[News] Cuban Scientists Pen Letter to Biden Rejecting ‘Failed State’ Claim

[Anti-Imperialist News]

kawsachunnews.com
<https://kawsachunnews.com/cuban-scientists-pen-letter-to-biden-rejecting-failed-state-claim>
Cuban
Scientists Pen Letter to Biden Rejecting ‘Failed State’ Claim
August 10, 2021
------------------------------

A broad representation of Cuban scientists will address a letter
<https://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?o=rn&id=468380&SEO=carta-al-presidente-biden-sobre-las-vacunas-de-cuba-contra-covid-19>
to U.S. President Joe Biden evidencing Cuba’s scientific and political
capacity to face Covid-19, in an altruistic manner, despite the limitations
of the U.S. blockade.

The missive, to be written by top Cuban researchers, will constitute a
resounding response and rejection to Biden’s July 15th statements in which
he referred to Cuba as a ‘failed state’ and discredited its competence as a
country and discounted its health system.

Vice President of BioCubaFarma, Mayda Mauri Pérez, stated during a Tuesday
press conference that Biden’s claims reflect disinformation and seek to
distort Cuba’s reality but said there’s plenty of information and data to
disprove his absurd statements and demonstrate the island’s major
achievements.

The researchers’ response will highlight the innovative and altruistic way
in which the coronavirus has been fought, in spite of the difficult
conditions stemming from the economic, commercial and financial blockade
imposed by the U.S. government.

Mauri Pérez remarked that Cuba’s results against the virus are public and
are demonstrated in the country’s relatively low mortality rates compared
with other nations, even developed ones, including the United States.

Científicos cubanos rechazan las declaraciones del presidente Biden del
pasado 15 de julio donde dijo que #Cuba
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cuba?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> es un
“estado fallido” y cuestiona la capacidad de la ciencia y el sistema de
salud cubanos para dar respuesta a los desafíos de la pandemia.
pic.twitter.com/zSmxWNkxHC <https://t.co/zSmxWNkxHC>
— Cubadebate (@cubadebatecu) August 10, 2021
<https://twitter.com/cubadebatecu/status/1425108463659757579?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Biden said that an international organization is needed to guarantee
Cubans’ access to vaccines, however, in reality, Cuba boasts one of the
highest anti-COVID-19 vaccination intensity rates in the world.

Dr. Agustín Lage Dávila, advisor to the President of BioCubaFarma and
former director of the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM), explained
that vaccination coverage in Cuba for childhood prophylaxis is over 99% and
can be referenced in the UNICEF database. All Cubans are protected by
vaccines against 13 diseases, and eight of them are manufactured in Cuba,
he explained.

Dr. Lage Dávila said that while there hasn’t been a single case of the
measles in Cuba since 1993, the United States reported 1,292 cases in 2019.
Cuba not only eradicated Meningitis B through its own vaccine, it’s also
carried out international efforts to vaccinate people in other countries,
particularly in Africa where Cuba’s professionals worked at the request of
the World Health Organization.

The prestigious scientist also stressed that numerous studies have been
published on Cuban biotechnology:  “In 2009, *Nature *(scientific journal)
said that the Cuban biotechnology system was the best biotechnology system
in the world in developing countries. The question we can ask ourselves at
this point is whether a country with those results needs someone’s
intervention to introduce a vaccine against COVID-19,” he said.

“The fact that we say that we do not need an intervention, in the sense
that the U.S. government is presenting, does not mean that we do not want
cooperation. We do want cooperation, in fact, we have sought for decades
and promoted cooperation with U.S. scientists, and a reliable example of
this is the existing exchange in the development of the therapeutic vaccine
against lung cancer,” he concluded.

The letter is expected to become available in the coming days, in
electronic format, so that it can be signed by researchers worldwide who
support Cuba’s scientific drive.

Authorization for emergency use of Soberana 02 is in process and Soberana
Plus is expected to be granted emergency use authorization in September.
Pediatrics trials are going well with aspirations to begin vaccination of
children in September and Cuba remains committed to immunizing 100 percent
of its population this year. BioCubaFarma production companies have already
delivered around 13 million doses of vaccines to the Ministry of Public
Health. Dr. Mauri Pérez said that surplus vaccines will be available for
export only once the entire Cuban population is immunized.

*With information from Cubadebate
<http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2021/08/10/cientificos-cubanos-rechazan-declaraciones-de-biden-un-pais-que-salva-con-su-ciencia-no-es-un-estado-fallido/>and
Agencia Cubana de Noticias*
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