Jug of cold water on Miguel Díaz-Canel. His Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, has come out to amend his plan just 24 hours after the leader declared proudly in Cienfuegos that ómicron has not “behaved in Cuba like in the rest of the world” thanks to the high rate of vaccination. The head of health on the island has written an opinion column broadcast in official media in which he states that it is a mistake to believe that vaccination will be enough to eradicate the pandemic.
“The alert to the threat of the virus, no one doubts it, continues to be constant in the country and we are not allowed to lower our guard at any time. Those who think that the level of immunity we have achieved with the vaccination campaign are wrong. enough to make the epidemic disappear”, explains Portal Miranda forcefully.
“Those who think that the level of immunity that we have achieved with the vaccination campaign is sufficient to make the epidemic disappear are mistaken”
In an exercise in realism that collides with the fanciful declaration of the president, the Minister of Public Health states that there are many countries with their health systems in check due to the great infectivity of the omicron variant, officially detected at the end of November in South Africa. Portal Miranda gives some data: recently one million infections were reported in the world in 24 hours, a few days later the figure became 3.8 million in one day. “These are numbers that are worrying and confirm the real magnitude of this new wave of the virus in all latitudes of the planet.”
The minister points out that Cuba is no exception and on January 15 added 3,562 cases of covid-19 to the list in just 24 hours, a figure close to the 3,845 that were counted in all of December. In addition, it places Camagüey, Holguín, Las Tunas, Pinar del Río, Matanzas, Artemisa, Mayabeque and Cienfuegos as the most affected provinces so far this year, accumulating 64.7% of the cases.
Even more: in the last week there were 22,919 infections, the fifth consecutive increase in cases and the sixth increase in hospitalizations. That figure leads him to conclude that any triumphalism is a mistake.
The minister indicates that 92.8% of the vaccinated population has been immunized and that is a great advantage, but it is not enough, since the virus continues to infect, even those vaccinated, and, the greater the number of infected people, the more patients likely to evolve negatively there will be. “Each death remains unfortunate.”
Díaz-Canel had puffed out his chest the day before forecasts in Cuba estimated an exponential growth in infections, calculating that currently it would reach 6,000, but they have stabilized between 3,100 and 3,600. These figures have led to updating the forecasts, which predicted that the new wave of covid would not begin to drop until March, but asking for caution.
The minister points out that Cuba is not an exception and on January 15 added 3,562 cases of covid-19 to the list in just 24 hours, a figure close to the 3,845 that were counted throughout December
Portal Miranda has wanted to curb the enthusiasm of his boss and has reason to do so. Among the countries with the highest levels of vaccination in the world are Spain or Portugal, which are close to 90% and, however, have been swept away by the omicron wave. While the second imposed new restrictions to contain the daily numbers of infections, the first reported more than 300,000 daily cases, although the data accounting system in Spain is different from that of Cuba, the incidence with omicron has exceeded 3,000, a infectivity never seen in Spain, despite being one of the countries most devastated by covid-19 (high number of naturally immunized population) and having a universal and free health system.
Regarding the official nature of the data, Spain has had an underreporting since most of the autonomous communities legalized the home antigen test as a diagnostic method (resulting in the lack of official notifications), but this distortion also occurs in Cuba, since many people do not go to the health services for a test.
The omicron variant, for the time being, continues to be studied and, despite the record numbers it is leaving in the world, it seems to confirm that the severity of the infection is less and hospitalizations are less serious and prolonged, but deaths continue to occur. More than a hundred a day in Spain (with a population of 48 million), despite everything.
At the international level, efforts to contain the pandemic are now focused on increasing vaccination in the poorest countries, all of them with tiny figures, and managing to develop sterilizing vaccines. So far, the sera found make it possible to improve immunity, producing antibodies that fight against the contracted virus and defend against a severe form of the disease. Sterilizing vaccines prevent contagion, something that ómicron has shown to be very necessary.
At the international level, efforts to contain the pandemic are now focused on increasing vaccination in the poorest countries, all of them with tiny figures, and managing to develop sterilizing vaccines.
Although many laboratories have been working on sterilizing vaccines for some time, none have yet been proven to work. The US, India, UK or Spain have been testing intranasal vaccines for months (by acting on the nasal mucosa, they could sterilize the upper respiratory tract, preventing the virus from entering) and some attempts have failed to replicate the response achieved in animals in humans.
However, the director of the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) of Cuba, Marta Ayala, described this Monday as “challenging” and “novel” the intranasal vaccine candidate Mambisa, in which the authorities have placed hope that it will be sterilizing something that is still a long way from being verified, since the serum is still in phase 1 of trials on the Island.
The remaining Cuban vaccines, which passed national trials months ago, are still awaiting validation by the World Health Organization. Ayala said yesterday that Cuba and the WHO maintain a “close” exchange, although the organization says that the meeting prior to sending the information has not yet taken place nor has the information been accepted for review.
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