{"id":1051260,"date":"2021-11-24T08:59:09","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T13:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1051260"},"modified":"2021-11-24T08:59:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T13:59:12","slug":"cuba-building-vaccine-plant-in-zimbabwe-that-may-carry-dubious-coronavirus-product","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cuba-building-vaccine-plant-in-zimbabwe-that-may-carry-dubious-coronavirus-product\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba Building Vaccine Plant in Zimbabwe that May Carry Dubious Coronavirus Product"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcuba-building-vaccine-plant-in-zimbabwe-that-may-carry-dubious-coronavirus-product%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1051260&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/AP21020825733652-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Cuba\u2019s communist regime said Monday it will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.herald.co.zw\/cuba-to-establish-local-vaccine-plant\/\">resume<\/a> plans to build a vaccine manufacturing plant in Zimbabwe halted by the coronavirus pandemic, adding it is \u201cpossible\u201d the plant may produce a coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by Cuba, the <em>Herald, a&nbsp;<\/em>Zimbabwean state-owned newspaper,&nbsp;reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a plan to establish a plant in Zimbabwe for the production of vaccines. That project started before Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus] but we stopped because of the pandemic,\u201d Cuban Ambassador to Zimbabwe Carmelina Rodriguez told the <em>Herald<\/em> on November 22.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Covid-19, or the Chinese coronavirus, is the name of the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, a type of coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Herald<\/em> asked Ambassador Rodriguez on Monday if the planned vaccine plant in Zimbabwe would manufacture any of Cuba\u2019s state-made coronavirus vaccine candidates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had not talked about the Covid vaccine production but that is also possible if we get the buy-in of both countries,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBut the idea is to first create a facility,\u201d Rodriguez continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to create a bio-technology agency that will be leading that project,\u201d she revealed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCuba and Zimbabwe have always had a vibrant relationship since before independence,\u201d Ambassador Rodriguez told the <em>Herald<\/em>, referring to Zimbabwe\u2019s independence from Britain in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have doctors deployed in all provincial hospitals across Zimbabwe and we have the intention to increase the number of medical practitioners in Zimbabwe. That is part of our intention to improve the health capacity,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Ambassador Rodriguez <a href=\"http:\/\/misiones.minrex.gob.cu\/en\/articulo\/cuba-explores-new-trade-ties-zimbabwe\">received<\/a> Zimbabwean businessman Omar Anis on September 22 \u201cto exchange about Cuba\u2019s business opportunities with the Zimbabwean business sector,\u201d Cuba\u2019s Representative Office Abroad reported. \u201cAt the meeting, the interest of both parties in exploring economic potential was ratified, to diversify commercial ties.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Cuba\u2019s state-run Finlay Institute of Vaccines and other Cuban government run-medical facilities claim to have successfully developed their own coronavirus vaccine candidates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[I]n a 6 November preprint published on medRxiv1, [Vicente] V\u00e9rez Bencomo and his colleagues report that one of the [Finlay] institute\u2019s vaccines, Soberana 02, is more than 90 percent effective in protecting against symptomatic COVID-19 infection when used in combination with a related vaccine,\u201d the British scientific journal <em>Nature<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-021-03470-x\">reported<\/a> on November 22. Bencomo is the director-general of Havana\u2019s Finlay Institute.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAs of 18 November, 89 percent of Cuba\u2019s population \u2014 including children as young as 2 \u2014 has received at least one dose of Soberana 02 or another Cuban vaccine called Abdala, which is produced at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in Havana,\u201d according to <em>Nature<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe centre reported in July that Abdala, a three-dose vaccine, was more than 92 percent effective [against coronavirus] in phase III trials that included more than 48,000 participants, but the full results have not yet been published,\u201d the scientific journal noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCuba\u2019s regulatory agency authorized Abdala and Soberana 02 shots for use in adults in July and August respectively, and health-care workers began immunizing children with both vaccines a few months later,\u201d&nbsp;<em>Nature<\/em>&nbsp;recalled.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Cuba recently began exporting&nbsp;Abdala and Soberana 02 to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran, and Vietnam. The island\u2019s government has also requested the World Health Organization grant the vaccine candidates \u201cemergency approval\u201d status.