Cuba’s “I’ll Give My Arm” Vaccination Campaign
By Aurelio Pedroso (Progreso Semanal)
HAVANA TIMES – “You’ll see,” like the drunk guy in the story says. At any moment, we will see “I’ll give my arm” on every media platform that ever existed and has yet to exist. Or something similar in the run-up to the imminent COVID-19 vaccination program, and to counteract the campaign not to get the vaccine.
Local TV has already done a feature in excruciating detail of the fact that there is a growing interest in not receiving the Soberana 02 vaccine, or any other variant.
This isn’t at all strange in these times of a viral media campaign on social media where all kinds of figures appear. From the ones who appear holding a decorated sickle and hammer and those who grow their moustaches in Hitler style and ask for the extermination of Cubans living on the island with its few Tocororo birds, some cows and a large family of stray cats and dogs.
There’s plenty of humor and bad intentions. I prefer the former and will share a message from a fellow Cuban posted on Facebook: “When viagra was invented, nobody asked what laboratory it came from and they went out and bought it. Get the vaccine and stop screwing around.”
We spent the whole past year – morning, afternoon and night – watching how we should be washing our hands, how to keep a safe physical distance, prevent the risk of catching the virus and how to use a mask, the importance of which has flown over quite a few heads.
There’s no doubt that there will be some people short of mind who won’t see getting the vaccine as a good thing, which – in my honest opinion, has been delayed and the most vulnerable should have been vaccinated with whatever foreign vaccine became available first.
Cuba enjoys a well-deserved reputation among international experts, who have nothing to do with politics, for their breakthroughs in creating a vaccines in general. Almost 80% of the 12 vaccines that are given to children and to prevent other diseases, such as lung cancer, are manufactured here.
Get vaccinated as soon as you’re called in. Then, you’ll be immune for the time that’s needed. And then we can insist on other issues in the pharmaceutical sector. To the real and let’s hope convincing reasons for the lack of antibiotics and so many other medicines.
It’s my great pleasure to give this article’s headline the campaign’s name. My arm too, when it’s my turn. I just hope the line isn’t too long and those responsible know how to organize it. Not like all the other lines that they’ve been studying for 12 months.
Read more here by Aurelio Pedroso.
It’s hilariously ironic.
For years the Cuban Government tried to avoid the inevitability of access to the internet.
They were paranoid that access to the internet would result in some kind of large scale uprising.
And now they realise that the internet is mostly awash with complete bullshit and the only uprising in site is an uprising against taking a vaccine that’s gonna stop you dying of Covid.
Hey Mr Diaz Canel…..
This is not just going on in Cuba. It’s going on all over the world.
I was speaking about vaccines with a dear friend today here in the U.K.
He’s refusing to take the vaccine because he thinks the U.K. government want to inject him with a substance which will allow them to track him via GPS for the rest of his life…….
Aurelio states that in Cuba: “Local TV has already done a feature in excruciating detail of the fact that there is a growing interest in not receiving the Soberana 02 vaccine, or any other variant.”
Similarly in Canada there are Canadians not interested in the global ““I’ll Give My Arm” Vaccination Campaign”. Why? There are a variety of reasons. Those long term care workers who work long hours in nursing homes and old age homes are not given any time off to obtain the vaccinations. They have to “give their arm” on their own time. For some that is a costly proposition in terms of money. Also, if they become a little sick from the jab the employer will not compensate them for a sick day and for many who are single parents that is a financial risk they will not take.
Exactly as Aurelio states there are citizens, Cubans in the article’s case; Canadians in this contributor’s case, who are extremely hesitant to receive the vaccine: “Long-term care workers, like everyone else, want to know whether they can trust the COVID-19 vaccines given how quickly they were developed (the answer is yes, because no steps were skipped.” CBC News · Posted: Mar 18, 2021.
That perceptive Cuban’s comparative analysis re: vaccines efficacy and Viagra’s origins and productive power, as quoted by Aurelio, is not only humorous but bang on.
“Cuba enjoys a well-deserved reputation among international experts, who have nothing to do with politics, for their breakthroughs in creating a vaccines in general”. Kudos to Cuba in this health related aspect.
Unlike Canada, a rich, resource laden country with a publicly funded health care system it must go out and buy (beg?) vaccines from foreign countries to vaccinate its population. This is one of the saddest stories in this COVID crisis in Canada. All Canadians are totally dependent on foreigners – the Americans, the British, the Europeans – who first must inoculate their own citizens, and then honor contractual vaccine procurement agreements with the Canadian government to send some to Canada. Another reason for Canadians to number one, not trust their government in this area, and two, not trust vaccines made offshore though they are safe.
Another reason for vaccine hesitancy in Canada is the make up of our population. Unlike Cuba which has a homogenous population – they all speak Spanish; all are native Cubans. In Canada, the population is made up of a plethora of languages, cultures, Indigenous people who may not trust the government in the first place and may, because of language barriers, not understand or do not listen to government media alerts regarding any health related issues. Therefore, they being outside the mainstream anyone offering a vaccination is looked up with suspicion.
When asked why they refuse a vaccine, some Canadians have expressed their sentiments in this way: “”We’ve had people say to us, you know, very directly, ‘I don’t want to be a guinea pig.'” CBC News · Posted: Mar 18, 2021.
As Aurelio asserts: “It’s my great pleasure to give this article’s headline the campaign’s name. My arm too, when it’s my turn.” Aurelio definitely does not feel he will be a “guinea pig” in the battle against COVID in Cuba. Kudos to him.