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Cuba & Iran have started collaborating on the #COVID19 #vaccine. Here is a thread based on my piece which just came out for @MiddleEastEye: https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/vaccine-alliance-how-cuba-and-iran-are-joining-forces-battle-covid-19
Thanks to @DoraVargha for her guidance on vaccines & internationalism - something we dearly need today.
#Cuba #Iran
Thanks to @DoraVargha for her guidance on vaccines & internationalism - something we dearly need today.
#Cuba #Iran
#Soberana02, #Cuba's vaccine, is a collaborative effort between #Iran’s @institutpasteur Institute and Cuba’s @FinlayInstituto. The Cuba-Iran health cooperation is part of a broader strategy, already tested together in the production of a pneumococcal vaccine & hepatitis B.
Cuba's role in vaccine development & more generally in biotechnology is historically solid. As is #Cuba's historic role in health internationalism in the global South.
See this excellent book by @sreidhenry https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo9733558.html and @DoraVargha https://www.cairn.info/revue-revue-d-etudes-comparatives-est-ouest-2018-1-page-71.htm
See this excellent book by @sreidhenry https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo9733558.html and @DoraVargha https://www.cairn.info/revue-revue-d-etudes-comparatives-est-ouest-2018-1-page-71.htm
Cuba's vaccine have so far been successful. But, the country's infection rate is too low to test the efficacy of #Soberana02. Phase III in #Iran would allow this given that Iran's infection rate is the highest in the Middle East. 50,000 Iranians have volunteered for the vaccine.
The Cuban-Iranian programme is built on homegrown, indigenous efforts. And this is important because we know that finding a vaccine is not the only ingredient for a global solution. It is essential to make the vaccine affordable & available for ALL.
Unlike philanthro-capitalism, the Cuban-Iranian vaccine could represent a hope for global South countries that would otherwise be cut off the vaccine market. &it wouldn't be the first that the solution to a global health problem came from outside the West. https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/vaccine-alliance-how-cuba-and-iran-are-joining-forces-battle-covid-19
In this story, again, #Cuba has been faithful to Fidel Castro's original pledge: 'Medicos y no bombas'! Doctors [or vaccines] and not bombs!
#VaccinesNotBombs https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/vaccine-alliance-how-cuba-and-iran-are-joining-forces-battle-covid-19
#VaccinesNotBombs https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/vaccine-alliance-how-cuba-and-iran-are-joining-forces-battle-covid-19
@megan_otoole thansk for helping out with this piece!
