Cuba’s COVID-19 vaccines: A journey of collaboration and revolutionary solidarity

Jyotsna Singh

People’s Dispatch | June 17, 2021

The Soberana 01 and Soberana 02 vaccines and the Soberana Plus Booster shot have been developed by the Finlay Institute of Vaccines. Photo: Mixael Porto Chiong, Javier Martínez Acosta, La Pupila Asombrada

Cuba’s emergency rollout of two homegrown vaccines last month has awed the world. For a developing country the size of the US State of Tennessee, it is quite a feat. The achievement is all the more significant when we consider the enormous difficulties caused by the US blockade which restricts access to high-technology equipment, state-of-the-art technologies and good-quality raw materials and reagents. Even when they are available, they are expensive. Cuba’s success in producing COVID-19 vaccines not only reiterates its scientific prowess but is also a testimony to its political approach to health — keeping it people-centric, ensuring mass scaling up and distribution, and using collaborative, rather than competitive, research methods.

Cuba has four vaccines and one booster shot in different clinical trial stages. Of those, Abdala has finished phase-3 clinical trials, and the trials for Soberana 02 should conclude by this month. Both trials enrolled nearly 45,000 volunteers. The placebo arm was kept small due to the pandemic situation, and those volunteers are now also being vaccinated. The vaccines are expected to get full regulatory approval in the next couple of months.

The Revolution, Raúl’s most beautiful work

Granma presents excerpts from the June 2 book presentation held in the Palace of the Revolution’s Reception Hall, with the presence of Party First Secretary and President Miguel Díaz-Canel, the country’s top leadership, and Army General Raul Castro’s brothers in arms, Rebel Army Comandante José Ramón Machado Ventura, and Comandantes del la Revolución Ramiro Valdés Menéndez and Guillermo García Frías. 

Abel Prieto

Granma | June 08, 2021

Revolución, la obra más hermosa from the Ediciones Celia publishing house (Revolution, the most beautiful work). Photo: Estudios Revolución

This valuable, important, transcendental book we present here today was compiled and edited with particular care by the Office of Historical Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic and is the first title of its publishing house, Ediciones Celia, named in honor of a figure central to our revolutionary process, in war and peace, a woman who did so much, especially for the preservation of its history.

We are presenting a very beautiful edition on the eve of the birthday of the author, Army General Raul Castro Ruz, a gift to Raul on this anniversary of his birth, and also, no doubt, a great gift to the Cuban people.

I must say that Revolución, la obra más hermosa (Revolution, the most beautiful work) was to include a prologue by our unforgettable Eusebio Leal, who had a very close friendship with Raúl, whom he called, as we all remember, “el General Presidente.” Eusebio was ill, and his ailments, growing progressively worse, did not allow him to introduce the book.

April brings another victory

BAY OF PIGS 

Madeleine Sautié

Granma | April 22, 2021

Photo: Granma Archives

Just when some might think that, exhausted by brutal U.S. attacks, Cuba would lose strength, here is our vanguard fighting with bare fists to make this extraordinary island a more prosperous, contented country.

Following a year of the pandemic’s pain and death, the world continues to seek solutions to control the virus that has ravaged even the most solid economies, while Cuba, “punished” by the most powerful empire on the planet, resists, having committed no other “crime” than giving back to Cubans what for centuries was denied, and rather than despairing, has mobilized to produce five candidate vaccines, the work of scientists trained by the Revolution.

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez elected as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee

8TH CONGRESS OF CUBAN COMMUNIST PARTY

 Yaima Puig Meneses & Leticia Martínez Hernández

Granma | April 22, 2021

Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected as Central Committee first secretary. Photo: Cubadebate

President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez was elected today, Monday, as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, during the first plenary meeting of the leadership body, elected by the delegates to the 8th Party Congress Sunday evening.

Army General Raúl Castro Ruz made this announcement after reporting the 14 members of the Political Bureau, including nine returning to the body and five added as new members:

Central Report to the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba

8TH CONGRESS OF CUBAN COMMUNIST PARTY

Raúl Castro Ruz

Granma | April 22, 2021

Photo: Juvenal Balán

(Transcript: Presidency of the Republic/Translation: GI)

Compañeras and compañeros:

The opening of the Eighth Party Congress takes place on a transcendental date in the nation’s history: The 60th anniversary of the proclamation by Comandante en jefe Fidel Castro Ruz of the socialist character of the Revolution, on April 16, 1961, at the funeral farewell for those killed the previous day in the bombing of our air bases, prelude to the mercenary invasion at Playa Giron, organized and financed by the United States government as part of plans to crush the example of the Cuban Revolution and reimpose neocolonial rule on the island, with the complicity of the Organization of American States.

Eighth Party Congress begins

REVOLUTIONARY CUBA

Yudy Castro Morales

Granma | April 16, 2021

Evoking the thinking of Comandante en jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, who defined the Party as “the soul of the Revolution,” the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, began today in the capital’s Convention Center, presided by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Party Central Committee; José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary; and Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic; among other leaders of the Party and government.

Cuba’s socialist and democratic revolution remains undefeated

REVOLUTIONARY CUBA

Karima Oliva Bello

Granma | April 16, 2021

“Comrade workers, this is a socialist and democratic Revolution of the humble, with the humble and for the humble. And for this revolution… we are ready to give our lives.” Such were the words of Fidel on April 16, 1961, to a people deeply hurt and outraged by the imperialist aggression they had just suffered. He was not repeating a slogan, the next day he would be among the first to confront the Bay of Pigs invasion, and inflict a legendary defeat on imperialism. The people were literally giving their lives.

Cuba in Congress!

REVOLUTIONARY CUBA

Yudy Castro Morales

Granma | April 16, 2021

Photo: Granma Archives

Beginning today through the 19th, Cuba as a whole, represented by its delegates to the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, will gather in the capital’s Convention Center in historic sessions, to analyze what has been accomplished over the last five years and, above all, outline, in a sovereign manner, the country’s future.

Precisely today, on the 60th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist character of the Revolution by Comandante en jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, Cuba, in the voice of Party militants, will once again reaffirm the irrevocability of its emancipatory work and, as expressed in the Congress call, reiterate before the world its “intransigent conviction of victory.”

Another weapon in the cultural war against Cuba

IMPERIALIST PLOY AGAINST CUBA 

Raúl Antonio Capote

Granma | April 01, 2021

Photo: El País

Most of the CIA’s covert operations in Latin America during the 1960s were directed against the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro. “No more Cubas”, was the agency’s slogan at the time.

The Agency created a division in New York City, called Foreign Publications Inc. (Foreign Publications Incorporated), to subsidize various anti-Cuban publications, many coming from Miami. The United States Information Agency (USIA) was also used for this purpose.

Simply Cuba

INDOMITABLE CUBA

Madeleine Sautié Rodríguez

Granma | March 11, 2021

Photo: Granma Archives

Just a little more than two months after the coronavirus pandemic became part of the planet’s history, Cuba had not yet registered a single case. Now, exactly one year following the appearance of the first patients within our national territory, we have not had a day’s rest in the battle against COVID-19.

From the first world we received terrifying images: hospitals and morgues overwhelmed; desolate testimonies, pain, covered faces, no kisses, no embraces, physical distancing.