Wednesday, December 01, 2021

Nature Journal:
"Cuba’s bet on home-grown COVID vaccines is paying off. Preprint data show that a three-dose combo of Soberana jabs has 92.4% efficacy in clinical trials. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Cuba decided not to wait on the rest of the world to develop vaccines. The United States’ 60-year-old economic embargo against the country, which prevents US-made products from being exported there, would make it difficult for Cuba to acquire vaccines and therapies, researchers and officials knew. 'It was best, for protecting our population, to be independent,' says Vicente Vérez Bencomo, director-general of the Finlay Institute of Vaccines in Havana. ...


As of 18 November, 89% of Cuba’s population — including children as young as 2 — has received at least one dose of Soberana 02 or another Cuban vaccine called Abdala, which is produced at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) in Havana. ...


The country has begun exporting the two home-grown vaccines to Venezuela, Vietnam, Iran and Nicaragua. And it has asked the World Health Organization to approve its vaccines — an important step towards making them available throughout the developing world."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03470-x


-->The NYT did in fact report some of this story of Cuba's success in combating COVID. However, the newspaper questioned whether Cuba was publishing date in a "transparent way," Another quote suggested that "regulatory oversight" was missing. And there was no mention of Cuba's sharing of the vaccine with other countries. Cuba is the Third World country to develop its own vaccine, another point missing in the NYT coverage.


=====


Common Dreams:

"A delegation of observers from a New York City-based progressive legal group on Wednesday pushed back against the Biden administration's claims about Venezuela's recent regional elections in which allies of President Nicolás Maduro's socialist party were largely victorious. ...


The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) delegation—among various international observers who traveled to Venezuela for the elections—shared its findings in a statement that began, 'We observed a balanced and transparent voting process which voters expressed confidence in.' ...


After speaking with voters at all sites, the NLG observers found that those 'aligned with opposition parties also expressed confidence in the voting system. Additionally, the participation of opposition parties at polling sites, including as witnesses in opening and closing processes, strengthened the process and underscored the legitimacy of election results.' "

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/11/24/us-legal-observers-report-balanced-and-transparent-election-process-venezuela


-->Any study of the US media must have a chapter on the coverage of Venezuela. Here is an example from the NYT: "With little hope of a fair vote, opposition candidates take a desperate risk to gain any edge against Venezuela’s entrenched autocrat, Nicolás Maduro." No words of praise for a fair election in Venezuela will ever see the light of day in our "newspaper of record." All that is "fit to print" is Pentagon propaganda. 


=====


The Guardian:

"The US has been added to an annual list of 'backsliding' democracies for the first time, the International IDEA think tank has said, pointing to a 'visible deterioration' it said began in 2019.


Globally, more than one in four people live in a backsliding democracy, a proportion that rises to more than two in three with the addition of authoritarian or 

hybrid regimes, according to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. ...


The organisation’s secretary general, Kevin Casas-Zamora, said: 'The visible deterioration of democracy in the United States, as seen in the increasing tendency to contest credible election results, the efforts to suppress participation (in elections), and the runaway polarisation ... is one of the most concerning developments.' "

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/22/us-list-backsliding-democracies-civil-liberties-international


-->To the NYT, the backsliding was all about US allies: "Washington-aligned countries backslid at nearly double the rate of non-allies, data shows, complicating long-held assumptions about American influence." Nothing about the backsliding US at all.