Cuba rolls out mass vaccines while awaiting study results

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans have begun receiving new, locally produced vaccines against COVID-19 in the past few days as the socialist government ramps up an inoculation campaign

HAVANA -- The jab didn't even hurt, and Mabel Aguilera figures it may finally let her see granddaughters on the other side of Cuba who she hasn't glimpsed during many months of pandemic restrictions. “Sometimes I thought I wouldn't be able to stand not seeing my granddaughters,” said the 75-year-old woman, who got the shot at a clinic near her Havana home and has had to make do with phone calls and social media to keep in contact with relatives in the island's far east. “Talking is not like touching them,” she said Friday while in a post-inoculation observation area. They send me photos on Facebook but that’s not enough,” she added on the verge of tears. Aguilera is among hundreds of thousands of Cubans who have begun receiving new, locally produced vaccines against COVID-19 in the past few days as the socialist government has ramped up an inoculation campaign — even before releasing formal Phase III data on the vaccines' effectiveness and safety.