MEXICO CITY. – The Mexican Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, announced on April 19 that the Government of his country was analyzing the possibility of immunizing against the COVID-19 to children between five and 11 years old with a Pfizer drug and the Abdala vaccine, in addition to the Chinese Sinovac.
The announcement was made at the “Pulse of Health” conference, organized since 2021 by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the Undersecretary of Health. The latter acts as a kind of “Dr. Durán” and has been the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health regarding COVID-19 in Mexico throughout the pandemic.
López-Gatell made the announcement after weeks of criticism for the lack of progress in vaccinating Mexican children. The undersecretary acknowledged that this delay is due to the fact that “the Covax mechanism has not put on offer the specific vaccine that is needed for five to 11 years.” Mexico has invested 78 million dollars in the mechanism devised by the World Health Organization.
“On the other hand, we have also already explored, asking Pfizer directly to tell us whether or not they could give us vaccines under contract. He already told us yes, that he could eventually deliver them in the second quarter of 2022, obviously after negotiating a contract,” added López-Gatell.
After this announcement, he added that there are other vaccines in the world to treat children between five and 11 years of age, and that the Cuban Abdala vaccine is “an excellent option.”
López-Gatell even recalled that the island’s vaccine was authorized by Cofepris, the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks, the Mexican equivalent of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Cofepris approved the use of Abdala on December 30, 2021. The drug received a “favorable technical opinion” from the experts of the New Molecules Commission, which has cleared the way for its use. The authorization of Cofepris, as an authority recognized by the Pan American Health Organization, opened the doors for its introduction in other countries in the area. “The decisions of Cofepris are recognized by various countries in the region, for which the approved vaccines are likely to be used in other nations,” he said in a statement.
Until the report of the World Health Organization of the March 2, 2022 Regarding the authorization of vaccines, Abdala had not passed the first phase of the evaluation process, which is the “expression of interest” (EOI), that is, it was still under review.
In April 2021, the middle Political Animal, in its “El Sabueso” section, denied a hoax that circulated on social networks at the regional level and claimed that Cuban vaccines had received the category of “excellence” by the WHO. The news outlet not only explained that this was false, but also that no such categories existed.
Abdala is more than 90% effective, according to Cuban scientists in articles. These scientific publications until the end of 2021They were not peer reviewed. The texts were financed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), the center that developed the vaccine itself, and by BioCubaFarma, the state biopharmaceutical group that produces it.
Abdala is the first Latin American vaccine to receive authorization from the Mexican health authorities for possible use in the country. The vaccine has also been authorized in Vietnam, Iran, Venezuela and Nicaragua, political allies of the Havana regime.
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