Why is Cubas Vaccine Named Abdala?
On June 21, Cuban scientists announced that COVID-19 vaccine candidate Abdala had demonstrated an efficacy rate of 92.28% with three doses, making it one of the most effective vaccines in the world. Abdala will be the countrys second vaccine, the first being Soberana 02. The two jabs represent the only COVID-19 vaccines of Latin American origin, a product of the countrys socialist biotech industry. The name Abdala comes from one of Cubas most famous poems, written by independence hero Jos Mart when he was just 15 years old. It was published on the 23rd of January, 1869, in the Patria Libre newspaper. RELATED CONTENT: Cuban Vaccine Abdala Shows 92% Efficacy Against COVID-19  It tells the story of a young man, Abdala, who can see no greater glory than fighting and dying for the liberation of ones country against an oppressive invader. Even pleas from his mother cannot stop the young hero from sacrificing himself for the cause of his people. Its most famous passage goes:  Mother, love of the homeland  is not a ridiculous love of its earth,  nor of the grass that our plants tread;  it is the invincible hatred of those who oppress her,  it is the eternal resentment of those who attack her. That love awakens in our chest  the world of memories that call us  to life again, when the blood,  of the wounded soul gushes forth with anguish.  RELATED CONTENT: Cubas COVID-19 Vaccines: A Journey of Collaboration and Revolutionary Solidarity  Its widely considered a prophetic piece for how Mart himself would go on to live his life. Mart dedicated himself to fight for Cubas independence, writing to his mother in 1894, he said, My future is that of the light of the white coal that burns itself to illuminate that which surrounds it. I feel that my struggles will never end.  Read the complete poem here. Featured image: Cuban independence hero and poet Jos Mart, after whose poem the Cuban COVID-19 vaccine has been named Abdala.  (Kawsachun News)