In an extensive article in which several international experts are interviewed, the economic news channel noted that Cuba has vaccinated a large percentage of its population, an achievement that almost all of the world’s largest and richest nations have yet to achieve.

“The tiny Caribbean island has achieved this milestone by producing its own Covid-19 vaccine, even as it struggles to keep supermarket shelves stocked amid a decades-old US trade blockade,” it said.

It is an incredible feat that those of us who have studied biotech aren’t surprised in that sense, because it has not just come out of the blue. It is the product of a conscious government policy of state investment in the sector, in both public health and in medical science, Helen Yaffe, a Cuba expert and lecturer in economic and social history at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, told CNBC.

The article also notes that around 86 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, including children from the age of two, and Cuban health authorities are rolling out booster shots in a bid to limit the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron Covid-19 variant.

On Wednesday, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) highlighted Cuba’s Covid-19 vaccination rates among the highest in the world, while it also mentioned countries in the region such as Chile and Argentina.

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