HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 21 (ACN) The Emirati English-language newspaper The National praised the anti-COVID-19 vaccines created by Cuba, which it describes as far beyond its possibilities as a Third World country.
There is a strong research sector, it is a health care tourist destination and sends doctors and nurses to work all over the world, including countries in the Arabian Peninsula, the publication said.
Efforts to more widely distribute such injections began after the Caribbean nation achieved one of the highest coverage figures in the world.
While the United Arab Emirates leads the world rankings, Cuba ranks in the top 10 with 93 percent of its population with at least one dose; 87, two; and 51, a third booster.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all that they have set out to develop their own vaccine. They have the need, but they also have the capacity,” said Helen Yaffe, senior lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
Cuba, with its decades of state-led investment in health care and medical research, an approach championed by historic leader Fidel Castro, emphasized self-sufficiency in vaccines, to the point of producing most of those used in its national immunization programs.
Those vaccination campaigns helped control or eliminate polio, measles, mumps, rubella and typhoid fever, among other diseases.
Average life expectancy also increased and they win accolades from scientific publications, The National writes.
When the coronavirus emerged, Cuban research institutes had the expertise to develop their own vaccines.
“They have a pretty good health service given the level of money they have, and part of that was the development of their own biopharmaceutical industry,” said David Taylor, professor emeritus at College University of London.
Tight finances and U.S. embargoes would have made it difficult for those manufactured abroad, and so Cuba went its own way and distanced itself from the Covax program, which distributes vaccines to poorer nations.
With the injectable Soberana 02 from Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute and a booster called Soberana Plus, a 92 percent efficacy against SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, is obtained.
The Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana produced a vaccine candidate called Abdala with similar efficacy after three doses.
Another, Mambisa, which is administered in the form of a nasal spray, according to Cuban scientists could add protection to those receiving other vaccines.
On the other hand, Cuba is the first country to vaccinate children from the age of two, Yaffe confirmed.
Government figures indicate that more than 95 percent of young people between the ages of two and 18 are vaccinated, with which they hope to reduce transmission, said the Emirati newspaper quoted by Prensa Latina.
