<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container content-width3" style="--font-size:20px;">
<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/01/what-cuba-has-to-teach-in-pandemic-times-and-beyond/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/01/what-cuba-has-to-teach-in-pandemic-times-and-beyond/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">What Cuba Has to Teach, in Pandemic
Times and Beyond<br>
</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">by Diana Block - May 1, 2020<br>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element"
dir="ltr">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div itemprop="articleBody">
<p>In July 2019, I visited the <a
href="http://www.cigb.edu.cu/en/">Cuban Institute for
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology</a> (CIGB) as
part of the 50<sup>th</sup> Anniversary <a
href="https://vb4cuba.com/">Venceremos Brigade</a>. We
were impressed by the many scientific advances that the
Institute had achieved, including the development of
interferons to successfully fight viral diseases such as
dengue and ebola. Little did we imagine that in another
seven months <a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/17/cubas-contribution-to-combatting-covid-19/">Cuba’s
unique Alpha 2-B recombinant interferon (IFNrec)</a>
would become one of the first-line anti-viral drugs used
in China and in other countries around the world to
fight the global COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>Cuba’s development of this vital interferon is now
being widely recognized even in mainstream U.S.
publications such as <a
href="https://www.newsweek.com/cuba-drug-fight-coronavirus-us-sanctions-1493872">Newsweek</a>.
Its scientific and medical advances are breaking through
the U.S. disinformation blockade which routinely is able
to suppress or distort all reference to Cuban
accomplishments. <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7ieph8uC2M">In
a recent webinar</a>, the Cuban ambassador to the U.S.
, José Ramón Cabañas and other medical experts explained
that IFNrec is not a cure for COVID-19, but preliminary
reports are promising, pointing to IFNrec’s efficacy (in
combination with other drugs) in treating COVID-19. Over
45 countries around the world have asked Cuba for this
important drug, but at this point it isn’t available in
the U.S. U.S. and Canadian organizers have <a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/01/what-cuba-has-to-teach-in-pandemic-times-and-beyond/us-cubanormalization.org">begun
a campaign</a> to call for the incorporation of IFNrec
into U.S. and Canadian clinical trials and for the U.S.
FDA to approve it for use in the U.S.</p>
<p>U.S. media has also had to grudgingly acknowledge the
impressive medical brigades that Cuba has sent to over
20 countries, offering medical and public health
expertise to Italy, Haiti, Jamaica, Angola, South Africa
and many others. Over 1200 Cuban medical personnel are
directly involved in the fight against COVID-19 and many
are part of the specially trained Henry Reeve
International Medical Brigade <a
href="https://www.cubastandard.com/qa-cubas-unique-model-of-medical-internationalism/">which
is named after an American</a> who fought in the first
Cuban war of independence, 1868-1878, against Spanish
colonialism. The Henry Reeve Brigade was formed in 2005
partly in response Hurricane Katrina, although Cuba’s
offer to send medical personnel to help in New Orleans
was rejected by President Bush.</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.radiorebelde.cu/english/news/cuba-us-government-earmarks-millions-to-hinder-cuban-medical-cooperation-20190829/">The
U.S. government has tried to defame Cuba’s medical
solidarity</a> by claiming that it is done only for
financial gain. Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Parrilla
tweeted in response to the latest allegations, <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/cuba-foreign-minister-denounces-u-s-defamation-of-cuban-medical-collaboration-20200326-0006.html">“Unfortunately,
while Covid-19 threatens humanity, the U.S. government
is hindering the combat of the epidemic by</a>
attacking countries that practice solidarity and
international cooperation instead of ending the illegal
system of unilateral coercive measures, such as the
blockade vs Cuba.” <a
href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/cuba--new-us-interference-during-special-situation-by-covid19-20200401-0002.html">On
March 31<sup>st</sup> a plane of medical supplies from
China, including masks, diagnostic kits and
ventilators, was</a> unable to land in Cuba due to the
1996 <a
href="http://www.coha.org/helms-burton-act-resurrecting-the-iron-curtain/">Helms-Burton
Act,</a> a law which seriously escalated the
provisions of the U.S. government’s blockade of Cuba
which has been in place since 1960.</p>
<p>On April 16<sup>th</sup> the <a
href="http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2020-04-16/the-covid-19-pandemic-makes-clear-the-need-to-cooperate-despite-political-differences">Cuban
Foreign Ministry issued an urgent call</a> for
cooperation and solidarity among nations, summarizing
Cuba’s response to the crisis in the context of the
global political economy “The pandemic has emerged and
spread amidst a scenario previously marked by
overwhelming economic and social inequalities within and
among nations.” Unless developing countries are
guaranteed access to vital medical/pharmaceutical
technologies and neoliberal coercive economic measures
are lifted by the U.S. and other countries, there will
be no way to “respond to the economic and social
disparities that, even without a pandemic, kill millions
of people every year, including children, women and
elders.”</p>
<p>Despite the merciless U.S. blockade which keeps Cuba
from importing medical supplies and other vital
resources, Cuba is using the many strengths of its
renowned, free public health care system to fight
COVID-19 on the island. Cuba has the world’s highest
ratio of physicians to population which gives it a great
advantage in battling the pandemic. <a
href="http://www.radiohc.cu/en/especiales/comentarios/217558-covid-19-cuba-wages-a-war-for-which-it-is-well-prepared">28,000
medical students</a>, under the supervision of a
professor, are going door-to-door around the country,
inquiring as to whether anyone has respiratory symptoms.
