Pope Francis has weighed in on the virus and vaccine misinformation. In a meeting with the International Catholic Media Consortium on COVID-19 Vaccines, Francis he called for compassion, urging journalists to help those misled by coronavirus-related misinformation and fake news to better understand the scientific facts, according to the Washington Post.

“We can hardly fail to see that these days, in addition to the pandemic, an ‘infodemic’ is spreading: A distortion of reality based on fear, which in our global society leads to an explosion of commentary on falsified if not invented news,” said the leader of the Catholic Church.

But he took it a step further:

The Pope also added “Fake news has to be refuted, but individual persons must always be respected, for they believe it often without full awareness or responsibility. Reality is always more complex than we think and we must respect the doubts, the concerns and the questions that people raise, seeking to accompany them without ever dismissing them.”