Private Story
SOBERANA PLUS
SoberanaPlus Turin is the name of the clinical observation study that brought a group of 35 Italian volunteers to La Havana in November 2021 to test the vaccine produced by the Finlay institute in Cuba.
“Soberana” because it seemed like a sovereign commitment, to a population subject to the economic embargo and suffering from the health crisis due to Covid19 which until a few months earlier had marked a peak of 10 thousand infections a day. So Cuba became the smallest country in the world to successfully develop and produce its own Covid vaccines. With its vaccine, Cuba has immunized over 90% of the population, aged 2 and over, also used as a booster dose in the first pediatric mass vaccination campaign against Covid19. It is a very simple vaccine, explains Dr Vladimir Trujillo, one of the researchers in the clinical study, as it does not contain the depowered virus or its genetic material, but a protein fragment of the virus. The platform on which the vaccine is based is widely used in Cuba (for example against the hepatitis B virus) and is characterized by its safety and a powerful immune reaction. Unlike what has been reported by other vaccines, to date, no myocarditis, thrombosis or Guillain Barré cases have been observed and adverse cases have been limited to usually mild arm pain. A vaccine that, perhaps, would not scare the most reluctant.
We’re waiting for data on the efficacy of their vaccines against Omicron and they’ve already begun work to update their vaccine against the variant.
In addition to the diary that volunteers are required to update on their state of health through the diario.Finlay app, we look forward to the results of the Amedeo di Savoia hospital in Turin which, a month later, checked the antibody response of the patients with a blood draw.
The volunteers were welcomed into the La Pradera clinic, the one that cured Maradona from drug addiction, an avant-garde center of Cuban medicine where guests were greeted with thanks, applause, and children who gave them flowers as a sign of welcome. Doctors provided all necessary information on the vaccine and kept patients under close observation with daily room visits.
“Soberana” because it seemed like a sovereign commitment, to a population subject to the economic embargo and suffering from the health crisis due to Covid19 which until a few months earlier had marked a peak of 10 thousand infections a day. So Cuba became the smallest country in the world to successfully develop and produce its own Covid vaccines. With its vaccine, Cuba has immunized over 90% of the population, aged 2 and over, also used as a booster dose in the first pediatric mass vaccination campaign against Covid19. It is a very simple vaccine, explains Dr Vladimir Trujillo, one of the researchers in the clinical study, as it does not contain the depowered virus or its genetic material, but a protein fragment of the virus. The platform on which the vaccine is based is widely used in Cuba (for example against the hepatitis B virus) and is characterized by its safety and a powerful immune reaction. Unlike what has been reported by other vaccines, to date, no myocarditis, thrombosis or Guillain Barré cases have been observed and adverse cases have been limited to usually mild arm pain. A vaccine that, perhaps, would not scare the most reluctant.
We’re waiting for data on the efficacy of their vaccines against Omicron and they’ve already begun work to update their vaccine against the variant.
In addition to the diary that volunteers are required to update on their state of health through the diario.Finlay app, we look forward to the results of the Amedeo di Savoia hospital in Turin which, a month later, checked the antibody response of the patients with a blood draw.
The volunteers were welcomed into the La Pradera clinic, the one that cured Maradona from drug addiction, an avant-garde center of Cuban medicine where guests were greeted with thanks, applause, and children who gave them flowers as a sign of welcome. Doctors provided all necessary information on the vaccine and kept patients under close observation with daily room visits.
Italian volunteers have full confidence in the Cuban health system, both because they have been producing effective and public vaccines for over thirty years, and because it is the flagship of a social model that aims to level the distinctions, even with enormous difficulties and economic sanctions.
Getting injected with a dose of Soberana Plus has therefore become a political act of solidarity towards a state that has been fighting for a more just society for years.
Getting injected with a dose of Soberana Plus has therefore become a political act of solidarity towards a state that has been fighting for a more just society for years.
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