“It’s not the same thing I do to a patient that they put it on me,” says nervous María Ruiz, one of 150,000 health workers who received the Cuban coronavirus vaccine, the first to be conceived and developed in Latin America.
“But as long as it’s for my own good and for the good of society, here I am,” added the 48-year-old nurse, who came with the uniform and white cap to receive the antigen at the Corynthia polyclinic in Havana.
The aim of this interventional study, which began on Monday, is to test the vaccine on a large scale, just before approval, among doctors, nurses, technicians and even maintenance workers in health centers.
In the world, other vaccines, such as Russian Sputnik V, were also given to large groups of the population before the end of clinical trials.
Unlike classical studies, in this “placebo is not used, here is a direct vaccine,” explains Dr. Osiris Barbería, deputy director of epidemiology at the clinic, located in the heart of the Vedado neighborhood.
And “why health workers? Because we are the most attached to the infected patient, that is, on the battlefront “, he says.
– Bet –
The search for its own coronavirus vaccine began in April 2020 and soon became a matter of national pride in Cuba, an island under US embargo that had been forced to develop its own immunizers since the 1980s.
Given the pandemic, the bet might seem risky: it did not try to negotiate the purchase of vaccines from large laboratories or benefit from the Covax system, which guarantees the delivery of doses to poor countries.
However, the country has four vaccines at different stages of clinical trials, two of which, Soberana 2 (used in this intervention study) and Abdala, are in the final stage, phase 3.
If any of them receive the final authorization, it would be the first coronavirus vaccine designed and produced in Latin America.
These vaccine candidates are recombinant proteins, the same technique used by the American biotechnology company Novavax.
If given the green light, Cuba hopes to begin the vaccination campaign in June, previously launching intervention studies to begin immunizing its population.
Almost all of Havana’s residents (2.1 million) are expected to be vaccinated by May, and authorities expect six million people, more than half the Cuban population, to be immunized by early August.
“Imagine that, in a short time, a blocked country, with so many needs, we got a quality vaccine”, Dr. Barbería is proud and emphasizes that participation in the intervention study is voluntary.
So far, “everyone wants, wants to bring their relatives and we say no because it is (a study) controlled,” he says.
– Iran and Venezuela –
At the Héroes del Corynthia clinic, doctors, nurses and even agents responsible for the hospital’s anti-mosquito fumigation campaign intersect during the various stages of the vaccination process.
Upon arrival, their temperature is taken, then their blood pressure is measured and a medical questionnaire is completed. Once vaccinated, everyone must wait an hour in case of a possible reaction.
Alejandro Larrinaga, a 64-year-old doctor, arrived shortly after 9 o’clock in the morning.
In the past, Larrinaga has performed several medical missions for his country in Mozambique, Angola and South Africa. This time his task is very different: “I gladly agreed to get vaccinated to strengthen my immune system,” he says.
But “I think self-protection is more important than the vaccine,” using a mask and washing his hands regularly, he adds, noting that the immune response doesn’t appear until after 21 days.
Faced with a third wave of infections, Cuba has so far been little affected by the pandemic, with 68,986 cases and 405 deaths.
Authorities want to vaccinate the entire population this year and then offer the immunizer to “friendly countries”.
This month, 100,000 doses of Sovereign 2 have been sent to Iran to test its effectiveness, and in April 30,000 doses of Sovereign 2 and Abdala will be sent to Venezuela.