Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Thu Aug 27, 2020 5:17 pm

US Sanctions Russian Defense Ministry’s Research Institute Participating in Covid-19 Vaccine (Sputnik V) Program

August 26, 2020

The United States has added several Russian research institutes to the sanctions lists, including the 48th Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense, which participated in the work on the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce blacklisted the 33rd Central Research and Testing Institute and the 48th Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, as well as the State Institute of Moscow Organic Chemistry and Technology Scientific Research. The corresponding notice was published this Wednesday in the Federal Register, which collects official documents of the United States government.

Regarding the 48th Central Research Institute, restrictive measures are imposed on its three facilities located in the cities of Sergiyev Posad and Yekaterinburg and in the Kirov region. Precisely this institute participated in the work on the Sputnik V vaccine together with the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology.

The US document states that Washington authorities have reason to suspect that the 33rd Institute has ties to the “Russian chemical program and chemical weapons testing site,” and that the 48th Institute is related “to the Russian biological weapons program,” while the State Institute for Scientific Research for Organic Chemistry and Technology is linked” to the Russian chemical weapons program.”

In total 60 organizations from China, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates have been blacklisted. “The United States government has considered that these 60 institutions are acting against the interests of national security or the foreign policy of the United States,” the document reads.

The current decision of the US regime means a tightening of US export controls in relation to the institutions mentioned in the black list. In this way, Russian entities on the list will be denied legal access to US dual-use products and technologies.

In the opinion of the political analyst and director of the Geopolitical Dossier, Carlos Alberto Pereyra Mele, Trump attacks Russia seeking to achieve political goals on the eve of the presidential elections.

https://orinocotribune.com/us-sanctions ... v-program/

They love them 'two-fers'... As our Russian comrades noted, 'national interests', 'national security' are the interests of the ruling class and nothing else.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 01, 2020 5:16 pm

U.S. Expands Influence in the Brazilian Amazon During Pandemic

The U.S. government and private sector have contributed to fighting coronavirus in the Amazon.

Their intentions for the region concern local advocates.

By Santiago Navarro F / Translation by David Milan / NACLA

With no coherent strategy to slow the advance of Covid-19 in the United States, the Trump administration deployed humanitarian aid to Brazil.

On May 1, the U.S. Embassy in Brazil announced that the Trump administration would allocate a total of $12.5 million to mitigate the socioeconomic and health impacts of the pandemic, with special attention on the Amazon.

“Combating Covid-19 in Brazil is our top priority right now. Working across the U.S. government and engaging closely with American companies in Brazil, we are mobilizing millions of dollars to help Brazilians in need,” said U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Todd Chapman on June 2.

By August 11, the South American country had over 3 million coronavirus cases and 101,752 confirmed deaths.

Meanwhile, infections and deaths continue to rise in Brazil. By August 11, the South American country had over 3 million coronavirus cases and 101,752 confirmed deaths.

“It seems like this help didn’t arrive in time for Indigenous communities, especially those furthest from urban centers,” where deaths have increased drastically, says Adriana María Huber Azevedo, a missionary with the Conselho Indigenista Missionário (the Indigenist Missionary Council, CIMI).

Many Brazilians are skeptical of the intentions of U.S. aid during the pandemic. The U.S. military continues to exert influence in Brazil and has a long history of supporting Indigenous displacement in Latin America. Meanwhile, some aid contributions reflect private interests responsible for environmental and cultural destruction in the Amazon, and others have promoted unproven medical treatments.

Coronavirus Enters the Amazon

The Kokama community, on the banks of the Solimões River in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, consist of around 800 people. They are one of the groups that has been most affected by Covid-19. By the second week of June, a total of 57 Indigenous Kokama people had died. The pandemic is spreading across the region at an alarming speed. Cases and deaths are mounting, and at least 75 different tribal groups have been affected.

The first coronavirus case and death in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, was confirmed when a businessman died in March. The virus quickly spread through more than 25 Indigenous communities.

“The third week of March, the first case among Indigenous peoples was identified. They say that a young Kokama woman, from the town of São José in the municipality of Santo Antônio do Içá, 879 kilometers [546 miles] from Manaus, caught the virus from contact with a doctor,” said CIMI’s Executive Secretary Antônio Eduardo Cerqueira de Oliveira.

In a few weeks, cases rapidly expanded towards the Alto Solimões region, made up of 70 municipalities with a population of around 70,000 Indigenous people from several tribes.

Vale do Javari, located in western Amazonas, has the second highest Indigenous presence of any region in Brazil. At least 7,000 individuals from seven different peoples live there, including them 15 uncontacted tribes. Public servants working for the Special Districts of Indigenous Health (DSEI) who were in the region were confirmed to be infected with Covid-19.

According to records from the Missionary Council, by June 9, the Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira (Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, COIAB) had counted 218 deaths and 2,642 cases among 75 tribes in the area in which DSEI functionaries were operating. CIMI’s June 23 tally had documented a total of 314 deaths in the Amazon region. At that point, the Secretaria Especial de Saúde Indígena (the Special Ministry of Indigenous Health, SESAI) had reported only 107 deaths; the rest were documented by Indigenous organizations.

The under-reporting by official sources has continued. By August 6, SESAI’s confirmed case countamong Indigenous people had climbed to 17,198, but their claim of only 305 deaths is still less than CIMI’s figures from June. The Articulación de los Pueblos Indígenas de Brasil (Articulation of Indigenous People of Brazil, APIB), an independent body, reports 22,656 confirmed cases and 639 deaths.

U.S. Aid to Brazil

United States institutions in Brazil have disbursed funds for several purposes since May. According to an Embassy announcement, funds have contributed to “assistance for emergency health and water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions in Brazil (US$ 6 million),” “support to vulnerable communities, with a focus on the Amazon region (US$ 2 million),” and “refugees in Brazil (US$ 500,000).”

As part of the humanitarian aid package, USAID promised to deliver some 1,000 ventilators. According to a U.S. Embassy statement, since May, “The United States Government has delivered two million doses of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to the people of Brazil … HCQ will be used as a prophylactic to help defend Brazil’s nurses, doctors, and healthcare professionals against the virus. It will also be used as a therapeutic to treat Brazilians who become infected.”

However, Sebastião Pinheiro, a Brazilian agronomist, argues that the donation of this drug is merely publicity. “It’s a business deal by Trump, to benefit the Bayer-Sanofi companies that produce this medication. There is no scientific foundation backing its use against Covid-19… …It’s only Bolsonaro’s administration that promotes it,” said Pinheiro.

Bolsonaro, with no tangible scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of hydroxycloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19, began promoting it as the U.S. Embassy donated the drugs. When Bolsonaro tested positive for the coronavirus in July, he continued to promote hydroxychloroquine as a treatment.

Brazilian Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta was fired in April after refusing to promote the drug. One month later, his successor Nelson Teich resigned after disagreeing with Bolsonaro’s re-opening plan.

Military Presence in the Amazon

While the pandemic advances in Brazil, it is not only the U.S. Embassy and USAID that have intervened, but also the U.S. military’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which covers South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

On May 27, SOUTHCOM announced the donation of $45,000 worth of PPE for medical personnel and food for the region. This comes on top of the $2 million that USAID had donated to the Amazon region “to prevent transmission, support treatment and help mitigate health impacts of the virus,” according to the U.S. Embassy.

