Cuba’s excellence in medical research has been proved once again as it will probably be the first country in the world to vaccinate its entire population with its own vaccines.
While most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are scrambling to acquire vaccines, and only 3% of the region’s population has been vaccinated, Cuba’s government says it can have 70% of its population inoculated by August. This is a huge accomplishment for a tiny island nation that has been choked by the debilitating economic blockade the US imposed for 60 years.
This week, Cuban authorities said its recently developed three shot Abdala vaccine has proven 92% effective against Covid-19 in advanced clinical trials. This makes the Cuban vaccine among the most effective in the world, ranking third after Pfizer-BioNTech which is 95% effective, and Moderna which is 94%. Abdala has even outperformed Sputnik which is 91% effective.
Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam and Iran are just some of the countries that have expressed an interest in Cuba’s vaccines. Cuba has also developed the Soberana 02 vaccine which has a lower level of effectiveness than Abdala. The home-grown vaccines could be a financial lifeline for a country whose economy contracted 11% last year.
As many other countries have done given the devastation of the pandemic, Cuba began a mass vaccination campaign in May, before their local vaccine had completed Phase 3 trials. India had done the same earlier this year with its locally produced vaccine. Cuba has moved to rapidly vaccinate its people, given that the Beta variant, which was first detected in South Africa was spreading in Havana, and Cuba was facing the worst outbreak of the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic. With a small population of 11 million, Cuba has been in a race against time to protect its people.
Cuba has always prioritised its medical research and bioscience sector, and has been producing vaccines for decades. In many ways, Cuba was forced to become self-reliant due to the economic embargo, as it wasn’t always able to access vaccines and medicines, and had to push its scientists to be innovative.
Cuba surprised the medical fraternity by developing the world’s first meningococcal B vaccine in the 1980s, and more recently developed a vaccine for the prevention of lung cancer – CIMAvax-EGF – which is breakthrough cancer treatment undergoing Food and Drug Administration-approved trials in the US.
The lung cancer vaccine uses the venom of the rare blue scorpion which is found in Cuba only, and is considered a novel cancer therapeutic. The Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York has signed an agreement to import the Cuban lung cancer vaccine, which treats symptoms and recurrence. Cuba’s state-run Molecular Immunology Center has developed a second lung cancer drug, Racotumomab, which encourages the immune system to fight solid tumours.
All the incredible medical breakthroughs have not moved the dial in the US to lift the suffocating restrictions on trade and finance with the island nation. Despite this hubris on the part of the Americans, Cuba has collaborated with American doctors and scientists on its vaccine successes.
What is unacceptable is the continual obstinacy on the part of the US (along with its ally Israel) of voting against the lifting of the economic embargo of Cuba at the annual vote in the UN General Assembly. On June 23, the UN held yet another vote on the matter, the resolution demanding an end to the unilateral economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba. 184 nations voted in favour of the resolution, three nations abstained – Colombia, the UAE, and Ukraine – and the US and Israel voted against. Given the close relations and dependence in certain areas of Colombia, the UAE and Ukraine on the US, it is not surprisingly but bitterly disappointing that the countries took such an unprincipled position.
This is the most comprehensive, prolonged and severe blockade in history, and for 29-consecutive votes the UN has called for its end. Showing a total lack of humanity, the US strengthened the blockade against Cuba during the Covid-19 pandemic instead of lifting it. With the political transition from former president Donald Trump to President Joe Biden, there was hope that the US would take a more progressive stance on Cuba as President Barack Obama had set into motion. But, to date, there is no indication that the US is prepared to roll back its draconian Cuban policy and allow it to operate as a normal trading partner in the international community.
The US position on Cuba has served only to heighten the political isolation of the US and tarnish its image and record on the world stage.
* Ebrahim is Independent Media Group Foreign Editor.