Pope Francis condemned "baseless" ideological misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, supporting national immunization campaigns, Reuters reported.

"We have realised that in those places where an effective vaccination campaign has taken place, the risk of severe repercussions of the disease has decreased," he said in his annual address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican.

"It is therefore important to continue the effort to immunise the general population as much as possible."

Francis, who dedicated about a fifth of his six-page address to the pandemic, warned against ideological statements regarding vaccinations.

"Sadly, we are finding increasingly that we live in a world of strong ideological divides. Frequently people let themselves be influenced by the ideology of the moment, often bolstered by baseless information or poorly documented facts," he said.

He said that vaccines are not a magical means of healing, yet surely they represent, in addition to other treatments that need to be developed, the most reasonable solution for the prevention of the disease.

People succumb to the ideology of the moment, often backed by baseless information or poorly documented facts," he said.

Francis, who is fully vaccinated, called for a global political commitment "to pursue the good of the general population through measures of prevention and immunisation".