August 31, 2021
photo: Juan Ignacio Roncoroni / EPA
In Venezuela and much of the world there have been questions about access to covid-19 vaccines, with hoarding by the richest countries undermining the chances of the rest of the planet to get immunized.
A communiqué from the so-called Multilateral Leaders Working Group on COVID-19, composed of different international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and UNICEF, states that “less than 2% of adults are fully vaccinated in most low-income countries, compared to almost 50% in high-income countries.”
Most of these countries are in Africa, where “they simply cannot access enough vaccines to reach even the global targets of 10% coverage in all countries by September and 40% by the end of 2021, let alone the African Union target of 70% by 2022.”
According to World Health Organization data, low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 doses per 100 people due to lack of vaccines.
Such a degree of inequality in the global distribution of vaccines to alleviate the current pandemic has negative repercussions in all areas of human existence, especially in the health-biological area, as it allows the virus to roam freely in a large part of the world, which could lead to more contagious or more deadly variants that could produce an even greater setback in the present emergency situation.
In the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, we have felt the effects of this inequality, with the addition of the economic, financial and commercial blockade maintained by the US government on the State and the population, which has not allowed the Bolivarian Government to access the international vaccine market or even to negotiate directly with Western producers to obtain the medicine.
Venezuela’s strategic alliances with China, Cuba and Russia have allowed a good rhythm of national vaccination, unthinkable for the prophets of disaster and propagandists of domestic and foreign anti-Chavism. The WHO has presented data that suggest a positive progress in this area for the country
-More than 9 million doses of vaccines against covid-19 have been administered.
-More than 32% of the population has at least one dose.
-Eleven out of every 100 people have immunity against the effects of the virus.
According to the data presented, China’s Sinopharm vaccine has been the most applied to the Venezuelan population, with almost 8 million doses, followed by Sputnik V with a little more than 1 million 400 thousand doses.
One of the reasons why the Chinese product has been more widespread in the country is due to the continuous supply by the Chinese government, thanks to bilateral agreements that overcome the obstacles of unilateral coercive measures coming from the Empire.
And the Russian vaccine?
On the other hand, although Sputnik V was the first vaccine to arrive in Venezuela, and although a good number of people have been immunized with this vaccine with its first dose, for some weeks now many users in social networks and among the population on foot in the main cities of the country have been wondering about the lack of supply for the inoculation of the second dose or component.
The concern is understandable, taking into account that Venezuela is going through a convulsive political, economic and social situation as a result of the U.S. strategy of encirclement and suffocation. However, the Gamaleya Institute, the Russian producer of the vaccine, published a press release at the beginning of August confirming that thanks to an increase in vaccine production capacity, the temporary delays in the delivery of the second component will be completely resolved in the following weeks of that month and in September.
In the press release, it says that “Sputnik V has established production agreements with manufacturers in 14 countries and will double its capacity in September thanks to partnerships with major firms such as the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer”.
As a reminder the lack of doses of this product is due to a particularity: unlike the other two-dose vaccines, which use the same component in both vaccines, Sputnik V uses different components. Biocad CEO Dimitry Morozov, whose company is one of the main manufacturers of Sputnik V, told the BBC that “the product is quite difficult to make and you have to make two different and distinct components.”
The institute mentions that global demand for Sputnik V remains very high following evidence of its efficacy and safety published in international peer-reviewed journals. A study published in the journal Vaccines showed that Sputnik V is one of the most efficient vaccines against coronavirus variants, including Delta.
Another recent study of nearly 14,000 people showed that the two-dose Sputnik V reduced the risk of hospitalization with the covid-19 Delta variant by 81% and helped prevent severe lung injury.
In addition, the Gamaleya Institute will accelerate work with other producers in the vaccine combination study. The first component of Sputnik V demonstrated greater than 80% efficacy on its own and will be offered to other producers as part of the combination strategy, being the first in the mixture with the Russian product Astrazeneca’s vaccine.
According to the latest published data, the Russian vaccine has already been registered in 69 countries in the world, with a total population of more than 3.7 billion. So there are still a lot of people on the planet to be supplied with the creation of the Gamaleya Institute.
To this end, Russian manufacturers have allowed Sputnik V to be produced in different regions of the world. Specifically, in the South American region the Republic of Argentina started production of the two doses of the vaccine a few months ago and Mexico did the same a few months ago, as well as Brazil.
It is assumed that the mass production of Sputnik V in these countries will supply the rest of the region, including the Caribbean and Central and North America.
The uncertainty that the anti-Chavez media and opposition politicians have tried to inoculate about the lack of doses of the Russian vaccine should not take long to vanish with the production of the antiviral, which has been shown to date to enjoy the confidence of dozens of governments and has been acclaimed as successful by several rigorous scientific publications.
Many countries in the world will be supplied with Sputnik V, and Venezuela will be no exception. Much less if on this side of the world we have a strategic alliance with the Eurasian powers that break the unipolar paradigm of the United States.
Source: Mision Verdad, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English