Viganò says COVID doesn't exist, Paglia dismayed

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 10 - Former papal nuncio to the US and foremost critic of Pope Francis, Msg Carlo Maria Viganò, told Italian TV Tuesday night that "COVID does not exist" and the media had covered up "systematic" lies about its existence, prompting the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Msrg Vincenzo Paglia, to say that "those who deny the pandemic deny the fact that the world has dramatically and deeply changed in the last two years and we need a profound economic, political.
    social, and moral renewal to provide justice, access to healthcare, starting from the vaccines, and guaranteeing safeguards for life all round".
    Viganò went so far as to write a letter to the US Bishops Conference last week distancing himself from the Vatican's pro-vaccine drive and saying that the vaccination campaign was "satanic action against God".
    Several US cardinals, including other leading critics of the pope, are anti-vaxxers.
    They include Raymond Burke who wound up in an ICU with COVID after refusing the vaccine.
    Paglia said "we have had over 130,000 deaths (from COVID) in Italy, and several million in the world. The world economy is in very great difficulty, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs. How can you say that the pandemic does not exist?" Top Italian journalists Bruno Vespa and Massimo Giannini were also dismayed at Viganò's words, with RAI host Vespa saying "may God forgive him" and La Stampa editor Giannini calling him a "rogue". (ANSA).