Fears over Pope’s trip to Iraq as hospitality could bring ‘superspreading risks’

INFECTIOUS disease experts have expressed concern about Pope Francis’s upcoming trip to Iraq.

They cited a sharp rise in coronavirus infections there, a fragile healthcare system and the unavoidable likelihood that Iraqis will crowd to see him.

No-one wants to tell the Pontiff to call it off, and the Iraqi government has every interest in showing off its relative stability by welcoming the first pope to the birthplace of Abraham.

The three-day trip, due to start on Friday, will provide a sorely needed spiritual boost to Iraq’s beleaguered Christians while furthering the Vatican’s bridge-building efforts with the Muslim world.

But from a purely epidemiological standpoint, as well as the public health message it sends, a papal trip to Iraq amid a global pandemic is not advisable, health experts say.

Their concerns were reinforced with the news yesterday that the Vatican ambassador to Iraq, the main point person for the trip who would have escorted the Pope to all his appointments, has tested positive for Covid-19 and was self-isolating.

The embassy said Archbishop Mitja Leskovar’s symptoms were mild and he was continuing to prepare for the Pope’s visit.

Iranian-born Dr Navid Madani, virologist and founding director of the Centre for Science Health Education in the Middle East and North Africa at Harvard Medical School’s Dana-farber Cancer Institute, said of the planned visit: “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

She said Middle Easterners are known for their hospitality and that the enthusiasm among Iraqis of welcoming a peacemaker like the Pope to a neglected, war-torn part of the world might lead to inadvertent violations of virus control measures. “This could potentially lead to unsafe or superspreading risks,” she said.

The Vatican has taken its own precautions, with the 84-year-old Pope, his 20-member Vatican entourage and 70-plus journalists on the papal plane all vaccinated.