The joy for days due to the confirmation that among the four Cuban vaccine candidates, against the Sars-Cov-2 virus, the Abdala vaccine stands out, with 92% efficacy, which places it in fourth place worldwide, it is reason for hope.

For this reason, adults over 60 years of age and their companions, from clinics numbers 8 and 10, in district 60 of La Vigía neighborhood, come with good wishes to get immunized.

In the vaccination center

Once again, the school, as the center of important events in the neighborhood, opened its doors to Marti’s ideals, now for Abdala, that, turn into a vaccine, returns with its love for the Homeland, to give us a hug for health and life.

Thus, a constant coming and going of white coats organizes the sequence that the process must follow. First room takes temperature and blood pressure, if the indicators are correct we will proceed to fill out a survey and receive timely information on possible risks.

Third step, finally the long-awaited vaccine. I must say from my own experience, that I never waited so anxiously for a vaccine, in this I see the possibility of returning to work life, now so limited from home, I dream of returning to the studio and putting all these chronicles on sound, that only I have been able to write without actually recording them, because of the isolation.

While I was thinking about all this, a bite as light as that of a mosquito, inoculated the magic potion in the deltoid muscle of my left arm, that’s it … said Mrs. Mayelín, who looks very busy but happy with her contribution to everyone’s health, now go to the waiting room, she tells me, where you will wait an hour in case any adverse reaction appears.

In the classroom

A preschool classroom arranged in three rows of chairs, accommodates about 20 people, with a table for the doctors and a television in front, which makes the wait more bearable.

Upon arrival, two friendly young stomatology students greet the newly vaccinated with a confident smile. In a few minutes they check the pressure again and every so often they come to ask about any discomfort.

Future Doctors

I watch the future doctor offer so much love that I imagine her successful future, because she will be someone dedicated to her patients.

I asked her some questions and she discovered “my journalist outfit” which I can’t take off even when I’m just another patient among my neighbors. While talking, she confessed to me that journalism was among her career options, because she wants to serve her country, either from health or through information, which is why she was such a good communicator in her role this morning.

The scene

This scene that I have just told from my experience, it is happening simultaneously in the entire province and in many regions of the Cuban geography to face the pandemic, which has already stolen so many lives, our time and the well-being of the population.

We have two more doses left, while we have to continue taking care of ourselves, but the first is a step forward on the long-awaited road to recovery.

A light of hope comes to us with Abdala, that, from Marti’s notebooks offers us its true version of what love for the Homeland represents.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García