KEY POINTS Cuba’s prestigious biotech sector has developed five different Covid vaccines to date, including Abdala, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus — all of which Cuba has said provide upwards of 90% protection against symptomatic Covid when administered in three doses.The country of roughly 11 million remains the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean to have produced a homegrown shot … [Read more...]
New insights on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the Caribbean
The typical profile of a Caribbean national refusing the vaccine to combat COVID-19 is a person out of formal work and educated to secondary level. This conclusion sums up the finding of a new study on vaccine hesitancy in six Caribbean Community countries. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) commissioned the study while the United States Agency for International … [Read more...]
The interplay between COVID-19 restrictions and vaccination
An intervention is only as effective as the extent to which people are willing to adopt recommended measures. One obstacle to the success of COVID-19 interventions, especially in the USA, has been the politicisation of control measures, including the adoption of masks and physical distancing. Interplay between acceptance of non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination shapes local transmission … [Read more...]
Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated
Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the US now are in people who weren’t vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been and an indication that deaths per day — now down to under 300 — could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine. An Associated Press analysis of available government data from May shows that “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated … [Read more...]
Rastafari Distrust Contributing To Jamaica Vaccine Hesitancy
[Reprinted: CNW, 6-27-2021] At a Rastafari farming community high up in the hills above Jamaica’s capital, dreadlocked locals gather at the temple to worship and celebrate with Bible readings and traditional drumming and chanting. No COVID-19 protocols are in place. This isolated community of around 100 people called the School of Vision has so far escaped the ravages of the pandemic. They … [Read more...]