Viva Cuba For Its Vaccine Revolution

Punching way above its weight, the tiny nation has developed five vaccines, and offers hope of vaccine equity across the world

- Latha Jishnu

THIS IS possibly the quietest and most stunning of Cuba’s revolutions since Fidel Castro overthrew Batista’s military dictatorship in 1958. There have been other revolutions in the tiny nation over the decades—in public health, in medical internationalism (where doctors were sent to countries in need) and most impressively in its biotechnology sector. Even so, the development of five vaccines to fight the sars-cov-2 virus that causes COVID-19, three of which have been deployed to vaccinate 93 per cent of its population, is an unparalleled feat.

This has been largely unnoticed by the global media, which was focused almost entirely on the newfangled and expensive mrna vaccines brought out by the likes of Pfizer and upstart company Moderna, and was writing paeans about their bosses. Science journal Nature was one of the earliest to spot the breakthroughs made by Cuba's Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Finlay Institute of Vaccines. Towards the middle of 2021, a couple of news agencies began to report on the good news emanating from Havana, piquing interest as Cuba sent vaccines to some countries.