MEXICO CITY (AP) — Four out of five people in Mexico who got influenza shots so far this year turned down the government’s recommendation that they get Russian or Cuban COVID-19 boosters at the same time, officials said Tuesday.
Assistant Health Secretary Ruy López Ridaura attributed the high refusal rate to people being reluctant to get two vaccines at the same time.
Some people appear to simply distrust the Russian Sputnik and Cuban Abdala vaccines, both designed in 2020 for variants prevalent at the time.
“There are no studies regarding the effectiveness of both of these vaccines against the (current) variants.”Mexico has bought millions of doses of the Russian and Cuban vaccines.
The original plan was to administer around 20 million shots, but only about 1.9 million people, or 9.5% of those eligible, have agreed to take them since the vaccination campaign started in mid-October.
Persons:
Ruy López Ridaura, López Ridaura, ”, Andreu Comas, Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Organizations:
MEXICO CITY, “, Health Department, Russian Sputnik, Autonomous University of San, Pfizer, Moderna
Locations:
MEXICO, Mexico, Cuban, Russian, Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi, “, Cuba, United States, America, Caribbean