While this aid was being delivered to the Municipal Health Ministry and Civil Defense of Manaus, as well as Delphina Aziz Hospital, Ambassador Chapman said, “These donations demonstrate our commitment to the people of the Amazon region and to Brazil.”

SOUTHCOM has had a presence in the region for years. In 2017, it participated in the AmazonLog2017 project, carried out along the border of Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. The event served as a military exercise and a showcase of the weapons industry, carried out in three phases between August 28 and November 13, 2017. More than 2,000 troops participated, from the Brazilian, Colombian, and Peruvian armies as well as those of invited countries, among them SOUTHCOM.

Pinheiro is skeptical of the declared goals of the U.S. presence in the Amazon. “If coronavirus in the U.S. has mostly impacted poor, Latino, and African American people because there’s no public health system, are they really interested in poor and Indigenous people in the Amazon?” he said.

Pinheiro argues that the U.S. presence has other objectives.“Bolsonaro promised the United States and American companies that he would push Indigenous peoples out of their territories to open up public lands for the expansion of agriculture, ranching, mining, and energy production, among other things. The 2019 wildfires helped with this, in the same way coronavirus is working now,” he said.

According to Pinheiro, in September 2019, while the wildfires all over the Brazilian Amazon were intensifying, the U.S. and Brazil governments reaffirmed their promotion of “private sector development in the Amazon.”

This agreement was announced in Washington DC by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and his Brazilian counterpart Ernesto Araújo. In a press conference on September 13, 2019, they outlined a bilateral cooperation strategy to be implemented in the Amazon.

“The Brazilians and the American teams will follow through on our commitment that our presidents made in March [2019]. We’re getting off the ground a $100 million 11-year Impact Investment Fund for Amazon biodiversity conservation,” said Pompeo.

Araújo agreed: “We want to be together in the effort to create development for the Amazon region, which we are convinced … is the only way to really protect the forest.” He added, “We need new initiatives, new productive initiatives that create jobs, that create revenue for people in the Amazon, and that’s where our partnership with the United States will be very important for us.”

These declarations built on a meeting between the presidents of the U.S. and Brazil in March 2019. Trump said, “President Bolsonaro and I are both committed to reducing trade barriers, facilitating investment, and supporting innovation across a range of industries, particularly energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and technology. [Bolsonaro]’s vision for freeing the private sector and opening the economy is the right way for Brazil to achieve strong economic growth.”

The Brazilian leader confirmed the increase in military cooperation between Brazil and the U.S., through access to a military base in Alcântara and technological exchange.

The cozy relationship between Ambassador Chapman’s and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro also indicates increasingly close ties between the two governments. Chapman, who was appointed to the position in late March, came under fire after an article surfaced in Brazilian newspaper O Globo on July 30 claiming that he had asked for Brazil to lower ethanol tariffs as a political favor to boost Trump’s poll figures in Iowa.

The revelations have increased concern over Chapman’s strong ties to private industry. According to his U.S. Embassy bio, “Chapman’s career has focused on promoting economic development and security partnerships around the world.” Prior to entering the Foreign Service, “[H]e worked as a commercial banker in New York and Saudi Arabia, and later as a business consultant in Brazil and his hometown of Houston, Texas.”

The Private Sector and Covid-19

According to the U.S. Embassy in São Paulo, at least “four hundred of the five hundred largest companies in the United States are in Brazil, many for several decades, sharing and developing solutions for Brazil and for the world.”

Some of these companies, with investments across several production and service sectors in Brazil, have joined onto the Trump administration strategy during the pandemic. By May 31, approximately $40.5 million had been donated by U.S. companies to support Brazilians during the pandemic.

Along with the private sector, the U.S. government donated $53 million to combat the impacts of Covid-19 in Brazil. This was a joint action between the American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil (Amcham), the U.S. Embassy, and the Mais Unidos group.

Mais Unidos is a collaborative social investment fund, partnering “the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Brazil through its U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and American companies.”

“The United States government and private sector are strongly committed to helping the Brazilian people to combat Covid-19 in Brazil,” the Embassy announced in a report.

Donor companies include agro-industrial giants including Bunge, Cargill, ADM, Dupont, McDonald’s, CocaCola, Pepsico, and BurgerKing, among others. These businesses have directly and indirectly incentivized Amazon deforestation. Amazon Watch documented these trends in their report Complicity in Destruction II. Many of these donations came in the form of the companies’ own products rather than cash.

Cargill, Bunge, and ADM are the three largest soy producers in Brazil. These companies supply soy to many international firms, including fast food brands such as McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King. According to the environmental organization Greenpeace, at least 35 billion hectares (86 billion acres), an area the size of Germany, is devoted to soy production alone.

A Greenpeace report found that soy production in Brazil has more than quadrupled over the past two decades, and is expected to increase by another third over the next 10 years. This would be an area equivalent to three times the size of Belgium.

Soy is used to feed livestock, another factor in the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. According to Jorge Camardelli, president of the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (ABIEC), in 2019 Brazil broke its records in beef exports—1.8 million tons, worth $7.6 billion, a 12.5 percent increase from 2018. As of July 2019, Brazil had 232 million head of cattle distributed across the most strategic areas of the country, like the Amazon.

It is possible that American companies are worried about containing the spread of Covid-19. But these executives are also concerned with restarting commercial production and, with it, projects that have been put on hold. When the pandemic has passed, they hope the U.S. and Brazilian governments continue to turn a blind eye to the environmental and social consequences of transnational businesses in the Amazon region. Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to affect Brazil’s most vulnerable populations with no end in sight.

Santiago Navarro F is an economist, journalist, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. He is co-founder of the investigative journalism portal Avispa Mídia, a contributor to the Truthout, and a prominent member of the Connectas Journalistic Community.

David Milan is a freelance writer and translator based in Tucson, Arizona. He regularly works with Avispa Midia, an independent media collective covering political, economic, and social events in Latin America.

This article originally appeared at NACLA and is republished with permission.

https://www.brasilwire.com/u-s-expands- ... -pandemic/

They will make money on our bones
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:34 am

US won't join global coronavirus vaccine effort led by WHO

By Paul LeBlanc, CNN

Updated 6:46 PM ET, Tue September 1, 2020

Washington (CNN)The United States will not participate in an international effort to develop and distribute a coronavirus vaccine because the initiative is tied to the World Health Organization, the White House said Tuesday.

The decision, which comes at a critical point in the US coronavirus response, with cases topping 6 million, will keep the US isolated from the more 170 countries involved in the COVAX initiative working to provide worldwide access to an effective vaccine.
"The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China," White House spokesperson Judd Deere said in a statement.
"This President will spare no expense to ensure that any new vaccine maintains our own FDA's gold standard for safety and efficacy, is thoroughly tested, and saves lives."
Aside from underscoring Trump's long-standing distrust of global alliances and, in particular, his criticism of the WHO, the decision marks a notable bet on Operation Warp Speed, the federal government's effort to speed development of drugs, vaccines and other measures to fight the pandemic. Two Covid-19 vaccines are in Phase 3 trials in the US -- those made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech -- and two more are expected to begin Phase 3 trials by mid-September.
"Under President Trump's leadership, vaccine and therapeutic research, development, and trials have advanced at unprecedented speed to deliver groundbreaking, effective medicines driven by data and safety and not held back by government red tape," Deere said.

