By Isaac Saney
Isaac Saney is a Cuban expert at Dalhousie University, Canada and Co-Chair and Spokesperson, Canadian Network on Cuba
Cuba continues to receive international praise for its individual role in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. This is illustrated by the many nominations of Cuba’s international medical corps – Henry Reeve’s International Medical Brigade against Serious Disasters and Epidemics – for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
Many countries draw on Cuba’s expertise in fighting COVID-19. Nearly 4,000 medical personnel in at least 39 countries and territories have participated and participated in the front line of the fight against the coronavirus in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The Caribbean and Latin America have particularly benefited, with Cuban medical brigades in Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Suriname, Grenada, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Mexico , Belize, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Henry Reeve’s health care personnel are organized in brigades depending on the local application. To date, 55 such brigades have served overseas during the pandemic, and several countries have requested the assistance of a second brigade when a tribe spiked their case.
Cuba also offers treatment regimes, some not available in the United States. A key component of the protocols used on the island and in the medical missions is Interferon Alfa 2B Cuba (IFNrec). Scientific journals like the Lancet and the World Journal of Pediatrics have recognized the impact of IFNrec. It has been used against various viral infections for which no specific therapies are available, having demonstrated its ability to activate the patient’s immune system and prevent viral replication. In Cuba, IFNrec has been used successfully to combat cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever and conjunctivitis, as well as to treat Hepatitis B and C. It also demonstrated effectiveness in combating and providing protection against infections caused by various versions of the coronavirus, such as SARS -CoV (the 2002 case of coronary virus) and SARS and MERS-CoV (the 2012 case coronavirus).
IFNrec is an integral part of Cuba’s treatment protocols and is also used as a preventative measure to protect healthcare workers from infection. Different countries have incorporated IFNrec into their national protocols and clinical guidelines for COVID-19 treatment, where it is an essential part of the anti-viral treatment to fight the coronavirus. Nebulized Interferon Alfa 2B is also recommended as a treatment for children and pregnant women with COVID-19. Although IFNrec does not solve all problems, it has shown considerable promise as a therapeutic response to COVID-19 in boosting the immune system response. In addition, the Itolizumab and Biomodulin T developed in Cuba have been praised for reducing the death toll from COVID-19 and speeding recovery, especially in high-risk patients.
Cuba is also testing four COVID-19 vaccine candidates: Soberana 1 and Soberana 2, developed by the Finlay Vaccine Institute, and Mambisa and Abdala, produced by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. So far the results have been very encouraging. At the time of writing, three of the candidates were either in phase 1 or phase 2 of clinical trials. Soberana 2 is already testing phase 3, with Abdala set to debut later in March. These testing steps evaluate effectiveness and safety. All applicants must pass phase 3 tests where efficacy and safety is further confirmed through extended trials covering thousands of people. If they succeed at this stage, Soberana 2 and Abdala will be nearing final approval for use in Cuba and the world. Havana is already making preparations for mass production.
The Caribbean island has considerable expertise in vaccine design, development and manufacture. Currently, Cuba’s biomedical industry is already producing 8 vaccines that are an integral part of the island’s immunization program. In the 1980s, it developed the first vaccine against meningitis and, it also produces a Hepatitis B vaccine.
The Cuban government plans to have all Cubans vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021. Vaccinations will also be available to visitors. Havana also plans to produce 100 million vaccine doses for use across the global South, with different countries
having already received doses. The export of Cuban pharmaceutical products is controlled through the national company BioCubaFarma, which currently distributes more than 300 products to at least 50 countries. Rolando Pérez Rodríguez, director of BioCubaFarma Science and Innovation, outlined Havana’s objective: “In the second half of the year, we will be able to immunize the entire population, and also provide doses to the countries that need it … It’s about sharing the world is what we are, the solution that Cuba can give to the problem of the pandemic. ”
Cuba vaccine production drives not only the decision to protect and protect the health of the Cuban people and the world but also the exercise and protection of sovereignty and the right to self-determination. For example, Soberana means Spanish sovereignty, while Abdala is named for the famous poem by José Martí, Cuba’s national hero and leading intellectual writer and war organizer 1895-1898 to liberate Cuba from Spanish colonial domination. Mambisa is a direct reference to Cuba’s national liberation fighters during the 19th century wars for independence.
