W T WHITNEY JR—A survey of Cuban media reports suggests that Cuba’s government and people are prepared to handle COVID 19’s visit to the island. At this point only seven people there have been identified as infected with COVID 19, all having recently arrived from abroad. Here we highlight Cuba’s assistance to China, where the epidemic mushroomed first and most dangerously, so far.
HELEN YAFFE—Cuban Interferon Alpha 2b has proven effective for viruses with characteristics similar to those of COVID-19. Cuban biotech specialist, Dr Luis Herrera Martinez explained that ‘its use prevents aggravation and complications in patients, reaching that stage that ultimately can result in death.’ Cuba first developed and used interferons to arrest a deadly outbreak of the dengue virus in 1981, and the experience catalysed the development of the island’s now world-leading biotech industry.
This is the flagship product of the set of Cuban medicines, which is manufactured both on the island and in a joint venture in Asian production centers, and is highly recommended by medical specialists for its ability to fight the virus. “All the capabilities” exist to supply the national health system and even [meet] other nations’ needs, according to Martínez.
The obvious objective is to foster discontent and provoke social unrest by blocking the operations of the financial, oil and gold producing sectors of the Venezuelan economy. It is obvious that these sanctions affect above all the ordinary people regardless of their political affiliations. It is especially disgraceful that the unilateral US sanctions are having a negative impact on the implementation of social and humanitarian projects. A glaring example of the consequences of the recent banking restrictions is the blocking of the treatment programme for cancer patients carried out through a joint Venezuelan-Spanish project.
ALAN MACLEOD—While demonized in the United States, the Cuban government has built a comprehensive nationalized healthcare system based on preventative medicine, rather than the curative model the U.S. employs. In Cuba, medical staff are assigned to communities and it is their job to see and analyze the health of every person, nipping problems in the bud before they develop and need costly surgery. That way, obesity, for example, is dealt with before it metastasizes into a more serious condition like diabetes or heart disease.