(ad nauseum...)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/politics ... index.html

**************************************************************

Soberana is Cuba’s, the first candidate vaccine against COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean
A vaccine that exemplifies the development of Cuban science; that places us on the level of economically advanced countries; that honors Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, the principal architect of the country’s biotechnology sector. This is what Soberana is, the first Cuban candidate vaccine against COVID-19 authorized for testing in clinical trials.

Author: Yudy Castro Morales | internet@granma.cu

Author: Abel Reyes Montero | informacion@granmai.cu

august 27, 2020 09:08:37

A vaccine that exemplifies the development of Cuban science; that places us on the level of economically advanced countries; that honors Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, the principal architect of the country’s biotechnology sector. This is what Soberana is, the first Cuban candidate vaccine against COVID-19 authorized for testing in clinical trials.

To discuss the process of its development, entering the first phase of clinical trials the end of August, the results of which should be available early next year, and the accomplishment achieved by the joint work of a large group of Cuban scientists, leaders of the Finlay Vaccine Institute (IFV), project researchers, and the assistant director of the State Center for Quality Control of Medications (Cecmed), appeared on Cuban television’s Mesa Redonda program.

This is vaccine candidate number 30 – the first in Latin America and the Caribbean – to receive authorization for clinical trials, among the more than 200 under development around the world, noted Vicente Vérez Bencomo, director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute. He emphasized that, given the lack of knowledge of the previously unknown virus, it was impossible to predict how quickly a COVID-19 vaccine could be developed, since projects of this kind generally take years.

Nevertheless, he said, over an unprecedented short period of time, much information on SARS-COV-2 has been generated around the world, and, again exceptionally, access to these scientific studies has been made available free of charge.

He recalled that, in the beginning, the first option to develop a vaccine was basically to cultivate the virus, inactivate it, and put the material to use, the well-known procedure used to develop vaccines of this nature. How this would work was not known precisely, but by this past January, the world was moving forward with the first efforts using traditional methods.

Subsequently, Vérez continued, after the virus’ genome mapping was completed in March, a group of vaccine projects based on this genetic information began to advance more rapidly, although reservations about them emerged.

Plus, cultivating the virus in large quantities implies a number of risks in terms of the production process, making the use of this technical approach practically impossible for the Cuban industry.

By April, as more was known and understood about the behavior of the virus, it was possible to identify similarities with others for which vaccines had been developed, making Cuba’s previous experience in such work applicable. Thus, another option was available to Cuban institutions, allowing some phases of the process to be shortened, Vérez explained.

As studies advanced, he noted, the world’s regulatory system began to adapt to the pandemic and established time frames were shortened, without foregoing security requirements for the development of a vaccine.

The Finlay director recalled that a meeting between researchers and the country’s highest leadership in May was very stimulating, with emphasis placed on the importance of Cuba having its own vaccine to guarantee our sovereignty.

Vérez went on to explain that the development of a vaccine involves four fundamental phases. The first is the pharmaceutic stage that includes trials in animals, testing for toxicity and other elements, to conclude with approval to begin clinical trials.

Next, he continued, phase one of the clinical trials requires showing, in a small group of subjects, that the product is safe. In phase two, with a broader group of volunteers, the goal is to see if the candidate vaccine produces an adequate immune response, and finally in phase three, its effectiveness in preventing the disease is determined.

He emphasized that Cuban scientists have only reached the first milestone on a long, steep path, but have done so in just three months, and in the case of the new coronavirus, this is a critical phase.

He noted that China is the country working on the highest number of candidates, followed by the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany, and others, but Cuba’s is the first in Latin America and the first in a poor country – poor in material resources but rich in spirit.

WHY SOBERANA?

According to Vicente Vérez, there are many versions as to how the vaccine’s name emerged; but the people named it Soberana (Sovereign), he said, based on the pride we all feel in this accomplishment of Cuban science.

And why the dedication to Fidel? The institution’s director referred to his own humble origins, and his gratitude, since it is thanks to the Revolution that he became a scientist.

For all the project’s investigators, he insisted, this is a very important achievement, but to paraphrase the musicians who wrote “Valientes,” this is not heroism at all, but rather a kiss for the homeland, nothing more.

A QUESTION OF SOVEREIGNTY

For his part, Yury Valdés Balbín, IFV assistant director, reported that after representatives of the country’s scientific community met with the President of the Republic, Cuban experts re-designed the entire strategy which was being followed to that point, with the focus on shortening the time required for each phase in the development of a COVID-19 candidate vaccine.

In his contribution to the conversation, Valdés explained how the feasibility of this accomplishment was envisioned, that is reaching the current stage in only three months, and the importance of launching such as ambitious project on the island.

His explanation included four key challenges to be overcome along the path to what we know today as Soberana. He referred to different scientific tests the team involved was obliged to face, among them he highlighted the identification of the protein RBD as the project’s principal antigen. He likewise noted the employment of platforms previously established to advance the process, stating that this has become a common practice around the world in an effort to speed up development of a COVID-19 vaccine, given the global impact of the illness caused by the new coronavirus.

As the third key to success, Valdés noted the application of new knowledge in real time, and the challenge this method implies for the scientific community working to contain the pandemic. Finally, he cited as the fourth key element the articulated action conducted through alliances between different institutions, highlighting, in this case, the collaboration of the University of Havana and the Molecular Immunology Center with his institution.

In this regard, he noted that the alliance did not emerge for the purpose of this particular project, but rather that joint work underway was re-directed to focus on a possible vaccine, given the health emergency created by COVID-19.

He additionally emphasized the contribution of the state enterprise group BioCubaFarma and other biotechnology centers in the country.

To give each one the credit they deserve, in what is undoubtedly one of the most significant achievements of Cuban science, Valdés used the metaphor of a puzzle to show how every single man and woman involved in the task played an important role in the project that is giving the Cuban people hope.

He made clear that, although the conception of the project was expedited, no established stage was skipped during the process thus far, since the initial design, and outlined the many different steps taken by researchers to date.

At another point during the presentation on Soberana, Belinda Sánchez Ramírez, director of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the Molecular Immunology Center (CIM), described the scientific contribution of this institution to the vaccine project making news these days.

She reported that the CIM took on the responsibility of producing the complex protein RBD, the antigen identified at the Finlay Vaccine Institute as key to creating the vaccine. Thus, she said, the Center joined the process, contributing its 25 years of experience in using mammal cell technology, which is the established method of producing this antigen.

Sánchez emphasized that the CIM has the capacity to culture mammal cells on a large scale to produce this protein, and is prepared to produce the quantities of RBD needed to meet national demand for the vaccine.

A SCIENTIFIC IDEA IN A DOSE OF VACCINE

The director of research at the Finlay Vaccine Institute, Dr. Dagmar García Rivera, explained that reaching this point has been a challenge, since there was no knowledge of certain elements of the disease, requiring scientists to review every piece of information on the subject that emerged over the past few months.

Fortunately, she added, a great deal of information has been generated in a short period of time and the international community has been afforded access free of charge.

