Granma | January 26, 2022
More than 1.6 million children have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Cuba, and since the conclusion of the campaign, no pediatric deaths have been reported
More than 1.6 million children have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Cuba, with more than 3.3 million doses administered, and since the conclusion of the campaign, no pediatric deaths have been reported, according to María Eugenia Toledo, PhD, principal investigator leading the Soberana 02 vaccine clinical trials at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK).
Referring to the impact of massive immunization with Soberana in children two to 18 years of age, during a recent appearance on Cuban television, she pointed out that an adult who is not vaccinated faces the risk of suffering an asymptomatic case of the disease 2.2 times greater than a vaccinated person. In the case of a child, the risk is 18.2 times higher.
“If we had initially confronted the pandemic with everything we have accomplished in terms of vaccination, 94.8% of the cases in children would have been avoided,” she stressed, adding that if anything put Cuba at the forefront internationally, it was the launching of a pediatric vaccination campaign as soon as possible, along with the government decision not to open schools until all children who could be vaccinated completed the full immunization regimen.
Our country was ahead of the curve, she said, noting that children play an important role in transmission, something Cuba has learned over “many years working on vaccines for children.”
Journal of People 