Vaccine patriotism and public health cultures: Cuba’s scalable best practices in the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT Media fatigue and public amnesia notwithstanding, Covid-19 continues to negatively impact humanity and the global economy. Uneven vaccination coverage fosters contagion and variants. High-income countries have suboptimal immunization rates due to the politicization of health care, fake news and eugenics-tinged histories that exacerbate hesitancy. Most low-income countries remain under-vaccinated due to the cost of jabs. Classic tech, affordable, straightforward to manufacture and administer subunit protein vaccinations grant heterogeneous, accessible, time-tested and highly effective protection; their broader use could improve this situation. Yet, the transnational pharmaceutical industry is making even more profit on each messenger RNA (mRNA) shot now that the pandemic is termed endemic. Cuba’s protein subunit vaccines are over 92% effective and offer the world more choice in Covid-19 protection. This article draws on existing academic research, news reports and first-hand field investigations in Havana over three years. It argues that Cuba’s coordinated, nonprofit, public health-based pandemic response that incorporates high-uptake vaccination using high-effectiveness vaccines provides an under-acknowledged case study of a system that has delivered populations exceptionally positive health outcomes when confronting Covid-19.