This allowed Cuban scientists to take advantage of new knowledge to develop a good design for our candidate vaccine, she said, and take the RBD route, “a known protein that we have the capacity here to fully characterize.”

She explained that Soberana is a sub-unit vaccine and explained the combination of this vaccine with one developed to prevent meningitis, in use for over 30 years on the island, with proven effectiveness and safety in several age groups, noting, “The idea was to create a vaccine based on existing platforms, to shorten the time required.”

Dr. García reported that seven days after the first dose was administered in rats, the level of RBD antibodies had risen, even more apparent 28 days later, explaining, “The presence of antibodies seven days after the vaccination in animals is a distinctive characteristic and probably attributable to the immune response strengthening ability of the external membrane’s vesicle, in which we formulated the vaccine.”

She added that the clinical trials began with the recruitment of participants and the first vaccination on August 24, emphasizing that the selection process conducted by a medical team was rigorous and involved a written agreement signed by the 676 volunteers, along with the commitment to a two-month follow up period.

The doctor concluded her remarks calling for social responsibility, emphasizing, “At this moment, Soberana needs the support of the entire people.”

CONTROL, APPROVAL & SUPPORT FROM CECMED

The authorization for clinical trials of the candidate vaccine Soberana approved by Cuba’s State Center for Quality Control of Medications, Equipment and Devices (Cecmed) provides unquestionable evidence of the scientific rigor involved in the development of a Cuban vaccine to prevent COVID-19.

This prestigious institution is charged with promoting and protecting public health, via a regulatory system capable of guaranteeing timely access to a supply of safe, effective, quality products and accurate information on their rational use, and in this capacity, certified with its approval the merits of the vaccine project identified as FINLAY-FR-1.

Led by the Finlay Vaccine Institute and the Molecular Immunology Center, both affiliated with the state enterprise group BioCubaFarma, with the collaboration of the University of Havana’s Chemical and Biomolecular Synthesis Laboratory, Cuban scientists have satisfactorily completed the pharmaceutical phase of the vaccine development process, with pre-clinical trials in animals.

Engineer Yaquelín Rodríguez Valdés, Cecmed assistant director, explained that this past January, as Cuba was preparing to confront the pandemic, the regulatory agency was called upon to participate in coordinating the country’s innovation committee, allowing for its timely participation, from the very beginning, in development of the vaccine.

She emphasized the great advantage Cuba has in its strong pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, along with an internationally recognized regulatory body.

Among the facts that confirm this reality, she mentioned the Pan American Health Organization’s authorization of pre-qualification for Cuba’s recombinant anti-hepatitis B vaccine, “which allowed us to demonstrate that not only were our productive processes strong, but backed by a regulatory authority as well, leading to our becoming the first vaccine regulation system in Latin America to be granted competent authority, granted by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has been maintained to date,” she reported.

Rodríguez additionally cited WHO’s recognition in 2010 of Cedmed as a Level 4 Regulatory Authority of Reference (the maximum status granted), another confirmation of the agency’s competency in certifying medications, to which in 2017 the authority to control vaccines used in the country was added.

She noted among the institution’s strengths its broad knowledge of the Cuban pharmaceutical industry; the rigor with which products, best practices, and clinical trials are reviewed, prior to their certification, or authorization in the case of clinical trials, requirements for which are obligatory and must be met before the product is registered.

The Cedmed assistant director emphasized that her institution will continue supporting the clinical trials, as the Finlay will be submitting ongoing partial reports for their consideration and the final report on findings in subsequent phases of the process.

(Infografía)
PREVENTATIVE VACCINES PRODUCED IN CUBA

Anti-Hepatitis b

institution: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology Center (CIGB)

Anti-Meningoccus bc

institution: Carlos J. Finlay Pharmaceutical Laboratory

Anti-Rabies

institution: Carlos J. Finlay Pharmaceutical Laboratory

Anti-Tetanus

institution: Carlos J. Finlay Pharmaceutical Laboratory

Anti-Diphtheria & Tetanus

institution: Carlos J. Finlay Pharmaceutical Laboratory

Anti-Diphtheria, Tetanus & Whooping Cough (dtp)

institution: Carlos J. Finlay Pharmaceutical Laboratory

Trivalent Anti-leprosy

institution: Carlos J. Finlay Pharmaceutical Laboratory

Tetravalent dtp-hb (Trivac-Hb)

Against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis & hepatitis B recombinant

institution: CIGB

Pentavalent Heberpenta

(combined vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, hemophilic influenza type B & hepatitis B) recombinant

institution: CIGB

Anti-Typhoid

(to prevent typhoid fever)

institution: Carlos J. Finlay Pharmaceutical Laboratory

Anti-Hemophilic influenza type B

institution: Carlos J. Finlay Pharmaceutical Laboratory, CIGB & National Bio-preparations Center (BioCen)



MILESTONES IN CUBAN BIOTECHNOLOGY

Immunization Program

Created in 1962, as part of political, economic and social transformations initiated in 1959, after the triumph of the Revolution

Immunoassay Center

Inaugurated September 7, 1987, specialized in the development of diagnostic systems. Cuba’s unique SUMA (Ultra-micro Analytical System) devices were designed here, to conduct broad testing for congenital defects and today used for a variety of diagnosis, including COVID-19.

Introduction of Oral Polio Vaccine

In 1962 Cuba became the first country to eliminate poliomyelitis

National Center for Scientific Research (cnic)

Founded by Presidential resolution, July 1, 1962, to conduct scientific investigations

Finlay Vaccine Institute

Founded in 1991 and devoted to the production of vaccines, creator of the anti-leprosy vaccine and producer of many other standard vaccines.

National Center for Production of Laboratory Animals (Cenpalab)

On October 5, 1982, Fidel approved the Cenpalab project and in May of the following year, its construction began. Responsible for the important task of supplying this indispensable resource to research institutions, including feed and veterinary vaccines.

National Biopreparations Center (BioCen)

Founded in 1992. Manufactures products developed in other research centers, including the hepatitis B vaccine, culture media, allergens and anti-anemia drugs. Investigating new culture media, the production of hydrolyzed proteins, and allergy remedies.

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology Center (cigb)

Founded July 1, 1986, by Fidel Castro Ruz. Combines research with experimental development, the production of pharmaceuticals and their commercialization.

Molecular Immunology Center

Founded in 1994, by Fidel Castro Ruz, as a comprehensive biotechnology institution devoted to research, development, production and commercialization.

Pharmaceutical Chemistry Center

Founded April 1, 1989. Conducts scientific-technical research to support development of bio-active systems for the elaboration of medications.

-Recombinant thrombotic estreptoquinesa, produced by cigb, to be used in treating infarto agudo de miocardio.
-Recombinant Human Interferon Alfa 2b, created by cigb scientists in the late 1980s, and currently one of the medications most successfully used to treat

covid-19.
-Peptide cigb-258, able to detain the process of pulmonary inflammation, that often proves fatal for COVID-19 patients in serious or critical condition

-Peptide cigb-325, contributes to controlling the deterioration of COVID-19 patients

SOBERANA

PURPOSE: Prevent COVID-19

AGE GROUP UNDER STUDY: 19-80 years of age

SAMPLE SIZE: 676 subjects

PRINCIPAL PROMOTER: Finlay Vaccine Institute

PARTICIPANTS: healthy volunteers

REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION IN SOBERANA CLINICAL TRIALS

–Signed informed consent agreement

–Aged 19-59 or 59-80 years

–Body mass index between 18 and 29.9 kg/m2

SOBERANA CLINICAL TRIALS TIMELINE

First vaccination: 24/08/2020

Last vaccination: 30/10/2020

Conclusion: 11/01/2021

Findings available: 1/02/2021

First publication: 15/02/2021

DESIGN: GUILLERMO MERIÑO SUÁREZ

SOURCES: JUVENTUD TÉCNICA & GRANMA

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2020-08-27/sob ... -caribbean

Who ya gonna trust?