In this time of pandemic, Cuba’s international medical philanthropy reflects the island’s history and dedication over the past six decades to concrete international unity. Under Fidel Castro’s leadership, Cuba established an unparalleled legacy of internationalism: supporting and participating in the anti-colonial and national liberation battles, and the aspirations of social development and enfranchisement of countries throughout the global South. As of the early 1960s, more than 400,000 Cuban health care workers have served in 164 countries. In southern Africa, more than 2,000 Cubans gave their lives to defeat the racial apartheid regime in South Africa. Nelson Mandela never forgot. After his release from prison, Cuba was one of the first countries outside Africa and the first Latin American country he chose to visit.
Today this commitment to humanity is reflected in the thousands of Cuban medical personnel and educators who continue to serve worldwide. Many of the medical personnel now integral to the fight against COVID-19 are part of the specially trained Henry Reeve International Brigade, which distinguished itself in the fight against the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
As Havana provides invaluable international assistance, it is also participating in its own fight against COVID-19 on the island. It does this in the face of a relentless economic war waged by Washington against the Cuban people: a war that limits the island’s access to equipment and other necessary items required to protect Cubans’ health. Under Trump’s regime, the U.S. economic war against Cuba reached unprecedented levels with more than 240 different measures targeted against the island nation.
Standing out as the epitome of duplicity was Cuba’s designation by the United States as a patron of state terrorism. Cuba, since 1959, has been the victim of all kinds of terrorist attacks carried out with Washington’s complexity, involvement and patronage. Many of these terrorist acts were launched directly from the United States and / or are planned. Some 3,478 Cubans have been killed and 2,099 injured as a result of these acts of terrorism.
This latest move by the Trump regime reflected Washington’s failure to isolate Cuba in international relations and public opinion. This failure is understandably underscored by the growing global movement – covering parliamentarians, prominent world figures, distinguished academics and multiple petitions – to award the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Reeve’s Cuba International Brigade. These nominations argue instead that Cuba is showing the world a diametrically opposed model of international relations.
Despite the United States’ continued aggressive behavior, Cuba continues to prioritize the health and lives of its citizens. For example, despite having a population similar in size to Los Angeles county in the US, Cuba has more than 70 times fewer deaths from COVID-19. In the case of New York City, Cuba’s death rate is more than 100 times smaller. The Cuban government affirms and affirms that healthcare is a human right and places the welfare of its people at the center of its policies and political decisions. A doctor visits every Cuba regularly and has free access to all the treatment protocols available on the island.
There is growing recognition that the Cuban example needs to be globalized. A pandemic is global by definition. Surely, in the face of this global threat, is now the time for international medical cooperation and solidarity? Time for concerted efforts to confront COVID-19. Time to put aside political differences to save lives. As Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez declared on March 27, 2020: “Humanity faces a common challenge. This pandemic does not respect boundaries or ideologies. It threatens everyone’s lives, and it is everyone’s responsibility to tackle it. ”
This is particularly crucial as social and social cleavages, chasms, inequalities, inequalities and differences, especially in the healthcare system, have not only been very open but also amplified. Recognizing this imperative, 15 U.S. cities, provinces, and labor councils have, at present, passed resolutions calling for medical cooperation and cooperation with Cuba.
Cuban international medical missions are the living expression of symbolic dreamers. Just as dreamers allow good dreams to pass through, in preventing nightmares, so too do the missions of Cuban medical internationalists doing their utmost to prevent ill-health nightmares reaching the people. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world, in a world filled with planetary co-location hazards, Cuba’s medical brigades show that relationships among nations and peoples of the world do not have to be determined by self-interest and the pursuit of power and wealth. They hold out the inspirational example to us that it is possible to build relationships based on genuine human unity.
Cuba is also in the midst of a significant domestic project of economic correction and renewal. The immediate context is the recent financial merger and expansion of the non-state sector, ie self-employment and private economic activity. The broader context is the more than a decade-long series of economic measures to address inefficiencies and distortions in Cuba’s economic model. As the new arrangements roll out gradually, the Cuban government has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment that no one will be abandoned or left to look after itself. All social guarantees remain in force, including free health care and education for all and a variety of other social programs.
The aim of the restructuring is to strengthen social programs, not privatize or dismantle them. As former Cuban President Raúl Castro noted, the goal is to achieve sustainable and prosperous socialism. However, it is no small feat for any country to overcome the worldwide economic crisis in a way that favors its people, not the global monopolies. A number of questions arise naturally: How will the new economic policies affect the Cuban Revolution’s historic commitment to the goal of equality – especially gender and racial equity? Do these measures constitute a fundamental departure from the previous praxis of the Cuban Revolution?
Across Cuba a frequent slogan adorned on billboards is, “Everyday in the World 200 Million Kids Sleep in the Streets. Cuba is not one. ”Perhaps, in these uncertain times, in the face of tremendous challenges, this sums up what Cuba represents and strives to be.