Venezuela’s National Academy of Medicine on Monday expressed concern over the use of Cuba’s Abdala coronavirus vaccine due to a lack of scientific research on its safety and efficacy.
By Reuters – Vivian Sequera
Sep 27, 2021
Cuba said on Saturday it had exported the three-shot vaccine for the first time, sending an initial shipment to Vietnam as part of a contract to supply five million doses to the Southeast Asian country.
The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has so far been relying on the Russian Sputnik V and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines, and in recent months received its first shipment of doses via the global COVAX program.
“The characteristics of the Sputnik V vaccine have been published in scientific journals and its quality has been verified in independent clinical trials … (and) the Sinopharm vaccine has been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO),” the academy said in a statement.
Venezuela received its first batch of 30,000 Abdala doses in June as part of clinical trials, and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Sunday said another batch had been sent, without confirming how many vaccines were shipped.
The academy “expresses its deep concern that a product for which there is no scientific information on safety and efficacy … is being administered to Venezuelans,” the academy added.
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