I will wait, petition, in order to get a vaccine I have confidence in, not the greed driven gimcrackery from the parasites of Big Pharma.
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by solidgold » Mon Sep 07, 2020 10:18 am

COVID is definitely canceled once Biden gets in office, right?

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Mon Sep 07, 2020 11:42 am

solidgold wrote:
Mon Sep 07, 2020 10:18 am
COVID is definitely canceled once Biden gets in office, right?
Expect the 'USA!' approach to vaccine to continue. Dubious as to whether I'll put that in my body... A return to 'normality'....normal imperialism, normal racism, though of course much of Trump's actions regarding environmental regulation will be ratified by neglect. ' The Democrats are the piss which sets the Republican dye'
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:21 pm

Experts air concern over US push for vaccine
China Daily Global | Updated: 2020-09-09 09:44

Image
FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Vaccine COVID-19" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken April 10, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

The White House is pushing for the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine on or before Nov 1. At the same time, it is trying to distract the American public from the devastation the novel coronavirus has wreaked in the United States.

The US administration's approaches are worrying many scholars and vaccine experts.

In an article published by US magazine Foreign Policy, Laurie Garrett, a former senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote that she had no confidence that a safe and effective vaccine will be ready for use by Halloween.

"In its mad sprint to Election Day, the White House has funneled billions of dollars into drug companies and ordered government agencies to execute their public health duties at breakneck speeds that defy credulity," Garrett said.

She said the timetable is simply too short for full safety analysis of any vaccine.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified states to be ready to distribute one to high-priority groups as soon as Nov 1-two days before the presidential election.

But none of the more than 150 vaccines in the research pipeline worldwide have completed phase 3 safety and efficacy clinical trials, Garrett said.

The CDC deadline has fueled concerns among Democrats and some health officials of political pressures to fast-track vaccine approval at the expense of public safety.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement on Thursday the public should be cautious the administration of US President Donald Trump may influence the Food and Drug Administration's decision to approve a COVID-19 vaccine earlier than is safe for political gain.

Politicizing effort

In early August, 417 vaccine experts sent a letter to FDA chief Stephen Hahn, expressing concern that Operation Warp Speed-the Trump administration's multibillion-dollar vaccine campaign-was overly politicizing the effort and corners might be cut in safety and efficacy screening.

Others have noted that release of a poorly effective or side effects-inducing COVID vaccine risks permanently eroding public trust in the entire process, leading to the populace's refusal to immunize.

Nine vaccine makers-Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, BioNTech, Johnson &Johnson, Moderna, and Novavax-followed suit, issuing their own public pledge not to seek government approval without extensive safety and effectiveness data on Tuesday, according to US health news website Stat.

The White House has refused to join in international cooperation on vaccines.

On Aug 24, World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva that a 172-nation commitment, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility is aiming to hasten collaboration worldwide for creation of a vaccine for all of humanity. "Our only way out of this pandemic is together," Tedros said.

But the White House announced on Sept 2 that the US will refuse to join in, or cooperate with, COVAX. "The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China," said White House spokesman Judd Deere.

The WHO solidarity effort argued in an editorial published in The Lancet in August that a weakly effective vaccine could actually worsen the pandemic if it induced authorities to relax control measures, such as mask-wearing, or if vaccinated people believed they were immune and increased their risk-taking behavior.

Premature approvals

Many vaccine veterans worry that political forces-the US presidential election, nationalistic pride to "win" a race and the need to resuscitate economies-could lead to premature and dangerous approvals under mechanisms such as the emergency use authorization, a pathway used by the US to allow rapid access to diagnostics, treatments and vaccines, according to Science magazine.

The White House's top health officials and advisers last week adamantly insisted political motivations won't play into timeline for coronavirus vaccine.

But US officials are continuing to politicize the pandemic. In a State Department tweet on Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed the finger at China for the virus.

In a tweet responding to Pompeo's remarks, Michael Swaine, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, said: "Here is a clear example of the use of COVID 2 try to distract the US public from the real source of the devastation the virus has wreaked in the US: Trump and self-deluded Americans who think that individual liberty justifies a callous disregard for the safety of others. Pathetic."

The US has seen 6,222,974 COVID-19 cases and 188,003 deaths as of Tuesday, according to the World Health Organization.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20200 ... 586d9.html
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:17 pm

China says no need to vaccinate entire population against Covid-19 at this stage, only frontline workers
CNN Expansion Hong Kong July 2020 795169, Jessie Yeung
By Jessie Yeung, CNN

Updated 4:06 AM ET, Mon September 14, 2020

(CNN)Not everyone in China will need to get vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the country's top medical official, as Beijing looks to prioritize frontline workers and high-risk populations in a move that underscores rising confidence among policy-makers of their ability to contain the virus.

"Since the first wave of Covid-19 appeared in Wuhan, China has already survived the impact of Covid-19 several times," Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at a vaccine summit in the city of Shenzhen on Saturday, according to state-run news agency China News Service.
The question of vaccinating the public was one of balancing "risks and benefits," he added, pointing to factors like cost and potential side effects. There isn't currently a need for mass vaccination at this stage -- though that could change if another serious outbreak takes place, Gao said.
The policy marks China apart from many Western governments, most notably Australia, that have outlined plans to introduce mass public vaccination drives.
China's reported virus numbers have stayed low since the spring. There have been a few flare-ups -- clusters in the northeastern Jilin province in May, an outbreak in Beijing in June, and another in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi in July -- but these were met with immediate lockdown measures and mass testing, and the outbreaks were contained within a few weeks.
Gao cited these brief outbreaks as evidence of China's effective containment measures. "The facts have proven that we have several magic weapons to respond to the epidemic," he said, according to China News Service.

Any potential vaccine would instead be prioritized for those on the front lines, he added: medical workers, Chinese nationals working overseas in virus hostpots, and people working in dense, high-risk environments like restaurants, schools or cleaning services.

On Saturday, China's National Health Commission only recorded 10 new symptomatic confirmed cases, all imported from overseas. It also reported 70 new asymptomatic cases, which are counted separately, also all imported.
CNN has reached out to the NHC for further comment.

Global race for a vaccine

Despite Gao's comments, China has been one of the biggest players in the global race to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
China is the world's largest producer and consumer of vaccines, and can supply more than 1 billion doses of a vaccine annually from 40 manufacturers across the country, according to the 2018-2022 China Human Vaccine Industry Report.
Of the more than 30 vaccines currently in human trials globally, nine are from China -- the most from any country. And four of the nine vaccine candidates in late-stage trials are being developed by Chinese companies.
Just last week, the University of Hong Kong announced that clinical trials have been approved for a nasal spray vaccine, developed in collaboration with mainland Chinese researchers.
China has already pushed forward some vaccines before their efficacy has been fully proven. In late June, the country approved an experimental vaccine for use by its military. And since July, China has been using a different experimental vaccine on people who work in "high risk" jobs like medical professionals and border agents. Neither vaccine has completed Phase 3 trials.
Other countries may follow suit; the Indian health minister said on Sunday that the government was considering granting emergency authorization to Covid-19 vaccine candidates before the completion of Phase 3 trials.
Gao himself was injected with an experimental vaccine in July, in a move that was "intended to enhance the public's confidence in vaccines," according to state-run tabloid Global Times.
Experts have previously said that vaccination is key for countries like China, where the percentage of infected people within the population is relatively low due to strict containment measures.
"The overall immunity is very low. And so in these places, definitely the way forward is vaccinations," said Ivan Hung, an infectious diseases specialist at the Hong Kong University School of Medicine, in late August.

But Gao warned on Saturday that vaccine development is still a work in progress, with risks of poor side-effects.
"Since there has never been a Covid-19 vaccine developed before, which makes this case the very first in science, it is possible that it may induce ADE (antibody-dependent enhancement) effects as any other firsts we will possibly face," he said, according to Global Times.
ADE is when specific antibodies help a virus to enter cells and replicate -- basically, when a treatment makes the disease worse.
"Scientific research is a very rigorous process, we need to give scientists a bit more time," he added.

https://us.cnn.com/2020/09/14/asia/chin ... index.html

A good report, considering the source. But will it be presented honestly on TV, if at all? Or will it be misconstrued and weaponized by either or both parties for electoral purposes? My guess is that it will be ignored.
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:11 pm

The Difference Between the US and China’s Response to COVID-19 is Staggering
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 15, 2020
Vijay Prashad, John Ross


Image
A medical worker guides people at a nucleic acid testing site in Tongzhou District of Beijing, capital of China, June 22, 2020. China contained the spread of COVID-19 to other provinces through mass testing, early lockdown measures and an overall focus on saving people’s lives. Photo: Xinhua/Zhang Chenlin.

In Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, he reports on interviews he did in February and March with US President Donald Trump about the coronavirus. Trump admitted that the virus was virulent, but he decided to underplay its danger. “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump said, “because I don’t want to create a panic.” Despite months of warnings from the Chinese authorities, Trump and his health secretary Alex Azar completely failed to prepare for the global pandemic.

The United States continues to have the largest total number of cases of COVID-19. The government continues to flounder as the number of cases escalates. Not one state in the country seems immune to the spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, in China, ever since the virus was crushed in Wuhan, the government merely has had to contain small-scale localized outbreaks; in the last month, China has had zero domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases. Martin Wolf wrote in the Financial Times on March 31 that China was successful in “bringing the disease under control in Hubei and halting its spread across China.” There was never a pan-China outbreak. It is more accurate to call it a Hubei outbreak.

Measuring People’s Lives

While Trump lied to his own citizens about the disease, China’s president Xi Jinping said that his government would be “putting people first.” China hastily subordinated its economic priorities to the task of saving lives.

As a consequence of a science-based approach, China’s government broke the chain of infection very quickly. By early September, this country of 1.4 billion had 85,194 COVID-19 cases and 4,634 deaths (India, with a comparable population, had 4.8 million cases and 80,026 deaths; India is losing more lives each week than the total deaths in China).

The United States, meanwhile, has suffered from 198,680 deaths and 6.7 million cases. In absolute numbers, the US deaths are about 43 times China’s and the case number is about 79 times higher.

The US government, unlike the government in China, hesitated to properly craft a lockdown and test the population. That is why, in per capita terms, US deaths are about 186 times higher than those in China and the cases are about 343 times higher.

Trump’s racist attempt to pin the blame on China is pure diversion. China contained the virus. The US has totally failed to do so. The enormous number of US deaths were ‘Made in Washington,’ not ‘Made in China.’

Measuring the Economy

In the first quarter of 2020, the Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 6.8 percent compared to a year earlier. Due to the fast elimination of domestic transmission of the virus, economic recovery in China has been rapid. By the second quarter, China’s GDP has been up 3.2 percent compared to the same period in 2019. The International Monetary Fund projects that China will be the only major economy to experience positive growth.

How did China’s economy rebound so fast? The answer is clear: the socialist character of the economy. By July, China’s state investment was 3.8 percent above its level of a year ago, while private investment is still 5.7 percent below 2019. China has used its powerful state sector to boost itself out of recession. This illustrates the macro-efficiency of the state sector.

In mid-August, the Communist Party of China’s theoretical journal Qiushi (Seeking Truth) published a speech by Xi Jinping, in which he said, “The foundation of China’s political economy can only be a Marxist political economy, and not be based on other economic theories.” The main principles of this are “people-centered development thinking.” This was the foundation of the government’s response to the pandemic and the economy in its context.

Trump, meanwhile, made it very clear that his administration would not conduct anything near a national lockdown; it seems his priority was to protect the economy over American lives. As early as March, when there was no sign that the pandemic could be controlled in the United States, Trump announced, “America will again and soon be open for business—very soon.”

Disaster in the United States

Inefficient policies in the United States resulted in runaway COVID-19 infection rates. The basic protocols—masks, hand sanitizer—were not taken seriously. And the impact on the US economy has been catastrophic.

The US made it clear that it was not going to pursue anything near a people-centered approach. Trump’s entire emphasis was to keep the economy open, largely because he remains of the view that his election victory will come via the pocketbook; the human cost of this policy is ignored. The US only had half a lockdown, and little testing and contact tracing.

The GDP of the United States in the second quarter fell by 9.5 percent as compared to a year earlier. There is no indication of strong improvement. The IMF estimates that US economic contraction will be about 6.6 percent for the year. The “risk ahead,” writes the IMF, “is that a large share of the US population will have to contend with an important deterioration of living standards and significant economic hardship for several years to come.” The disruption will have long-term implications. These problems are laid out clearly by the IMF: “preventing the accumulation of human capital, eroding labor force participation, or contributing to social unrest.” This is the exact opposite of the scenario unfolding in China.

It is as if we live on two planets. On one planet, there is outrage about the hypocrisy in what Trump said to Woodward, and outrage about the collapse of both the health system and the economy—with a harsh road forward to rebuild either. On the other planet, the chain of infection has been broken, although the Chinese government remains vigilant and is willing to sacrifice short-term economic growth to save the lives of its citizenry.

Trump’s attack on China, his threats to decouple the United States from China, his racist noises about the “Chinese virus”—all this is bluster designed as part of an information war to delegitimize China. Xi Jinping, meanwhile, has focused on “dual circulation,” which means domestic measures to raise living standards and eliminate poverty, and on the Belt and Road Initiative; both of these will lessen Chinese dependence on the United States.

Two planets might begin to drift apart, one moving in the direction of the future, the other out of control.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest book is Washington Bullets, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.

John Ross is a senior fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He was formerly director of economic policy for the mayor of London.

This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2020/09/ ... taggering/
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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Wed Oct 07, 2020 3:55 pm

THE RUSSIAN SPUTNIK V VACCINE IN VENEZUELA
7 Oct 2020 , 10:48 am .

Image

Venezuela will host the third round of clinical trials of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. The announcement was made on October 2 by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, the same day that the aircraft of the Russian Federation arrived with the components of the vaccine in the country. .

Among other details, the national government explained that 2,000 Venezuelans volunteered to participate in phase 3 of the vaccine research, but in addition, work is being done so that the drug can be manufactured in our territory. Once the evaluation protocol has been successfully completed, national scientific institutions will be able to distribute the immunization to the population.

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, later announced that his son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, and his older sister, the anesthesiologist María Teresa Maduro, decided to participate as volunteers in the vaccine test. He also said that initial vaccinations will be given to medical personnel, teachers and the elderly.

The news is highly geopolitical at this time. The cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, maintained solidly despite the scene of hostilities that the West has built around to erode it, has allowed our country to be the first in Latin America to receive this batch of vaccines.

Previously, Belarus became the first country in the world to participate in Sputnik V clinical trials, after the vaccine was registered in Russia.

So far, a score of countries from all various regions have expressed the desire to acquire the Russian vaccine.

On the other hand, the Russian Fund for Direct Investment reported that agreements were reached with partners in Mexico for the supply of 32 million doses; in Brazil, for 50 million doses; in India, for 100 million doses; Uzbekistan, for 35 million doses and Nepal, for 25 million doses.

ON SPUTNIK V TRAILERS

Let us recall some important data about the path taken by the Gamalei National Center for Research in Epidemiology and Microbiology to develop Sputnik V.

On August 11, President Vladimir Putin reported that the Russian Ministry of Health had delivered a certificate of registration for the Gamalei Institute vaccine, making it the first Covid-19 vaccine registered in the world.

It was explained that the vaccine had positively passed the first two phases of the clinical study.

The speed and effectiveness with which Moscow has advanced is mainly due to the historical culture in vaccinations that that country has had since the 18th century , when Empress Catherine II was vaccinated against smallpox. Later, with the emergence of the Soviet Union, public health policies were consolidated that gave space to the design of a free vaccination program for the population.

Before the Covid-19 disease spread around the planet to become a pandemic, Russian researchers were working on creating a vaccine against the infection of MERS-CoV, another virus from the coronavirus family, and had completed the phase 4 of the trials of an Ebola vaccine with no adverse results.

These previous investigations formed the basis of the studies to develop the Sputnik V vaccine, which up to this point has not reported any symptoms in the patients that prevent further development.

HOW IS THE PRIVATE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY IN THE RACE FOR A VACCINE?

While Russia is positioning itself as the geopolitical actor capable of providing a safe solution to the pandemic, through fair agreements with the rest of the countries, the options offered by pharmaceutical transnationals anchored in the West seem to have anticipated their positive predictions.

This is the case of the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca and the University of Oxford, which in early September announced the suspension of clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine due to the suspected appearance of adverse reactions in a patient in the United Kingdom.

A leak of a safety report from the British company revealed that "a previously healthy 37-year-old woman 'experienced confirmed transverse myelitis' after receiving her second dose of the vaccine, and was hospitalized on September 5."

Transverse myelitis is a neurological disorder that affects the spinal cord. It is related to viral diseases and other myelin diseases.

Although Astrazeneca suspended the trials after this case, some members of the scientific community believe that the company has not been transparent in handling the information on the adverse results recorded.

The setback of the Astrazeneca / Oxford vaccine can be translated into a significant blow for Latin America, as the governments of Argentina and Mexico, confident in the safety reports provided by these institutions, decided in July to agree on the production and distribution of this vaccine in the region.

In the UK, the UK Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) gave Astrazeneca / Oxford permission to resume testing within days of the alert.

Japan also resumed the supply of this vaccine on October 2, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not allowed the continuation of the studies in the United States.

VENEZUELA IS COMMITTED TO COOPERATION AND MULTILATERALISM

The participation of Venezuela in the trials of the Russian vaccine is an act consistent with the incorporation of Venezuela in the rising multipolar world led by China and Russia.

President Nicolás Maduro, from the beginning, made public his interest in the adoption of the state scientific models proposed by the Eurasian axis to find an effective response to Covid-19.

We also know of the multiple deliveries of medicines, supplies and medical equipment received through cooperative relations with other countries, to alleviate the consequences that the criminal sanctions of the United States government have left on Venezuelan public health and to be able to contain the advance of cases of Covid-19 in the country, while a vaccine is being developed that can be supplied to the population.

One of the points that the Venezuelan president highlighted in his speech before the 75th Assembly of the United Nations was the support for Vladimir Putin's proposal to hold a high-level international online conference, where the only point to discuss was that of the development of a vaccine against Covid-19.

The meeting should result in the establishment of a common agenda that allows equitable access to the vaccine for all nations. Something that in the logic of multilateralism seems redundant, but that has to be highlighted in this century thanks to the constant harassment that the countries of the so-called first world conduct against the emerging countries.

Venezuela tips its balance to the options that guarantee a reliable response to the pandemic and that respect its sovereignty in the process. The profit-making history of pharmaceutical corporations shows that it is very difficult to enforce guarantees of this type in this way.

https://misionverdad.com/la-vacuna-rusa ... -venezuela

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Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis

Post by blindpig » Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:40 am

Image

Blockade Prohibits President Trump from Receiving Cuban Medicines for Covid-19
October 9, 2020 orinocotribune COVID-19, Cuba, dexamethasone, heberferon, interferon alpha 2b, Itolizumab, jusvinza, Remdesivir, Trump
By Anselmo Abdo – Oct 8, 2020

Until October 2, 2020, the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 infection has caused, according to reported data, 34,975,593 patients in the world and 1,034,403 deceased patients [1]. Some media have claimed higher figures.

Prevention strategies are the only ones that have proven effective in dealing with the pandemic. There is no medical treatment of choice for the disease and the results should be interpreted with caution given the interests of commercial companies ; to the point that in prestigious scientific journals apology notes have appeared after articles published in which rigorous research methodology was not used [2].

On Thursday, October 1, 2020, President Donald Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 and on Friday he entered the Walter Reed Military Medical Center. The main information media in the world have transmitted the medical reports in real time.

Thus we have learned that the clinical picture was characterized by fever and two episodes of decreased oxygen levels in the blood. The doctors specified that the president was treated with Remdesivir along with dexamethasone (steroid), after experiencing the second drop in oxygen levels [3].

The president has also been treated with a cocktail of experimental antibodies and immunity stimulants (vitamin D and Zinc). His doctors say that he has not experienced any side effects from the drugs and that his liver and kidney functions are normal.

Remdesivir is an antiviral drug that was initially developed for Ebola virus disease, it has shown in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2; so it was used in clinical trials. Data from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial (NIAID / CO-US-540-5776 Study ACTT-1) in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 showed that severely ill patients who received Remdesivir had a shorter recovery time than those who received placebo.

However, no difference in the rate of recovery was observed between patients receiving mechanical ventilation. In the same study cited above, no clinical benefit was seen in patients with mild or moderate disease [4]. Serious adverse events produced by its use are around 21%.

