Too many partisan interests on COVID vaccine - pope

(ANSA) - VATICAN CITY, SEP 9 - There are too many partisan interests in the search for a COVID vaccine, Pope Francis said Wednesday.
    "We can only emerge from the crisis if we seek the common good together," Francis said.
    "Unfortunately," he said at his weekly general audience, "we are seeing the emergence of partisan interests.
    "For example, there are those who would like to appropriate possible solutions, as in the case of vaccines, in order to sell them to others later.
    "Some people are taking advantage of the situation to foment divisions: to seek economic or political gain, generating or increasing conflicts.
    "Others, on the other hand, simply do not care about the suffering of others, they turn a blind eye and go on their way.
    "They are the devotees of Pontius Pilate: they wash their hand of the problem".
    Francis added that politics in general did not enjoy a great reputation, and it should take more care of the common good.
    The pontiff appealed to lay Christians to "bear witness to charity". (ANSA).