<\/p>\n<p>Zimbabwe <a href=\"https:\/\/reliefweb.int\/report\/zimbabwe\/donor-aid-backbone-zimbabwes-health-sector-state-coffers-almost-run-dry\">relies<\/a> almost entirely on external donors and foreign countries to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unicef.org\/esa\/media\/6501\/file\/UNICEF-Zimbabwe-2020-Health-Budget-Brief.pdf\">fund<\/a> its dilapidated healthcare system, in large part due to decades of budget mismanagement by the country\u2019s socialist government. Zimbabwe has been deeply impoverished since late dictator Robert Mugabe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/africa\/2020\/07\/31\/zimbabwe-agrees-to-pay-white-farmers-3-5-billion-it-doesnt-have-for-land-grabs\/\">led<\/a> so-called land reforms in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStarting in 2000, thousands of white Zimbabwean farmers were forced off their land by violent state-backed mobs or evicted in dubious legal judgments, supposedly to help black people marginalized under British colonial rule,\u201d Agence France-Presse (AFP) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/news\/black-and-white-zimbabwe-farmers-try-to-bridge-a-sharp-divide\/\">recalled<\/a> in 2018. \u201cThe farms, however, were often allocated to [then] President Robert Mugabe\u2019s allies [with no knowledge of farming] and fell into ruin, leaving tens of thousands of rural laborers out of work and sending the economy into a tailspin as food production crashed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What little income Zimbabwe produces now struggles to find its way to the country\u2019s public healthcare system due to ongoing corruption and poor budgeting by the country\u2019s current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa. President Mnangagwa served as Zimbabwean vice president under Mugabe from 2014 to 2017 and leads Zimbabwe today under the leftist Zanu-PF political party, which Mugabe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/africa\/2021\/06\/21\/zimbabwe-socialist-officials-accused-stealing-mugabe-genocide-memorial-plaques\/\">created<\/a> in 1987.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have all the basics, the system is a shell,\u201d Tendai Biti, a Zimbabwean opposition politician for the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC) party, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2021\/4\/28\/rich-or-poor-in-zimbabwe-crumbling-healthcare-is-deadly-for-all\">told<\/a> Al Jazeera of her country\u2019s healthcare system in April.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Zimbabwean] President Emmerson Mnangagwa, his ministers and their cronies \u2026 have destroyed hospitals, [and are] now facing the consequences,\u201d Biti said. \u201cThey should have invested in health, but they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHealthcare spending in Zimbabwe has historically been poor compared with other countries in the region,\u201d Al Jazeera recalled in April, citing a 2013 World Health Organization (W.H.O.) report on the state of health financing in southern Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA minimum spending level of $44 per capita was recommended by the High-Level Task Force on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems in 2009,\u201d according to the news outlet. \u201cThe WHO overall recommends a spending level of $86 per person \u2013 more than four times what Zimbabwe allocates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cZimbabwe\u2019s own spending on healthcare was just $21 per citizen in 2020,\u201d Al Jazeera reported.<\/p>\n<p>Mugabe created the Zanu-PF, or the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, in 1987 following a power struggle between Zimbabwe\u2019s two main political parties at the time, the Zimbabwe African People\u2019s Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). Mugabe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/en\/africa\/trauma-of-genocide-lives-on-in-zimbabwe\/1680755\">ordered<\/a> a genocide, known in Zimbabwe as \u201cGukurahundi,\u201d in part because of this political conflict. The Zimbabwe National Army killed an estimated 20,000 civilians, largely Ndebele-speaking Zimbabweans, in a genocidal campaign targeting alleged supporters of anti-government rebels from the early 1980s to late 1987.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cZimbabwe and Cuba have shared good relations that date back more than 40 years,\u201d the <em>Herald<\/em> noted on November 22.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Caribbean Island offered training ground for liberation war fighters during the struggle for Zimbabwe\u2019s independence [from Britain in 1980],\u201d the state-run Zimbabwean newspaper recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Cuba most recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/cubas-government-deploys-security-forces-to-prevent-protest-11637008806\">enacted<\/a> a violent crackdown on peaceful dissidents, including minors, on November 15 as they attempted to stage a second pro-democracy protest following unprecedented pro-democracy marches on the communist island in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cuba\u2019s communist regime said Monday it will resume plans to build a vaccine manufacturing plant in Zimbabwe halted by the coronavirus pandemic, adding it is \u201cpossible\u201d the plant may produce &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1051260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1051260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1051260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1051260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1051260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}