A truth as a temple! And does the man singing that song is the same man trying to fool us all? Well, don´t. The rhythm is catchy, but I picture in my head the sequence of sounds, from the very first test tubes, to the slight complaint of volunteers when it comes to get vaccinated, and the truth is that Soberana 02 is, indeed, music to my ears.

The top story last month, last week, and this week, is actually the large scale production of Cuba’s first vaccine candidate. Even some foreign media like BBC Mundo, not prone to mentioning Cuba in their news, highlighted the Cuban vaccine candidate: “If Cuba reaches its goals with these researches, the island may well become the first country in Latin America to develop its own vaccine against Covid-19, and perhaps, one of the first to immunize its entire population.”

In his Facebook profile, singer-songwriter Arnaldo Rodríguez posted, under the title SE LLAMA FIDEL (THIS IS CALLED FIDEL): “Cuba began the large scale production of vaccine Soberana 02! That is what we should be talking about everywhere. Other debates have only been a distraction from this major milestone. Thus, let’s make public how ‘the Castro dictatorship,’ ‘the nation at a standstill, falling apart,’ is the sole third-world country that has created its own vaccine against Covid-19. Facing a tough and genocidal economic blockade, amid a global sanitary crisis that stopped the world, is a small island in the Caribbean able to achieve such a feat?

“The most beautiful thing we must enjoy, eventually, is to see how the Cuban government will have as its disposal substantial resources, thousands of very skilled people and millions of vaccines for the population. And all this, with no distinctions. All will get vaccinated for free in Cuba: those men and women defending their Homeland or Death, those new men and women defending Homeland and Life, and those who having no feelings for their homeland. This is not a slogan. This is a reality —a truth as a temple! This is called: effort, determination, courage. This is called humanity, justice, Revolution…this is called Fidel Castro Ruz!”

And yes, Soberana 02 is the name of the vaccine candidate whose large scale production started already, with 150,000 doses produced by the home-grown pharmaceutical Industry. Not far behind is the Abdala (Martí-related name) vaccine. Prensa Latina news agency reported last February 24^th: “In its official profile in Twitter, the Company Group of the Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries (BioCubaFarma) showed images of the bulb plant belonging to the AICA Laboratories where the Abdala production process takes place.” Two other vaccine candidates are also progressing very well: Soberana 01 and Mambisa. But each of them, actually, bears the name of Fidel, a fighter of Homeland or Death who dreamed of and promoted the science that is saving lives today. And it seems that, and it is not a pun: is the reason why we will prevail.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff