{"id":236920,"date":"2021-03-31T16:24:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T20:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=236920"},"modified":"2021-03-31T16:24:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T20:24:29","slug":"the-washington-post-praises-cubas-achievements-in-development-of-covid-19-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/the-washington-post-praises-cubas-achievements-in-development-of-covid-19-vaccines\/","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Post praises Cuba\u2019s achievements in development of COVID-19 vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"

When on March 23, 2016, former President <\/span>Barack Obama<\/span><\/a> mentioned at the Grand Theater of Havana Cuban public health as one of the island\u2019s achievements, a large part of the audience smiled and applauded.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Obama\u2019s visit to the island\u2019s capital was an extraordinary event\u2014the second by a U.S. president in the country\u2019s history and the first since the revolutionary triumph that placed both nations at loggerheads\u2014the public recognition of one of Cuba\u2019s greatest pride was something unexpected, coming from whom it came.<\/span><\/p>\n

Something similar happened this week when <\/span>The Washington Post<\/span><\/i><\/a> recognized that, \u201cagainst all odds,\u201d the fact that Cuba has entered the global race for <\/span>COVID-19<\/span><\/a> vaccines is a consequence of the development of its biotechnology industry, something unusual in Third World countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCuba is an authoritarian, one-party state with strict curbs on free speech, political activism and economic freedoms. But investments in education and health care planted the seed of what is today an unusually sophisticated biotechnology apparatus for a small developing country, with at least 31 research companies and<\/span> 62 factories with over 20,000 workers,\u201d wrote the U.S. daily.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, it continued, \u201cForty years later, the communist island nation could be<\/span> on the cusp of a singular breakthrough: Becoming the world\u2019s smallest country to develop not just one, but multiple <\/span>coronavirus<\/span><\/a> vaccines.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At this time, two of <\/span>these vaccines<\/span><\/a>, Soberana 02 and Abdala, are already in phase three of clinical trials and tested in hundreds of Cubans, although the final results of the studies have not yet been revealed. Cubans are already working on a total of five vaccine candidates, the remaining three still in less advanced stages. But they already have clients, <\/span>The Washington Post<\/span><\/i> noted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Venezuela, for example, is one. Another is Iran, a nation to which 100,000 doses have also been sent their study among Iranians. This last case is a rare indication of politics because the Persian country could have chosen the Chinese or the Russian vaccine, which have already managed to enter Latin America. The funny thing about this is that U.S diplomacy continues to consider the three countries as members of the \u201c<\/span>Axis of Evil<\/span><\/a>,\u201d an expression coined by former Republican President George W. Bush.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cuba sends 100,000 doses of the Soberana 02 vaccine candidate to Iran<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n