Cuba starts mass inoculation with own COVID-19 shot

[El Presidente]

https://kfgo.com/2021/05/12/cuba-raises-latam-hopes-as-it-starts-mass-inoculation-with-own-covid-19-shot/

Cuba raises Latam hopes as it starts mass inoculation with own COVID-19 shot

By Thomson ReutersMay 12, 2021 | 3:03 PM

By Sarah Marsh

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba started a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 on Wednesday using one of its five homegrown vaccine candidates which, if proven effective, could improve access to inoculations across Latin America, one of the regions hardest hit by the pandemic.

Cuba’s state-run biopharma sector – which has a long history of developing, producing and exporting serums – has concluded late-phase trials at home for the vaccine, Abdala, in more than 48,000 volunteers but not yet published the results.

Still, it says the advantages of starting mass vaccination outweigh the risks, given the shot has proven safe and effective in generating antibodies and Cuba is facing its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic.

Several nations have rushed to deploy COVID vaccines before all results were through. In the United States and Europe, vaccines were approved for emergency use based on small samples of early data from phase three trials, while in Russia and China vaccines were deployed before the publication of results from phase two.

“Even though it’s maybe not certain I won’t get ill, if I do get ill, I think it won’t be as severe and wouldn’t kill me,” said Dora Garrido Garcia, 75, after getting her first of three Abdala shots at a clinic in Regla, a suburb in the Havana Bay. “So I’m happy.”

If Cuba’s homegrown vaccines prove successful, it will mark a major achievement for the small Communist-run country and a ray of hope for its allies and developing countries struggling with inequitable global vaccine access.

Other countries in Latin America – including Bolivia, Argentina and Mexico – have already expressed interest in acquiring or even producing the Cuban vaccines.

Cuba’s biopharma sector expects its health regulator to give emergency use authorization next month for at least one of its two most advanced vaccine candidates, Abadala and Soberana 2. But the government says it wants to get a headstart on curbing infections with “intervention studies” in the most at-risk populations.

It has applied shots to hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers and is setting about vaccinating Cubans it considers most vulnerable to COVID-19 in some of the most infected areas of the Caribbean island nation.

In hard-hit Havana, that means those aged 60 and above. But in other areas like Cuba’s top beach resort, Varadero, that means tourism sector workers who will receive their first shot from Friday, according to state-run media.

Health Minister José Portal said last Friday he expected 70% of the population to have received a COVID-19 shot by August.

Officials have raised the idea of eventually offering the vaccine to tourists, in a bid to revive the sector, one of the ailing economy’s key earners, which has been devastated by the pandemic.

Critics say Cuba will find itself in a tricky situation if its vaccine candidates are not effective given it has not sealed any deals for foreign shots. In addition to the human cost, this would be a setback to an economy already dealing with widespread shortages due to its cash crunch, they say.

TWELVEFOLD RISE IN INFECTIONS

BioCubaFarma will have produced enough doses to immunize Cuba’s 11 million inhabitants by August, the state-run company’s chief Eduardo Martínez said last Friday.

“We will probably be the first country to immunize the whole population with its own vaccine,” he said in a roundtable discussion on state television.

The country, which prides itself on its healthcare achievements, successfully contained its coronavirus outbreak last year but saw cases jump after it relaxed lockdown restrictions and opened borders in November without requiring a test.

Cubans from the diaspora rushed home to celebrate year-end festivities, often bringing the virus with them.

The arrival of new strains of the virus, in particular the South African variant, have worsened contagion. Cuba has attempted to rein it in by cutting flight schedules, requiring negative test results from travelers and imposing new lockdown restrictions and curfews.

Last month, the country registered 17,362 cases, more than 12 times December’s figure, with Havana one of the worst affected areas.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Reporting by Reuters TV, Nelson Acosta and Christine Soares; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

[NSXCIGAR]

Officials have raised the idea of eventually offering the vaccine to tourists

Booking my flight now!

[Huckleberry]

"...but not yet published results."  What could possibly go wrong?🙏

[Bijan]

17 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Officials have raised the idea of eventually offering the vaccine to tourists

Booking my flight now!

