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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-Calls-for-International-Cooperation-to-Combat-COVID-19-20200416-0011.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-Calls-for-International-Cooperation-to-Combat-COVID-19-20200416-0011.html</a></font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Cuba Calls for International Cooperation to Combat COVID-19</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Cuban Foreign Ministry April 16, 2020<br></div>
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<p>The impact of COVID19
can already be measured and will be assessed in the future by the
striking numbers of people infected, the unacceptable numbers of deaths,
the unquestionable damages to the world economy, production, trade,
employment and personal income of millions of people. </p>
<p>It is a crisis that
goes well beyond the scope of health. The pandemic has emerged and
spread amidst a scenario previously marked by overwhelming economic and
social inequalities within and among nations. With unprecedented
migratory and refugee flows, xenophobia and racial discrimination have
reemerged. The remarkable advances of science and technology,
particularly in the area of health, focus in the pharmaceutical business
and commercialization of medicine, rather than in securing the
wellbeing and healthy living of majorities.</p>
<p>Covid19 has come into
a world overburdened by production and consumption patterns, especially
in highly industrialized countries and among the elites of developing
countries, that are unsustainable and incompatible with the finite
character of natural resources upon which life on the planet
depends. Before the first case was identified, there were 820 million
people suffering from hunger worldwide; 2.2 billion people with no
access to fresh water; 4.2 billion without access to safely managed
sanitation services and 3 billion lacking basic amenities for hand
washing.</p>
<p>This scenario becomes
more inadmissible when it is known that globally around 6.7 billion
dollars are spent on a yearly basis only in advertising, while military
expenditure amounts to 1.8 trillion dollars that are completely useless
in the combat against the COVID19 threat, which has already taken the
lives of tens of thousands of people. The virus does not discriminate.
It does not distinguish the rich from the poor.</p>
<p>However, its
devastating effects multiply there where people that are most vulnerable
and get the lowest incomes live, in the poor and developing world, in
the pockets of poverty of large industrialized cities. Its impact is
specially felt where neoliberal policies and social spending cuts have
limited public administration capacities of the State.</p>
<p>Covid19 has taken
more lives where governmental public healthcare budgets have been cut.
It has caused more economic damages where the State has little or no
options to bail out those who lose their jobs, close their businesses
and suffer the dramatic reduction or loss of their personal and family
income source. In most developed countries the death toll is higher
among the poor, migrants and, in the specific case of the United States,
among African Americans and Latinos.</p>
<p>To top it all off,
the international community has to deal with this global threat while
the biggest military, economic, technological and communicational power
of the world implements a foreign policy that seeks to incite and
promote conflicts, divisions, chauvinism and supremacist and racist
positions. </p>
<p>At times when the
worldwide combat against the Covid19 pandemic requires boosting
cooperation and the leading role of international organizations,
particularly the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization
(WHO), the current US administration attacks multilateralism and seeks
to disqualify the established leadership of WHO.</p>
<p>It also insists in
its petty strategy of taking advantage of the circumstances to impose
its dominance and attack countries whose governments it has
discrepancies with. Some examples serve to illustrate that, like the
recent and serious military threats against the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela and the announcement, the day before yesterday by the US
president, of the Pan-American Day and Week from April 14 to 18,
accompanied by Monroe-Doctrine-inspired neocolonial statements against
Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, reminiscing of the Pan-American
Conference, condemned 130 years ago by José Martí. Around those same
days; but in 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion took place. Another example
is the immoral and persistent attack against Cuba’s selfless efforts to
assist countries that have requested cooperation in the fight against
COVID19.</p>
<p>Instead of promoting
cooperation and a collective response, top officials of the US State
Department devote their time to issue statements threatening governments
that faced with the drama of the pandemic exercise their sovereignty
and decide to request Cuba’s assistance. The United States officials are
knowingly committing a crime, when in the midst of a pandemic they
attack Cuba’s international cooperation, seeking to deprive millions of
people from their universal human right to healthcare services. The
magnitude of the current crisis compels us to cooperate and practice
solidarity despite political differences. The virus knows no boundaries
or ideologies. It threatens the lives of all and therefore it is up to
all of us to fight against it. </p>
<p>No country should
assume it is big enough, rich enough or powerful enough to defend
itself, isolating itself and ignoring the efforts and needs of others.
