The Government of Mexico bought nine million doses of the Abdala vaccine against covid-19 from Cuba, despite not having been endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the Undersecretary for Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell, this vaccine candidate will be applied to 3,000,000 children between 5 and 11 years of age.
López-Gatell omitted to mention the costs for each dose in his speech at the usual conference offered by the president of Mexico from the National Palace every morning, and limited himself to detailing that each of the children will receive three doses.
Last April, the WHO accepted the documentation sent by the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology on Abdala. The vaccine candidate passed, thus, from “expression of interest under review” to “accepted”, but it still lacks a certification for its application. On the Island, the pediatric population began to be immunized with doses of Soberana 02.
This lack of endorsement by the WHO is the main claim of specialists who have expressed their discomfort over the purchase of Cuban vaccines. The disorganization on the Island has led to pointing out Abdala as the main vaccine candidate with an efficacy of 92.28%. It was recently reported that its safety and effectiveness are being studied in children between six and eleven months.
López-Gatell omitted to mention the costs for each dose in his speech within the usual conference offered by the President of Mexico from the National Palace every morning
The director of clinical research at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), Verena Muzio, also announced a clinical study in pregnant women, seeing the results in them and in the child when it is born from the point of view of safety, the development and the immune response received by passive transfer of antibodies.
While Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus have been placed in the local sphere. Two other candidates – still under study – are the so-called Soberana 01 and Mambisa, the latter designed for nasal application.
The doctor in Medical Sciences at Harvard University, Laurie Ann Ximénez-Fyvie, warned on her social networks about the application of the Cuban vaccine candidate for children that “there are no studies that support the use of Abdala in minors and that it has pediatric, so it is incomprehensible that they want to apply it to this age group for an issue that may be related to austerity”.
“There are no studies that support the use of Abdala in minors and that it has pediatric use, so it is incomprehensible that it wants to be applied in this age group,” said Laurie Ann Ximénez-Fyvie
“I have no doubt that the Abdala vaccine can be safe and effective,” Alejandro Macías, an infectologist and former commissioner against influenza in Mexico, warned in May. “Safety is acquired through knowledge of the studies that support a biological product and I think that in this case they are not enough, unfortunately. We do not have these elements of the vaccine, particularly in children.”
Similar has been the position of specialist Francisco Moreno, who In his Twitter account he has expressed his position. “Health problems in Mexico are not solved by hiring Cuban doctors,” said the head of the program against covid-19 of the prestigious ABC private hospitals. “The lack of vaccines in minors is not an excuse to use Abdala, the Cuban vaccine against covid-19 for children. A vaccine not approved by the WHO. Politics continues to make Mexico’s health sick.”
With these credentials, the Administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced in May the acquisition of these vaccinesthe continuity of specialty scholarships for Mexican medical students and the hiring of Cuban doctors, of which more than 100 are already in Mexico.
This relationship between Mexico and the Island has been based on the controversy in which the regime has benefited the most. This is how it shows he paid 1,500,000 dollars received by the Government of Cuba for medical students on scholarships on the island during the year 2021.
The money was transferred in 2021 through the National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt) to Comercializadora de Servicios Médicos Cubanos, SA, “a company of the Government of Havana accused internationally of human trafficking and forced labor.”
In the last week of August, the president of the Prisoners Defenders association, Javier Larrondo, denounced the dispatch of “State Security agents” among the 641 doctors hired by Mexico in Cuba. As indicated, the faculty program is a cover for the development of political and military tasks in favor of the Mexican Government.
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