SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Infectious disease experts are expressing concern about the upcoming trip of Pope Francis to Iraq amid a surge in coronavirus cases, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.
AP cited health experts as saying that a papal visit to Iraq amid a global pandemic is not advisable, considering into account a purely epidemiological standpoint as well as the public health message it sends.
Francis is due to start a four-day trip to Iraq on Friday to show solidarity with the Christian community that has been decimated by wars and Islamic State insurgents.
The trip by the 84-year-old leader of the world’s Catholics was announced in December, and will take in the capital Baghdad, as well as Ur, a city linked to the Old Testament figure of Abraham, and Erbil, Mosul and Qaraqosh in the plain of Nineveh.
The experts’ concerns were reinforced with the news on Sunday that Vatican ambassador to Iraq Archbishop Mitja Leskovar tested positive for COVID-19 and was self-isolating, AP reported.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea,” Dr. Navid Madani, virologist and founding director of the Center for Science Health Education in the Middle East and North Africa at Harvard Medical School’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told AP.
Madani said in a telephone interview with AP that Middle Easterners are known for their hospitality, and cautioned that the enthusiasm among Iraqis of welcoming a peace-maker like Francis 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 noted.
Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious disease control expert at the University of Exeter College of Medicine, told AP that “it is a perfect storm for generating lots of cases which you won’t be able to deal with”.
“We are in the middle of a global pandemic. And it is important to get the correct messages out,” Pankhania said. “The correct messages are: the less interactions with fellow human beings, the better.”
An Iraqi government’s official told AP that the health care protocols “are critical but can be managed”.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on coronavirus, said countries should evaluate the risk of an event against the infection situation, and then decide if it should be postponed, according to AP.
“It’s all about managing that risk,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19. “It’s about looking at the epidemiologic situation in the country and then making sure that if that event is to take place, that it can take place as safely as possible.”
