As soon as the first cases of COVID-19
were detected in Cuba, our country
mobilised all its resources to contain the
spread of the virus.
Our healthcare workers go door to door
checking people for possible symptoms.
Those with symptoms are transferred to
specially designated centres to receive
treatment, mostly with medication
developed by Cuba’s own pharmaceutical
and biotech industry. The medical
examinations and treatments are all
provided free of charge.
As of June 20, 85 people have died of
COVID-19 in Cuba. Our mortality rate
of 3.9 percent is very low compared to the
rest of the world. We reached the peak of
the disease on April 24, but we are still
encouraging people to respect physical
distancing, isolation and sanitary measures.
Internationally, Cuba has responded to
requests for collaboration from more than
20 countries, mainly in Latin America and
the Caribbean, but also in Europe, Africa
and the Middle East.
Cuba has a long history and tradition of
international solidarity with other countries
in the health sector that dates back to the
1960s, when we started sending healthcare
workers to help other countries. From then
on, more than 400,000 Cuban doctors and
health professionals have provided services
in 164 countries. We have helped strengthen
local healthcare systems, provided services
in remote areas and trained doctors.
Based on this long experience, in 2005
Cuba decided to create the Henry Reeve
International Medical Brigade to respond
to natural disasters and serious epidemics
across the world. Since then, this brigade of
over 7,000 doctors, nurses and other health
specialists has provided services in more
than 20 countries.
We sent doctors and nurses to staff 32
field hospitals after the 2005 earthquake
in Pakistan. We sent a medical team to
Indonesia in 2006 after the devastating
tsunami. We sent more than 1,700
health workers to Haiti in 2010 after the
catastrophic earthquake and the ensuing
cholera epidemic. In 2014, we sent brigades
to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to
combat Ebola.
Even Samantha Power, former US
President Barack Obama’s UN Ambassador,
praised Cuba for
its outstanding role
in the fight against
Ebola.
We even had
brigades ready to
assist Louisiana after
New Orleans was
hit by Hurricane
Katrina but the US
government rejected
our cooperation.
Assisting others has
always been part
of who we are as a
country and part of
the ethical training Cuban doctors and
health professionals receive.
In response to the current pandemic, Cuba
has dispatched 28 contingents of the Henry
Reeve Brigade to help 26 countries. This is
in addition to the more than 28,000 Cuban
doctors, nurses and health professionals
who were already overseas before the
pandemic.
Unfortunately, Cuban doctors and the
Henry Reeve Brigade, in particular, have
come under increasing attacks by the
Trump administration, which has gone
so far as to falsely accuse Cuba of human
trafficking through its doctor programme.
It is a shame that the United States
government has been trying to discredit
Cuba’s international assistance, including
using pressure and threats against countries
to force them to cancel these medical
cooperation agreements.
They have even tried to pressure
governments to reject Cuba’s help during
the coronavirus pandemic. They claim the
Cuban government is exploiting these
doctors because in the case of countries
that can afford to provide monetary
compensation, a portion of it is kept by the
Cuban government.
However, working overseas is completely
voluntary, and the portion the Cuban
government keeps goes to pay for Cuba’s
universal health system. It goes to
purchasing medical supplies, equipment
and medication for Cuba’s 11 million
people, including for the families of the
doctors who are providing their services
abroad. This is how we are able to provide
free, high-quality healthcare for the Cuban
people.
Instead of exacerbating conflict during
a pandemic, our countries need to work
together to find solutions. For years, Cuba
has been developing pharmaceuticals
and vaccines to treat different diseases,
from psoriasis and cancer to heart attacks.
Now we are helping patients recover
from COVID-19 with Interferon Alfa2b
Recombinant, one of 19 medications being
developed or under clinical trial in Cuba by
our biotech and pharmaceutical industries
to treat different stages of COVID-19.
Globally, we have received more than 70 requests for pharmaceuticals developed by
Cuba.
This would be a clear avenue for Cuba-US
cooperation but unfortunately, the Trump
administration is wasting this opportunity
by dismantling the limited progress made
by Cuba and the US during the Obama
administration.
President Trump strengthened the 60-
year US blockade against my country,
implementing 90 economic measures
against Cuba between January 2019
and March 2020 alone. These measures
have targeted the main sectors of the
Cuban economy, including our financial
transactions, tourism industry, energy
sector, foreign investments – which are key
for the development of the Cuban economy
– and the medical cooperation programmes
with other countries.
These unilateral coercive measures are
unprecedented in their level of aggression
and scope. They are deliberately trying
to deprive Cuba of resources, sources
of revenue and income needed for the
development of the Cuban economy. The
effects of these measures are being felt in
Cuba, particularly during the COVID-19
pandemic. The blockade is stopping Cuba
from getting much-needed medical
supplies. For example, if more than 10
percent of the components in the medical
equipment or medications we want to buy
are of US origin, then Cuba is not allowed
to purchase them.
In addition, the US has imposed restrictions
on banks, airlines and shipping companies
to stop Cuba from receiving materials that
other countries are donating or sending to
Cuba.
In April, the Alibaba Foundation of China
tried to donate masks, rapid diagnostic kits
and ventilators to Cuba, but the airline
contracted by Alibaba to transport those
items to Cuba refused to take the goods
because they were afraid the US would
sanction them.
A ship recently arrived in Cuba with raw
materials to produce medications but it
decided not to unload because the bank
involved in the transaction decided not to
make the payment out of fear it would be
sanctioned by the US government.
So this is why
we say we are
suffering from
two pandemics:
COVID-19 and
the US blockade.
For that reason, it
is so important that
people of goodwill
around the world
continue to raise the
demand to end the
blockade of Cuba
and to forcefully
assert that these are
times for solidarity
and cooperation,
not sanctions and
blockades. In the
meantime, Cuba,
as a country that understands the value of
solidarity, will continue to do our best to
stop the spread of coronavirus at home and
globally.
Reprinted from: www.aljazeera.com June 21, 2020
Follow Josefina Vidal Ferreiro on Twitter: @JosefinaVidalF
Josefina Vidal Ferreiro is the Cuban Ambassador
to Canada. She chaired the Cuban delegation
during the talks to restore formal ties with the
US under President Obama.
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