Wasn't that old news though:

 

 

[mprach024]

5 minutes ago, Lrabold89 said:

Well let’s hope HSA isn’t running QC for the vaccines


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Right, 20% would be plugged

[Fuzz]

Abadala & Soberana 2 vaccine side effects may include:

• Slight fever
• Dryness of throat
• Dizzyness
• Itchy rash
• Become Communist
• Severe muscle spasms
• Drooling
• Uncontrollable flatulence

 

[Nino]

The picture of the well-stocked Havana shop says it all ...

Good joke - next joke

[helix]

Wow just Wow !

[NSXCIGAR]

I don't know what's more absurd--that Cuba developed a vaccine or that they think they're going to be able to produce 11 million doses and deliver it. With the cost of production, materials and syringes they might as well just buy the vaccine from the US. I'm sure Biden would give them a payment plan...

Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if this vaccine is a placebo and they actually want the virus to keep killing off all the vulnerable to reduce population. 

[Nino]

As I have pointed out a few times Cuba does not have a "vaccine" against Covid-19 - it has several "vaccine candidates" and is using its population as guinea pigs to test them.

-------------

The vaccines applied to more than a million Cubans are still in the experimental phase
Despite the triumphalism, health authorities acknowledge that there are still studies to be completed

14ymedio, Havana / Madrid | May 22, 2021

https://www.14ymedio.com/cuba/vacunas_cubanas-covid-19-coronavirus_0_3098690101.html

The island's health authorities assure that there are already a total of 1,115,335 Cubans who have received at least one dose of a national vaccine candidate –Soberana 02 and Abdala– against the covid in its last phase of trials.

The figure was given by Ileana Morales Suárez, national director of Science and Technological Innovation of the Ministry of Public Health, in a new special on vaccines of the Roundtable program this Thursday - the last one was just two weeks ago -, which, as usual, was lavish in a triumphalist tone and lacking in precise information.

The official said that in Cuba "three simultaneous moments" of the tests are being carried out: "clinical trials", "intervention study" and "health intervention". This is an unconventional vocabulary in standard scientific studies, as a "clinical trial" can encompass an "intervention". Both the "intervention study" and the "health intervention" would be nothing more than a covert vaccination with vaccine candidates in phase 3, which have not yet been approved even by the Center for State Control of Medicines (Cecmed).

Although there are still no concrete data or scientific publications approved by peers of any Cuban vaccine candidate, María Eugenia Toledo Romaní, principal investigator of Soberana 02 at the Pedro Kourí Institute (IPK), assured on television that "the significant number of applied doses of this vaccine candidate in each of the stages allows us to affirm that we are really facing a very safe vaccine platform ".

Regarding side effects, Toledo Romaní assured that there were none serious, and very few moderate ones, such as arterial hypertension; the majority were "not significant": pain in the arm from the pin prick, headaches and general malaise.

Regarding the immune response, he stated that "more than 76% of the subjects increase their initial titers [level of antibodies] four times, and this should be related to the clinical response, that is, to the protection that the vaccine provides. After the third dose these titers are above 90% ".

Of course, the specialist acknowledged that this does not mean that the person does not get sick and that studies are yet to be completed: "The immunogenicity study must be completed, which would be a very good indicator that the vaccine stimulates the immune response, but it must be done the clinical efficacy study: checking whether the vaccine is actually capable of protecting against symptomatic disease ".

[Nino]

CUBA DEPLOYS HOMEGROWN COVID JABS BEFORE REGULATORS GIVE GO-AHEAD

Daily U.K. News, 14 May, 2021

DUK Editor Team

Cuba has begun a mass Covid-19 vaccination drive using two homegrown shots before they have full regulatory approval, after declaring a health emergency as cases surge.

The government said it aimed to vaccinate the entire adult population with its Abdala and Soberana 2 shots. The programme began in Havana on Wednesday for residents aged 60 years or older, with frontline workers in other provinces also receiving the vaccines.

The Pan American Health Organization said this week that Cuba was driving most new Covid-19 infections in the Caribbean. Although case rates in the communist-ruled nation have been low by international standards, it recorded its worst month for infections in April since the pandemic began, with 31,346 cases and 229 deaths among its 11m population. The number has continued to creep up this month.

