When Pope Francis led a historic Mass at the Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph in Baghdad on Saturday, the pews were full of people offering prayers with extra gusto for the first papal visit to Iraq.
But the gathering -- in a crowded space with little ventilation -- was the kind of event that public health experts have warned against during the coronavirus pandemic, especially in places like Iraq, where the virus is running rampant. Even at the Vatican, the 85-year-old pope has stopped holding audiences with the public as a precaution.
While the pope's trip is intended to send a message of peace and resilience, the scenes along the way have all the hallmarks of superspreader events. Crowds were often packed together with little social distancing. Some people wore masks; others did not.
"A lot of people want to see the pope," Raghad Al-Suhail, a professor of virology and immunology at the University of Baghdad, previously told The Washington Post. "But we are all worried. Even here, people are saying, how is the pope coming to visit at this time? The country is not really well-prepared for it."
The pope, who has received the coronavirus vaccine, has expressed feeling "caged" under lockdowns and has been eager to renew his face-to-face outreach to the world's Roman Catholics and others.
But he has also faced criticism for the optics of frequently appearing in public without a mask. Iraq, moreover, has only just begun to unroll a limited vaccination campaign as its fragile health-care system battles another surge in the virus alongside the economic and political instability roiling the country.
Iraq, where testing is limited, has reported more than 13,500 deaths related to covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. New confirmed cases peaked in September, then declined, and since February have been steadily on the rise again, according to a tracker by Johns Hopkins University.
At the Mass on Saturday, temperatures were taken at the door and masks were required, though not everyone complied. There were no other specific requirements for attendees, such as having to show a negative result from a recent coronavirus test, as many airlines and countries now require of travelers.
With several highly transmissible variants spreading around the globe, public health experts have urged people to increase the strength of their masks, like doubling up. Scientists have also cautioned against crowds in poorly ventilated spaces, where the virus can more easily aerosolize and remain in circulation for hours.
And as it remains unclear the extent to which vaccinated people can still contract and transmit the virus, scientists have urged vaccinated people to continue following basic precautions, such as social distancing and mask-wearing around those not yet inoculated.
Before the trip, the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, told the Post that "all the precautions have been taken from a health point of view." Francis is traveling in a closed car and will be holding events with only a few hundred people, he said. All the journalists and other members of the delegation traveling with the pope are vaccinated, although the Iraqis they meet are unlikely to have been vaccinated.
The Vatican's envoy to Iraq, who had planned to be part of the pope's entourage, tested positive for the coronavirus days before the trip and has not been in attendance.
Muhamed Almaliky, an Iraqi American physician and a fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, told the Post that it was unlikely that Iraq, with its limited access to vaccines, would recover anytime soon from the virus, justifying the timing of the pope's visit.
"There is no point at which Iraq will be stable and healthy, not even in three years," Almaliky said. "He is a man who is aging and becoming frail. If he waits, the trip may never happen. Because Iraq will be the last country to recover from covid."
Information for this article was contributed by Chico Harlan of The Washington Post.