Given the lack of doses, the government is negotiating the purchase of a Cuban vaccine against Covid-19

The government is in talks with Havana to possible acquisition of one of the vaccines against the Covid-19 which is developing in Cuba, and which has already entered phase 3 of its development.

This has been confirmed at Bugle Health Minister Carla Vizzotti, who said it was a “high priority strategy” for the administration Alberto Fernández, which is seeking to redirect the crisis by the lack of vaccines in Argentina.

This Thursday, the presidency assured that 5.1 million vaccines against the coronavirus had already been distributed and more than 4 million have been applied.

Vizzotti maintained on Monday 29 a meeting in his office with the Cuban ambassador to Argentina, Pedro Pablo Prada Quintero, to clarify the objectives of the two parties, and spoke in particular of the “Sovereign 02”, as the Cubans named one of their many candidate vaccines to immunize the population against COVID 19.

It appeared that there could be Cuban vaccines in Argentina for may, and they negotiate with India the Covaxin, but in the government they affirm that on this subject “there is no information”.

On the Cuban, there are no dates, no amounts or closed amounts. It was Vizzotti who started the secret negotiations with the Russians which led to the purchases of Sputnik V.

“I had a meeting with the Cuban ambassador in Argentina, he passed it on to me and we updated information on the five vaccines under development in Cuba, and always working with all technological development. We are very much in contact with Cuba and working together to expedite the investigation and explore possibilities for production-wide collaboration“, The minister told this newspaper.

“This is a high priority strategy for us”, The minister stressed that she was still under the pressure of the VIP vaccination scandal which she is now downplaying.

The national government and some provinces where the ruling party governs, such as Buenos Aires, attempted at the start of the pandemic to travel to the famous Cuban doctors, a real medical army that Cuba has distributed all over the world with a double aim: the propaganda of good Cuban medicine and a means of collecting hard currency which is very rare to them.

But here, the reviews rained from the medical community who rejected them. And denunciations have flourished about the way the Cuban state controls the lives of its export professionals.

Finally, the government suspended negotiation to bring Cuban doctors. But now, in the absence of vaccines, he has resumed talks with the government of Miguel Díaz Canel, his ally.

However, the Cuban vaccines developed by Cuba against Covid are also praised in the American press.

Last Monday, Vizzotti received documentation from Cuban diplomat on Sovereign 02, which according to a detailed report by the news agency Associated Press, of Havana, stands advanced and with good results.

The last Wednesday was finished placing the first of two doses which brings this drug to 44,000 volunteers in phase 2 and is now entering phase 3, which is the last.

In June they expect to have results on efficiency, which they anticipate “high”. Doctors interviewed by the AP on the island say a high percentage of patients have shown antibodies vaccinated in phase 2.

Due to the US embargo against the island, which easily prevents access to credit and direct purchases, the Cubans decided to make respirators, swabs and reagents for the PCR test. Also vaccinations.

They are being developed with varying degrees of success, in addition to Sovereign 02 and Abdala -enter phase 3-, the Mambisa, the Sovereign 01 and the Soberana Plus, in the previous stages of the investigation.

But with Argentina, they have a problem. Cuba’s debt to this country, which was contracted in 1973 when José B. Gelbard, Hector Cámpora’s Minister of the Economy, loaned Fidel Castro nearly $ 1.3 billion.

In 2017, Argentina’s Bank of Foreign Trade and Investment reported that Cuba then owed US $ 2,551 million, adding capital and interest. Today, there are those who place this debt at almost US $ 4,000 million. And that hinders much of the bilateral trade in which the state is involved. It is an obligation to claim it.

In the statement regarding the Vizzotti-Prado Quinteros meeting, the health ministry said the official organize a meeting with the National Vaccination Commission (CONAIN) to review the two most advanced vaccine candidates: Sovereign 02 and Abdala.

In addition, they referred to an amendment to the trust signed five years ago between Argentina and Cuba for the purchase of drugs and vaccines in exchange for food products.

Cuba has been hit hard by the pandemic, in terms of health and economics. Mainly because of the decline in tourism. Today’s figures show more than 75,000 people infected and 424 deaths in a population of over 11 million.