Professor Tanalís Padilla, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of numerous books, including A History of Rural Normal Schools, today exalts Cuban vaccines and global inequality.
The local newspaper La Jornada today inserts an article by the teacher of Mexican origin, in which she highlighted Cuba's effort in making its vaccines against covid-19 and begins with the deliveries of the biological to Mexico.
Padilla recalled that at the end of last November the first shipment of the Cuban Abdala vaccine arrived in Mexico, one of the three – along with Soberana 2 and Soberana Plus – authorized by the Federal Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris).
At first glance, he pointed out, it seems surprising that Cuba, a poor country, besieged by the US blockade of six decades and experiencing an acute economic crisis, appears next to great powers such as the United States, the United Kingdom and China, in the list of countries They developed their own vaccine.
She affirmed that the island stands out for its high level of vaccination, with about 86% of its population receiving the three doses, a level only surpassed then by the United Arab Emirates.
She recalled that the island has been developing medicines and vaccines since the 1980s, both for its own population and for export and donation to other countries in the world, and she highlighted in this regard the work of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and the Finlay Institute of Vaccines.
She writes about the importance of the first vaccine developed worldwide against meningococcal meningitis (MenB), applied in Cuba since 1989; the one made against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), since 2003; and that of hepatitis B, since 1992.
Among the multiple injustices unmasked by the pandemic is the global inequality that allowed rich countries to acquire and administer surplus vaccines for their population, while poor countries were forced to wait, denounced the researcher.
By February 2022, almost two years after the pandemic was declared, only 9.5% of the population of poor countries had received a dose of the vaccine, and another great injustice is the fortune that the pharmaceutical industries acquired, they also blocked attempts to release the formula so that they could be produced on a massive scale.
Among Cuba's reasons for producing its own vaccines is that they did not trust that it could acquire them from the international community due to the economic, commercial and financial blockade that intensified in the pandemic and the commitment to theirs gave them results, not not only for its own population, but for that of other countries that the United States also insists on punishing.
Cuba has sent its vaccines to Venezuela, Syria, Nicaragua and Vietnam; Sovereign 2 is being produced in Iran. In addition, it developed agreements with other countries to transfer its technology and provide the vaccines at low cost.
Under extremely adverse conditions, Cuba continues to surprise the world: with its international medical brigades, with its innovations in medicine, with the high levels of health of its population. His covid-19 vaccines are another reminder of what can be achieved, if you do not operate under capitalist logic.
(With information from PL)