuters, it was the second time in less than a month that Pope Francis, 85, has spoken out on the subject. Just three weeks ago, for example, the pontiff condemned “baseless” ideological misinformation about vaccines before defending national immunization campaigns and calling healthcare a “moral obligation.”
"To be properly informed, to be helped to understand situations based on scientific data and not fake news, is a human right," the pope told members of catholicfactchecking.com. "Correct information must be ensured above all to those who are less equipped, to the weakest and to those who are most vulnerable."
Francis also denounced what he called a growing "infodemic," a phenomenon he characterizes as a distortion of reality based on fear, falsified or invented news and "allegedly scientific information.”
Yet while the pope does not think believers of fake news should not be placed in spiritual "ghettos," he does believe attempts should be made to try to win them over to the scientific truth.
"Fake news has to be refuted, but individual persons must always be respected, for they believe it often without full awareness or responsibility," Francis said.
But Francis’ address to the Catholic media group was significant as some right-leaning Catholic pages, blogs and websites have been shut down by social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for “spreading COVID disinformation.”
Some of these groups regularly host the pope’s most severe critics, such as Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former papal nuncio who is now hiding in exile.
In a letter to followers this month, Vigano said the virus was produced in a lab was part of a global plot "to erase all traces of our identity as Christians".
Previously, the infamous cleric also denied that the pandemic exists and has called it the work of Satan.
