Joint effort between Nicaragua and the U.S. to study effectiveness of Covid vaccine

This month, The New England Journal of Medicine, published an important correspondence titled, Protection Associated with Previous SARS-CoV-2. (8/11/22, Vol. 387, No. 6, pp. 568-570)  The research was a collaboration between the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkley to find out how effective Covid vaccine was in a real-life setting.

Nicaragua was an important country for this research because of its high level of Covid vaccination, and its careful follow-up of people who received the vaccine.  The genetic sequencing was provided by the Nicaraguan National Virology Laboratory, a highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art laboratory.

This study tells us that a poor country like Nicaragua can accomplish great things when it has a government that is dedicated to helping everyone achieve good health care at all levels—from the smallest health post to a world-class laboratory.

For more on Nicaragua’s health care system, please see this story on the privilege of universal free health care:

https://www.casabenjaminlinder.org/navigatingnicaragua/privilege-of-free-health-care

https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc2203985