In relation to dexamethasone, the first data provided by the Oxford University confirmed that the drug, in doses of 6 mg once a day for ten days, reduced mortality in a third of patients who required artificial ventilation, however, showed no benefit among those patients who did not require ventilation. Its use is not without risk due to the development of serious adverse effects, such as immunosuppression with the possibility of developing bacterial and / or fungal superinfections [5].

The US blockade of Cuba has prevented President Trump’s medical team from evaluating other antiviral treatment alternatives such as HeberFERON® and drugs with an anti-inflammatory profile such as the monoclonal antibody Itolizumab® and the peptide Jusvinza®.

HeberFERON®, created and produced by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), in Havana, Cuba; combines recombinant human interferon alpha 2b with recombinant human gamma interferon. The combination has been shown to improve the biological activity of interferons, with fewer adverse reactions. In a group of Cuban patients diagnosed with COVID-19, 77% had rtPCR negative for SARS-CoV-2 at 4 days (96 hr) after the administration of the first dose [6].

Itolizumab® is a humanized recombinant anti-CD6 monoclonal antibody (MAb) of the immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) isotype that binds to domain 1 of human CD6 and modulates the activation and proliferation of T lymphocytes induced by CD6 costimulation. This MAb was developed at the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM, Havana, Cuba) [7].

Jusvinza® is an immunomodulatory peptide, derived from the cellular stress response protein (heat shock protein 60) , designed by bioinformatics tools and obtained by chemical synthesis at the CIGB, Havana, Cuba [8].

The two drugs have shown satisfactory results in modulating the hyperinflammatory response that can occur in SARS-CoV-2 infection with few adverse events, including immunosuppression.

The Cuban biopharmaceutical industry in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic

Until October 1, 2020, the fatality rate in Cuba was 2.13. In comparison, the global fatality rate was 2.98 and in the Americas region it was 3.33 [9].

Health is a universal right of every human being. Ban the use of effective drugs against the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, any American patient, including its president, must be condemned and amended.



Notes

[1] Confirmed cases of coronavirus in Spain and in the world. https://elpais.com/sociedad/2020/07/27/ ... 08240.html
[2] The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine retract studies on hydroxychloroquine and heart disease in COVID-19. Medscape – Jun 4, 2020. https://espanol.medscape.com/verarticulo/5905519
[3] Trump’s medical team claims that the president has experienced low blood oxygen levels. https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/36 ... eno-sangre
[4] Recommendations for remdesivir treatment of COVID-19 patients. https://www.aemps.gob.es/informa/notasi ... -covid-19/
[5 ] Coronavirus and dexamethasone: in which patients is it effective and why. https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-53093017
[6] HeberFERON®. https://www.biocubafarma.cu/productos/producto.php?ID=2
[7] Saavedra D, et al. An Anti-CD6 Monoclonal Antibody (Itolizumab) Reduces Circulating IL-6 in Severe Covid-19 Elderly Patients. Research Square pre print. DOI: doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-32335/v1
[8] Venegas-Rodriguez R, Santana-Sanchez R, Peña-Ruiz R, Bequet-Romero M, Hernandez-Cedeño M, Santiesteban-Licea B, et al. CIGB-258 Immunomodulatory Peptide: Compassionate Use for Critical and Severe COVID-19 Patients. Austin J Pharmacol Ther. 2020; 8 (1). 1119.
[9] Closing part of October 1 at 12 at night. https://salud.msp.gob.cu/parte-de-cierr ... -la-noche/



Featured image: Donald Trump leaves Walter Reed Hospital. October 5, 2020. Photo: Reuters.

(CubaDebate)

https://orinocotribune.com/blockade-pro ... -covid-19/

*********************************************************

Donald Trump Got Great Government Health Care. We All Deserve the Same.
October 8, 2020 orinocotribune Affordable Care Act (ACA), Bernie Sanders, COVID-19, government health care, Jeff Weaver, Joe Biden, medicare, socialized medicine, Trump, Walter Reed
By Jeff Weaver – Oct 8, 2020

Days after attacking socialized medicine during the presidential debate, Donald Trump received government health care to treat his coronavirus. Former Bernie Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver argues that we all deserve the type of high-quality public care the president received.

This week, following his diagnosis as COVID-infected, President Trump showed the nation what he thinks of “socialized medicine.” He apparently trusts it with his life. Needing hospitalization, President Trump chose to go to a government-run hospital rather than one of a large number of private institutions in the Washington, DC area. After all, it’s not like he doesn’t have the money to go wherever he wants.

It’s difficult to reconcile the image of Trump walking in to get “government health care” with his attempts during the first presidential debate to denigrate “socialized medicine.” To be clear, Trump was using that term as a slur against Joe Biden. Biden’s proposal to expand the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not “socialized medicine.” The Democratic nominee has been more than clear both in the general election and the primary season that his program will maintain the largely private health care system, including the private health insurance companies, while increasing ACA subsidies and creating a public health insurance option.

In truth, there’s no widespread call for making all doctors and nurses employees of the federal government or for hospitals to be nationalized. Such a reform would give us something similar to Britain’s National Health Service. But progressives, and increasingly not so progressive voters, have largely coalesced around Medicare for All instead. Medicare for All is a form of universal health insurance where actual delivery of health care remains as it is now. It differs from Biden’s plan in that Medicare for All eliminates private insurance — but not the private provision of health care — along with all copayments, deductibles, and premiums.

That leaves Donald Trump as America’s leading poster boy for socialized medicine. By all accounts, he received top-tier care from an outstanding team. He even received treatments largely unavailable to most Americans who find themselves infected with COVID-19. So much for government involvement being an impediment to innovation in health care.

Here’s the other thing Donald Trump didn’t have to deal with that most Americans do. As has been widely reported, Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 are facing enormous medical bills in the tens and tens of thousands of dollars. Trump isn’t going to receive a gigantic bill. Nor is he going to have to pay a co-payment or deductible. Nor did his doctors have to argue with a private health insurance company over whether they would cover the innovative treatments that the doctors apparently believed were medically necessary, but that are not widely prescribed currently. If only the American people had access to this kind of health care coverage when they and their families face a terrible illness or injury.

Frankly, this entire episode exposes the deep hypocrisy health reform opponents who want to keep the American people from even getting guaranteed government-administered health insurance. Trump’s hospitalization at Walter Reed is not the only example. Republican Senators and House members routinely rely on the Attending Physicians Office on Capitol Hill. They are more than willing to avail themselves of high quality “socialized medicine” while they denigrate efforts at providing universal health insurance to ordinary Americans.

This socialism for the privileged and powerful, and rugged individualism for everyone else is really the heart of the Republicans’ so-called love of freedom.

In their America, you are free to make the choice between buying your child’s medicines and your own; you are free to be paid starvation wages; and you are free to retire in poverty. And while you are making those hard choices, they will be feeding at the public trough — whether that be your garden variety billions in tax breaks and subsidies, or, as Trump demonstrated, availing themselves of the type of tax payer–funded health care that they like to tell the rest of us is just so terrible.

https://orinocotribune.com/donald-trump ... -the-same/

No, it ain't 'socialism', not even near, but whadda ya expect from one of Bernie's minions? Nonetheless it this does point out the vast difference in health care experienced by class. And anyone who thinks 'Obamacare' is the end all/be all of healthcare must be farting thru silk, a fool or both.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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