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In
a speech to a global fundraising concert to promote fair access
to vaccines, the pope said the world was infected with the
"virus of individualism".
"A variant of this virus is closed nationalism, which prevents,
for example, an internationalism of vaccines," he said in the
pre-recorded video message.
"Another variant is when we put the laws of the market or of
intellectual market or intellectual property over the laws of
love and the health of humanity," he added, recalling the heavy
death toll the coronavirus had inflicted on the world.
His comments came in the middle of a debate over whether
pharmaceutical companies should waive patent protection for
COVID-19 vaccines.
Biden backed such a move on Wednesday, heeding calls from India,
South Africa and more than 100 other countries.
However, many European countries, led by Germany and France,
distanced themselves on Friday from the suggestion, arguing that
key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic was making and sharing
vaccines more quickly.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by Jason Neely and Clelia
Oziel)
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