A new study of Mexico’s Patria COVID-19 vaccines delivers good news

Human trials of Mexico’s Patria COVID-19 vaccine are beginning to deliver good news, according to the nation’s science and technology council. 

Preliminary findings suggest that the Patria vaccine is safe and has considerable potential to protect individuals from COVID-19. 

A research team has submitted data to several scientific journals for scientific peer review. The findings are found at the research portal medrixiv.org.

Initially, only previously vaccinated individuals were eligible for the trial, suggesting that the vaccine was to be used only as a booster instead of a full-fledged vaccine.

But now, a contingent of 42 uninoculated volunteers is reportedly being administered the vaccine. 

Though initially it was hoped that the vaccine would be making its way into the arms of the general public by the end of 2021, health authorities pushed that date to sometime in mid-2023.

The vaccine’s development was outsourced to Mexican drug manufacturer Avimex with the cooperation of several laboratories and Mexico’s national university.

Earlier: COVID cases are a far cry from last week’s record surge

Like most other Latin American countries, Mexico has relied on importing foreign-made COVID-19 vaccines from the United States, Europe, China, and Russia.

As the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines appears to diminish over time, several government officials have said that the ability to mass-produce homegrown COVID-19 vaccines is a matter of public health and national security. 

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has decreased considerably since the late-January peak, during the past 24 hours, Mexico registered nearly 8,000 new cases and reported 146 deaths. 

According to official sources, 78 million individuals, or 60.5% of Mexico’s population, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.