Maduro’s regime wants Cuban Abdala vaccine to be applied to children in October

Dictator Nicolás Maduro announced that in October they could start vaccinating children and young people in Venezuela against COVID-19 with the Cuban dose of Abdala, despite the fact that the WHO has not yet approved the use of the inoculant and that Venezuelan organizations question its effectiveness.

“It is very likely that by October the clinical trial in boys and girls in Cuba will be completed and it is likely that we will be able to start vaccinating boys and girls in schools and high schools. We will move forward on a plan, but on a perfect plan, ”Maduro said in a speech broadcast on Venezuelan state television.

On Tuesday, the Venezuelan authorities began to vaccinate the population against COVID-19 with the Cuban vaccine candidate. A consignment donated by Havana has arrived in Venezuela in recent days and has been incorporated into the government’s mass vaccination plan. The two countries have signed a contract for the supply of 12 million doses in the coming months.

Some Venezuelans and sectors of the opposition had expressed reservations about the lack of information on the vaccination campaign.

On Twitter, opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s communications team announced: “Now Venezuelans are completely defenseless and without the possibility of choice before the imposition of the biological product Abdala, without the approval of the WHO. We demand approved vaccines for everyone ”.

The Venezuelan National Academy of Medicine also showed concern over the announcement of vaccination with Cuban vaccine candidate Abdala which, he pointed out, is in “Experimental development», After the arrival of a batch of these drugs in the country.

“The National Academy of Medicine (…) expresses its concern at the introduction into the Venezuelan population of products of dubious scientific credibilityHe said in a statement, minutes after authorities announced the arrival of a first batch of the vaccine candidate whose efficacy of 92.2% was announced two days ago, according to preliminary results.

On the other hand, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reiterated on Wednesday that The Abdala vaccine is not authorized in an emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).

During the agency’s weekly press conference, Jarbas barbosa, deputy director of PAHO, asked the Cuban authorities to publish the vaccine data “in scientific journals”. Also after The Venezuelan dictatorship announced this week that it is starting to apply this formula, the Brazilian doctor stressed the importance of informing about the evaluation and authorization procedure in the country.

“It would be very important for the producers of the Abdala vaccine to be able, if they completed all the processes of phases 1, 2 and 3, to publish these data in scientific journals so that the scientific community can also publicly assess and know these Les data”remarked Barbosa.

The deputy director of PAHO explained that if the Cuban authorities intend to propose their vaccine for inclusion in the Covax mechanism, “they must apply for an emergency use authorization from the WHO.” “For this, an inspection will be required to certify that the production conforms to good vaccine manufacturing practice, as well as a full and detailed evaluation of all phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials.”

After Venezuela announced that it had started applying the vaccine, Barbosa clarified that each country has independence decision, but clarified: “In order not to have prejudices O restriction to any vaccine, we always recommend that the regulatory authorities of the countries can provide information in a very transparent way for their population, that they evaluated how was the evaluation process (and) what is the situation of the authorization ”.

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