Published date: 6 February 2021 09:33 UTC | Last update: 1 month 3 weeks ago
The coronavirus antibody test has become a hot commodity among restless Iranian youths who long for life outside their home s four walls.
The serology test examines the body s immune response to Covid-19 infection by measuring the number of antibodies against the virus in blood samples from both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals.
In 2021, a positive test result can serve another purpose: it s an access pass to the antibody parties that are springing up across the capital, Tehran. If the results were positive, it meant that there was no danger to them or to us [of being infected], and we could have fun together
Should their vaccine trials succeed, it could be a game-changer for countries across Global South
A technician works at Finlay Vaccine Institute in Havana on 20 January (AFP)
In 1959 when Fidel Castro declared victory of the Cuban Revolution, his first promise was socialism. His second pledge was to turn Cuba into a global leader in science and health.
Cuba’s domestic development of a Covid-19 vaccine marks the latest step in this trajectory. And in line with Cuba’s health internationalism, this has resonated in the Global South.
Iran and Cuba recently established a collaborative framework under which the Cuban vaccine will be developed between Iran’s Pasteur Institute and Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute. This alliance is strategic for a number of reasons. Both countries are under stringent US sanctions, with Cuba freshly added to the US State Department’s list of “terrorism sponsors”. The partnership with Tehran is also a critical test of the Cuban vaccine’s ef
BEIRUT
When Iran’s supreme leader banned U.S. and other Western-made COVID-19 vaccines this month, he did so even as his country’s pandemic death toll nears 60,000 and its total caseload surpasses 1.3 million, making it one of the Middle East’s worst-hit country and the 16th-most afflicted nation in the world.
The coronavirus has surged this winter, pushing Iran to the brink of a humanitarian disaster as hospitals and healthcare networks fail to keep up. With the economy savaged by U.S. sanctions, drugs and medical equipment are in short supply, leaving thousands without vital care and scores dying every day. Many doctors believe that the pandemic’s death toll in Iran is three to four times higher than the official figure.
Jan. 12, 2021 3:01 pm ET
Iran and Cuba have begun trials of a joint Covid-19 vaccine, as Tehran fights the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East while pledging not to use vaccines from the U.S. and U.K.
The Cuban vaccine, called Soberana 02, is the most advanced of Cuba’s four vaccine candidates and will be developed in cooperation between Cuba’s Finlay Vaccine Institute and Iran’s Pasteur Institute, authorities from both countries said Monday.
The cooperation between two staunch opponents of the U.S., which are both under U.S. sanctions, reflects a shared drive for self-sufficiency and less reliance on imports from the West. The name of the vaccine, Soberana, is Spanish for “sovereign.”