If there are symptoms the person is immediately sent to
a family doctor in the area and if warranted to a local
hospital for testing. As Susana Hurlich, a Canadian who
has lived in Cuba for thirty years, explains the logic
behind Cuba’s fight against COVID-19 is to “<a
href="https://www.resumen-english.org/2020/04/door-by-door-the-cuban-government-delivers-immune-boosting-medicine-to-the-people/">educate
and mobilize the people</a> around principles of
discipline, cooperation and solidarity, and keep them
constantly informed so that they can be active and
responsible participants in the fight against
coronavirus.”</p>
<p>A recent article in New York City’s <a
href="https://indypendent.org/2020/04/cuban-trained-doctor-helps-mobilize-pandemic-response-in-her-south-bronx-community/">Indypendent</a>
paper, highlighted how a Cuban-trained, American doctor
is putting her training into practice in the South Bronx
community where she currently works. Dr. Melissa Barber
studied at <a
href="https://medicc.org/ns/wp-content/cache/all/ns/elam/index.html">ELAM,</a>
the Latin American School of Medicine which provides
scholarships to people in the U.S. who commit to using
their M.D. degrees to work in underserved communities.
Dr. Barber explains how her education in Cuba provided
the basis for the community organizing approach that she
is now using to fight COVID-19 in coalition with other
groups. “<a
href="https://indypendent.org/2020/04/cuban-trained-doctor-helps-mobilize-pandemic-response-in-her-south-bronx-community/">Anyone
who has been trained in the Cuban health</a> system
knows how to assess a community’s health and in
emergency situations survey what’s going on….One of the
biggest ideas that came from the Cuban Revolution was
that everyone, as a human right, should have access to
healthcare and should have access to education.”</p>
<p>But when Bernie Sanders dared to recognize Cuban
accomplishments in literacy and health on <a
href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-democratic-presidential-front-runner-anderson-cooper-60-minutes/">60
minutes</a> in February, the backlash was immediate
and intense, not only from Republicans but from many
sectors of the Democratic Party who accused him of
praising an “authoritarian regime.” The demonization of
Cuba as authoritarian and anti-democratic is a truism in
American politics that no one dares challenge. This
skewed characterization goes hand-in-hand with the
stated goals of the blockade to move Cuba towards
American-style “democratization.”</p>
<p>This narrative unfortunately has a pervasive influence
on progressive perspectives far beyond the Democratic
Party. Cuba’s accomplishments in health, education and
the environment, plus their commitment to international
solidarity may be acknowledged but they are usually
carved out as exceptions to what are considered the
endemic problems with Cuba’s political system. There is
little examination or in-depth study of the <a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/23/popular-democracy-in-cuba/">Cuban
model of popular democracy </a>which was developed
from the beginning of the revolution as an alternative
to representative democracy. Cubans believed that
representative democracy as developed by capitalist
countries was designed to serve the needs of
corporations, the wealthy and international capital –
not the needs of the people. They set about to create an
alternative approach that could better reflect the
revolutionary socialist project. The Cuban model is
continually developing and subject to ongoing
examination within Cuba. The recent <a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/28/cuba-adopts-a-new-socialist-constitution/">adoption
of a new Cuban constitution in 2019</a> based on
extensive popular consultation is a case in point.</p>
<p>Arundhati Roy recently wrote “<a
href="https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca">Historically
pandemics have forced humans to break with the past</a>
and imagine their world anew. This one is no different.
It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the
next.” Many of us hope that the pandemic could present
an opportunity for social transformation if we can
collectively figure out the way forward. We want to
build on the generative expressions of mutual aid and
solidarity that are blossoming in direct opposition to
the exploitative structures of race, class, gender and
empire that are laid bare in all their brutality by the
pandemic.</p>
<p>This is the moment to ground our vision of
transformative change by learning from the experiences
of Cuba. For decades, Cuba has proven its capacity to
implement mutual aid and solidarity within their country
and internationally. Cuba’s system is not perfect,
Cubans would be the first to agree. And Cuba doesn’t
offer a blueprint for work that needs to be done inside
the U.S. now. But Cuba provides a history and current
practice that we in progressive and left movements need
to study carefully. Sixty years of sustained struggle to
build a new society, just ninety miles away from the
continental United States, can certainly teach us a lot.</p>
<p>It is also a time when we need to vigorously defend
Cuba against escalating economic, political and social
attacks by the Trump administration. We have a critical
responsibility to fight for an end to the U.S. criminal
blockade of Cuba, including all economic and travel
sanctions. We need to demand that the U.S. stop
undermining Cuba’s global medical assistance program. We
should call on the FDA to expedite approval of
Interferon Alpha 2B recombinant and include it in U.S.
clinical trials.</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.radiohc.cu/en/especiales/comentarios/217558-covid-19-cuba-wages-a-war-for-which-it-is-well-prepared">On
March 20<sup>th</sup>, President Miguel Diaz-Canel
described the strengths</a> which Cuba brings to the
fight against the pandemic “We have an educated,
informed, responsible, compassionate, and disciplined
people….In addition to these strengths, we have the
training of more than 60 years of a long journey of
resistance in the tough wars of all kinds that they have
imposed on us. . . . Be strong, Cuba, we will live and
we will overcome!”</p>
<p>#Venceremos!</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a></div>
</body>
</html>