Sharing and providing valuable and reliable information is urgent. Steps
have to be taken to allow for the coordination of the production and
distribution of medical equipment, personal protection equipment (PPE)
and medicines, with a sense of justice. Countries with more available
resources should share them with most affected countries that are least
prepared to cope with the pandemic.</p>
<p>That is Cuba’s
approach. The humble contribution of a small nation with limited natural
resources and submitted to a long and brutal economic blockade. For
decades we have accumulated experiences in the development of
international cooperation in the area of health, as generously
acknowledged by the World Health Organization and our counterparts. In
the last few weeks, we have responded to cooperation requests without
hesitance to consider political coincidences or economic advantages. </p>
<p>So far, 21 brigades
of healthcare professionals have been deployed to join in the national
and local efforts of 20 countries, that are added or strengthen existing
medical collaboration brigades in 60 nations that have now joined
efforts to combat COVID 19 in the countries where they were already
providing services. We have also shared some medicines produced by Cuba
that according to our practice have proven effective in the prevention
of or therapy against the disease. In addition, our healthcare personnel
has taken part from Cuba and via teleconferences in consults and
discussions on specific treatments for patients or groups of patients in
several countries.</p>
<p>All these actions are
undertaken without neglecting the responsibility of protecting the
Cuban population, duty that is rigorously fulfilled despite the huge
limitations imposed by the US economic, commercial and financial
blockade. Those who are interested may find the data supporting this
assertion as they are publicly available. Anyone with a shred of
decency will understand that the blockade poses remarkable pressure over
Cuba to ensure the material inputs and equipment that support the
public healthcare system and those specifically required to address this
pandemic.</p>
<p>A recent example was
an aid cargo from China that could not be shipped to Cuba because the
carrier claimed the US blockade banned it. On that matter, top US State
Department officials had the nerve to say that the United States does
export medicines and medical devices to Cuba. Nonetheless, they have
failed to support those fallacies with a single transaction between the
two countries. It is common knowledge and widely substantiated that the
economic blockade is the main obstacle for Cuba’s development,
prosperity and for the wellbeing of Cubans. </p>
<p>That harsh reality
due solely to the obstinate and aggressive behavior of the United States
government does not prevent us from providing our help and solidarity.
We don’t deny anyone our assistance, not even to the country that causes
Cuba so much harm, if necessary. Cuba is convinced that these times
require cooperation and solidarity. Cuba pursues a politically unbiased
international endeavor that seeks to develop and share the scientific
research results and experiences of several countries in the prevention
of the disease, the protection of the most vulnerable and social
behavior practices that will contribute to shorten the duration of the
pandemic and slowdown the loss of lives. Cuba strongly believes the role
and leadership of the United Nations and the World Health Organization
are indispensable. If we act together, the propagation of the virus will
be halted, in a faster and more cost-effective manner. </p>
<p>Then we will have to
deal with the economic and social crisis the pandemic is causing, the
dimensions of which nobody has dared predict yet. However, we cannot
wait for that day to come to join efforts to overcome the huge problems
and threats we shall find ahead and deal with those that were piling up
before the pandemic took the first lives. If developing countries are
not guaranteed access to technologies that are mostly available in
highly industrialized nations, especially in the area of health, and if
they fail to share science developments and their products in an
unimpeded and selfless manner, the vast majority of the world’s
population will be as exposed or even more exposed than today in an
increasingly interconnected world. </p>
<p>If politically
motivated coercive economic measures against developing countries are
not lifted and if they are not exempted from the payment of the
burdensome and unpayable foreign debt and freed from the ruthless
tutelage of international financial organizations, we cannot delude
ourselves into thinking that we will be in a better position to respond
to the economic and social disparities that, even without a pandemic,
kill millions of people every year, including children, women and
elders. The threat against international peace and security is real and
constant attacks against some countries only made it worse. It can
hardly be expected that the eventual end of the pandemic will lead to a
more just, secure and decent world if the international community,
represented by each country’s governments, does not press forward to
agree and adopt decisions that have proven stubbornly elusive so far.
Similarly, questions will arise as to how well prepared is humanity to
face the next pandemic. </p>
<p>There is still time
to act and mobilize the will of those who are responsible. If we leave
it up to future generations, it may be too late."</p>
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