José Angel Portal Miranda, public health minister, said he expected full approval for both vaccines in June but that Cuban law allowed the step to be bypassed in an emergency. “This makes it possible to initiate intervention in risk groups and territories with Cuban vaccine candidates,” he said after announcing the emergency last Friday.

Abdala’s phase 3 trials — the final stage before regulatory approval is normally sought — ended on May 1 while those for Soberana 2 will be completed this weekend. More than 300,000 Cubans have been vaccinated to date, including trial participants and frontline workers.

Cuban health authorities say both shots have proved safe and highly effective but have not released trial data.

Cuba opted not to join the World Health Organization-backed Covax vaccine procurement facility or accept jabs from allies such as Russia and China. The island nation has been manufacturing vaccines for years and authorities cite long experience and a policy of not depending on others as behind the decision.

[Corylax18]

23 minutes ago, Nino said:

 a policy of not depending on others as behind the decision.

WHAT?!?! When was the last time Cuba wasnt reliant on one or more other countries for most of their necessities? If it wasn't so sad, it would be comical. 

[Tstew75]

NOPE.

[La_Tigre]

Vaccine tourist:

“Can we get the vaccine if we agree to visit….?” 😃 😃 😃 

more like

”Do we have to get the vaccine if we visit…?” 👀 👀 👀 

[Nino]

Guess what - the so-called Cuban Covid "vaccines" are not recognized by the European Union as being effective or to allow vaccinated Cubans ( or stupid vaccine tourists ) into the EU ...

-------------

Neither Soberana nor Abdala are valid to travel from Cuba to Europe
Only those vaccinated with drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency or the WHO will have normal access to the Union.

Madrid 07 Jun 2021 - 19:59 CEST

 

https://diariodecuba.com/cuba/1623088753_31735.html

 

From this Monday, travelers from all over the world, with the exception of Brazil, India and South Africa, can travel to Spain normally, as long as they are vaccinated. However, the latter only applies to those who have been inoculated with drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency or the World Health Organization (WHO).

 

According to the Spanish health authorities, travelers from outside the European Union arriving in Spain must be vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Sinopharm or Sinovac. The list does not include the Russian Sputnik vaccine and neither does the Cuban candidates Abdala and Soberana 02, which the Cuban government has inoculated hundreds of thousands of people.

 

This Monday, three travelers from Havana arrived at the Barajas Airport in Madrid, all with the complete schedule of one of the Cuban experimental vaccines. However, they had to show a negative PCR test both to get on the plane and to enter Spain, since these injectables are not among those admitted, reported the Spanish newspaper El País.

 

According to the report, as the Cubans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in transit to Mexico, they had no major difficulties. But, if they had wanted to visit Spain, they could not have embarked.

 

[Corylax18]

15 minutes ago, Nino said:

According to the report, as the Cubans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in transit to Mexico, they had no major difficulties. But, if they had wanted to visit Spain, they could not have embarked.

 

What?!?! I know Interjet went bankrupt and Cubana is no longer an option, but flying 20 hours each way is the only option? In 2017 I paid about 55 USD for a 45 min flight from Cancun to Havana. Viva Aerobus is still flying between Havana and Mexico City, once a week. Copa will get you to Mexico city, via Panama City, in half the time. 

As much as this sucks for Cubans, I struggle to feel sympathy for a Cuban citizen with the disposable Time and Dime to fly around the world right now.  

[Habana Mike]

9 hours ago, Corylax18 said:

What?!?! I know Interjet went bankrupt and Cubana is no longer an option, but flying 20 hours each way is the only option? In 2017 I paid about 55 USD for a 45 min flight from Cancun to Havana. Viva Aerobus is still flying between Havana and Mexico City, once a week. Copa will get you to Mexico city, via Panama City, in half the time. 

As much as this sucks for Cubans, I struggle to feel sympathy for a Cuban citizen with the disposable Time and Dime to fly around the world right now.  

Time, dime and visa.... the last hardest to come by at any rate