By Fernando Nogales
Non-Resident Ambassador of Spain to Guyana
Yesterday a consignment of 52, 800 doses of paediatric vaccines arrived into this country and similar batches have been sent and are to be sent to other countries in the region soon. The donation is part of Spain’s effort to assist those countries in need which began in the spring of last year and has managed so far to donate more than 65 million doses worldwide.
When the Government of Spain took the decision to donate vaccines, unanimous support was received from the Parliament and the Spanish society as a whole, transforming itself into one of our greatest badges of honour. Spain has become the 2nd largest donor of vaccines to Latin America and the Caribbean with more than 20 million doses and it has also spread the effort to other parts of the globe, particularly Africa with close to 30 million doses, since we are aware that only a global vaccination drive can contain the pandemic.
That overwhelming support stemmed most probably out of the extremely sobering experience that the first phase of the pandemic represented for our country, when we saw thousands of our people dying to a virus we then knew very little about. When vaccines became available, there was a groundswell reaction from our society, with people spontaneously egging their relatives and neighbours on to vaccinate at once and to dismiss the irresponsible and unscientific calls for scepticism vis à vis the vaccine.
Our high vaccination rate, more than 85% of our population, has been crucial in cushioning the damaging impact of the pandemic to our economy and very particularly to our tourism sector, which thrives on providing first-rate services and a sense of safety to dozens millions of people who visit us from around the globe every year. Only vaccination has allowed us to safely reopen our schools and borders, get rid of facemasks and fully recover our normal lives.
In that context, we were reminded how the Spanish-sponsored “Balmis expedition” from 1803 to 1806 managed to vaccinate millions of inhabitants of this continent and Asia against smallpox. It was fitting that one of the temporary hospitals set up in record time to fight the pandemic was christened “Isabel Zendal”. This was in honour of the nurse who took care of the 22 orphan boys inoculated with cowpox while they were on board the “María Pita” vessel from Coruña, a city at the North West end of Spain, to Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, the Philippines and China. Zendal was later recognized by the WHO in 1950 as the first nurse to take part in an international mission.
Our donation effort has to be viewed in the framework of a renewed effort to prop up the multilateral institutions dealing with health. Spain has made COVAX the keystone of our donation exercise and is working with our European Union partners under the “team Europe” effort that aims to provide 700M vaccines to partners.
Spain is also undergoing other efforts to combat the pandemic: we have financed both the development and patent-free manufacturing of a COVID-19 serologic test and new vaccines. We are also proud to finance a CARPHA project that includes providing the reference microbiology laboratory at UWI with the necessary inputs to identify the full sequence of the genome.
CARPHA and PAHO have provided us with a most valuable continuous support throughout these months and Minister Anthony and his team from the Ministry of Health reacted immediately to our offer and have displayed remarkable professionalism. It is all thanks to them that this feat has been possible and that we can dream of better things down the line.
