Kingston, Jamaica, 28 December, 2020. Just last week, the penultimate of the year, several Jamaican media spread news related to Cuba's progress in the search for an effective vaccine against Covid-19. This way, they responded the growing interest of the public in a context characterized by uncertainty in the face of news about the finding and rapid spread of a new strain of the virus that is much more contagious than the one known so far.
First on the list is the Gleaner –one of the oldest newspapers in America and the largest circulating newspaper in Jamaica–, which published an article in its Sunday edition of December 27 in which the Head of the Cuban Health Mission in Jamaica, Dr. Armando Arronte, answers questions about Cuba's vaccine candidates and the possibility that our country begins mass vaccination of the population in the first half of 2021. The article also includes statements made by Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel during the recently concluded virtual Seventh CARICOM-Cuba Summit, when he reiterated the willingness of the Largest Island in the Antilles to share its experiences and contribute with advice in the epidemiological field.
Regarding several Jamaicans’ interest in receiving the Cuban vaccine, the article reviews statements by the Minister of Health and Wellness of Jamaica, Dr. Christopher Tufton, who said that this option is not being currently handled by the government.
On the other hand, digital news outlets of diverse reach and impact, such as WiredJa – viewed by more than two million users in the English-speaking Caribbean–, Our Today – a Kingston-based INS– and Sunday Sun –the official newspaper of Jamaica’s opposition People's National Party, with a primary distribution network of 19,000 users– reviewed information published in Cuban media and social networks about the start of clinical trials on the vaccine candidate Soberana 02 for a second phase of the study, and the progress and the most outstanding characteristics of Soberana 01, Mambisa and Abdala, vaccine candidates who are currently in a first phase.
Articles published in the aforementioned publications are available at: