Under US embargoes for decades and blighted by an ageing power infrastructure that is prone to cuts, Cuba may seem an unlikely saviour to parts of the world struggling for Covid-19 vaccines.
But the country of 11.3 million punches well above its weight when it comes to medicine: it has a strong research sector, is a health care tourism destination and sends doctors and nurses to work around the world, including the Gulf region.
It is less surprising, then, that Cuba is in discussions about its locally developed coronavirus vaccines being used in more than a dozen nations – on top of those that have already given them to their people.
Efforts to distribute the shots out more widely came after Cuba achieved one of the highest vaccine coverage figures in the world on home soil.
While the UAE leads the global rankings, Cuba is in the top 10. About 93 per cent of its people have had at least one shot, 87 per cent have had two, and 51 per cent have received a booster.
“I’m not surprised at all that they set out to develop their own vaccine. They have the need, but they also have the capability,” said Dr Helen Yaffe, a senior lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and author of We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World.
“Just because I’m not surprised, it doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly impressive. It’s such a feat for a small Caribbean island.”
Long-term investment in health service pays off
Cuba, with its decades of state-directed investments in healthcare and medical research – an approach championed by the late president Fidel Castro – has long practised self-reliance when it comes to vaccines, producing most of those used in its national immunisation programmes.
Vaccination campaigns have helped Cuba to control or eliminate polio, measles, mumps, rubella and typhoid, among other diseases, something once described in a scientific journal as “remarkable” given the country’s limited resources. The infant mortality rate and average life expectancy have also won praise.
All this meant that when the coronavirus emerged, the country’s research institutes had the expertise to develop their own vaccines.
“They have a pretty good health service given the level of money they have, and part of that was developing their own biopharmaceutical industry, in part a reaction to the Americans blocking them off,” said Prof David Taylor, emeritus professor of pharmaceutical and public health policy at University College London.
Cuba follows own path on vaccine journey
Also, the country decided not to join the Covax programme, which aims to distribute vaccines to poorer nations but which has struggled for sufficient supplies.
In developing its own vaccines, Cuba did not employ cutting-edge mRNA or viral vector technology of the kind used in the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccines.
Instead, it turned to a well-established approach of using protein subunits from the pathogen to generate protection against the virus.
The coronavirus proteins can be produced in artificially grown cell lines before they are purified and incorporated into the vaccine.
With a “conjugate” vaccine called Soberana 02 from Cuba’s Finlay Institute of Vaccines, part of the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein is “conjugated” or linked to a harmless neurotoxin protein, which enhances the immune response.
Two doses of Soberana 02 and a third dose called Soberana Plus containing just the RBD segment has a reported efficacy of more than 92 per cent, although data from Cuban trials has not always been shared as widely as the international scientific community would like.
The Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Cuba’s capital, Havana, has produced a vaccine called Abdala with similar efficacy after three doses.
Another vaccine from the centre, Mambisa, is administered as a nasal spray, and Cuban scientists said it could strengthen the protection in individuals given other vaccines.
Majority of children vaccinated
“They’ve become the first country in the world to vaccinate children from two [years and] up,” said Dr Yaffe. “The Cuban vaccines were developed from the outset to be used in children.”
Government figures indicate that more than 95 per cent of two to 18-year-olds have been inoculated, something that officials have said should reduce transmission.
The country’s vaccine programmes have not been affected by the vaccine hesitancy or scepticism seen in many other nations.
Cuba experienced its main coronavirus peak in July, August and September 2021, and another, much smaller, peak in January this year driven by the Omicron variant, but case numbers have since fallen significantly. There have been just over 1 million cases and around 8,500 deaths.
Just as Cuba has long exported medical personnel, including to the Gulf region to combat the pandemic (like medical tourism to Cuba, this generates much-needed income for the country), so it is expanding overseas use of its vaccines.
There have already been donations to Syria, and exports to Venezuela and Vietnam – some purchased and some donated – while Iran has manufactured Soberana 02.
Last month Progressive International, which ties together left-wing organisations and activists, organised a briefing at which Cuban government officials reportedly said the country was looking to export tens of millions of vaccines to lower-income countries.
The Finlay Institute of Vaccines said it had the capability to produce 120 million doses per year and in a statement released online, Progressive International said Cuban officials had promised “solidarity prices” for low-income countries.
Cuba has said it will transfer technology to allow production abroad and officials have stated they are in discussions with more than 15 countries that could produce Cuban vaccines.
Havana has also offered to provide personnel to assist vaccine campaigns, an echo of how the country sent medical personnel to Africa in 2014 and 2015 to combat Ebola.
Cuba plans to apply for World Health Organisation approval for its vaccines this year, but national regulators in other countries are free to give them approval without this.
“The Cubans are looking for bilateral agreements with other countries to get that vaccine recognition,” Dr Yaffe said.
“The African Union was interested in the Cuban vaccines. It might happen in that collective way … [Cuba’s vaccines] are probably the best chance many populations in the global south have to access a vaccine before 2025.”
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Constant Variable (CVT)
Power: 141bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: Dh64,500
On sale: Now
More on animal trafficking
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 290hp
Torque: 340Nm
Price: Dh155,800
On sale: now
Five hymns the crowds can join in
Papal Mass will begin at 10.30am at the Zayed Sports City Stadium on Tuesday
Some 17 hymns will be sung by a 120-strong UAE choir
Five hymns will be rehearsed with crowds on Tuesday morning before the Pope arrives at stadium
‘Christ be our Light’ as the entrance song
‘All that I am’ for the offertory or during the symbolic offering of gifts at the altar
‘Make me a Channel of your Peace’ and ‘Soul of my Saviour’ for the communion
‘Tell out my Soul’ as the final hymn after the blessings from the Pope
The choir will also sing the hymn ‘Legions of Heaven’ in Arabic as ‘Assakiroo Sama’
There are 15 Arabic speakers from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in the choir that comprises residents from the Philippines, India, France, Italy, America, Netherlands, Armenia and Indonesia
The choir will be accompanied by a brass ensemble and an organ
They will practice for the first time at the stadium on the eve of the public mass on Monday evening
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
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The%20Super%20Mario%20Bros%20Movie
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MATCH INFO
Inter Milan 1 (Martinez 18' pen)
Juventus 2 (Dybala 4', Higuain 80')
Results
5.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,400m; Winner: Mcmanaman, Sam Hitchcock (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)
6.05pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Bawaasil, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson
6.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Dirt) 1,400m; Winner: Bochart, Fabrice Veron, Satish Seemar
7.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Mutaraffa, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
7.50pm: Longines Stakes – Conditions (TB) Dh120,00 (D) 1,900m; Winner: Rare Ninja, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
8.25pm: Zabeel Trophy – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Alfareeq, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
9pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 2,410m; Winner: Good Tidings, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
9.35pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Zorion, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi, Helal Al Alawi
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.