by Vangelis Georgiou
When bad news from China started to come in late 2019 and when they saw the spread of the coronavirus with the New Year, Havana had a strong Plan A. The Cubans wasted no time. Relying on the state's central planning, they drew up a “prevention and control plan” as early as January 2020, without waiting for the virus to knock on the country's door.
So when the first three cases were reported, arrangements were put in place to identify and isolate contacts: medical students were mobilised to carry out door-to-door searches throughout the country. They thus identified people who were vulnerable - sick people, pregnant women - checked them for symptoms and immediately started a testing programme.
The table above shows the results of the response from the beginning of the pandemic until November, as Cubans counted only 133 deaths! This was noticed by some American politicians who saw their citizens suffering and their system paralyzed. Although American media did not highlight it, several started asking for help from Havana! Cities in the most populous US state, such as San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, have passed resolutions supporting medical and scientific cooperation with socialist Cuba to deal with COVID-19.
In October, Oakland passed unanimously and in November, the mayor of California's capital, Sacramento, Follow the same path by proposing a resolution to Trump and Congress to lift the embargo on Cuba for medical reasons. The tweeting of the news by Cuban Ambassador to the US Jose Ramon Campañeras probably did not go down well with the hardliners in Washington.
The country with the world's largest pharmaceuticals and billions invested in health care is seeing tens of thousands of citizens of the American Dream die and others impoverished. Even in Canada, considered by many in the West to be a model country, MP Niki Ashton stated that «Canada has much to learn from Cuba».
Immediate response from the Cubans
Indeed, as report Emily Morris and Ilan Kellman from University College London (UCL): «Cuba's response to the coronavirus threat was swift. A plan of «prevention and control», prepared in January 2020, included training of medical staff, preparation of doctors and quarantine and information of the public (including tourism workers) on symptoms and precautions».
When the Cuban authorities confirmed on 20 March 21 incidents, they put an end to tourists! Although tourism is a major source of income for Cubans, the government knew what it was doing. It proceeded to isolate vulnerable people, provided for people to work from their homes, transferred workers to priority sectors and, of course, protected work by providing social assistance.
While in Greece, ministers go out every day in the media saying often contradictory things, like Mr. Petsas, the Cubans responded in practice. For example, when they saw that masks and social distances were impotent due to the overcrowding of public transport, drivers were hired and vehicles - even private ones - were requisitioned to move patients and important workers. At the same time, in Athens, the government has been unable to find a solution to the bus problem for months, while in Thessaloniki the citizens are experiencing a drama with the problematic OASΘ.
Of course, Cuba is not at the top of the list for conducting tests. Greece ranks 62nd, while Cuba is 107th out of 220 countries. Already in the first wave, Professors Emily Morris and Ilan Kellman said that «if Cuba's contact tracing and testing system brings the disease under control, its experience can offer lessons in pandemic control and more of their doctors will be available to help in the effort to fight the pandemic abroad». But it seems that they did well.
Ready for military and epidemiological invasion
Cuba has impressive experience in controlling viruses that have shaken the developed Western world. It has been able to catalytically reduce yellow fever and AIDS! As early as 1981, Cuban research institutes created Interferon Alpha 2B to treat yellow fever and succeeded. However, the same drug was also used for COVID-19. Speaking for therapies, the director of the Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Professor Dr Gerardo Guillén, said that a very important decision was made to introduce interferon alpha 2b very early in Cuban treatment protocols because of the evidence for its antiviral and immunosuppressive capacity.
Professor Luis Herrera Martinez reported to the London School of Economics researcher Helen Yaffe, that Cuban interferon Alpha 2B has been shown to be effective for viruses with characteristics similar to those of coronavirus. «Its use prevents deterioration and complications in patients who have reached a stage that may eventually lead to death».
The first was Fidel Castro, who tore up the whole pre-revolutionary flimsy health system. He set up the effective 1960 revolutionary defence committees with the initial mission to deal with a possible US invasion. But then these became part of the wider mobilisation for health care as foreign intervention seemed less likely. Cuban doctors were trained to move into the most rugged mountainous or watery places, like the Special Forces, even on mules or canoes!
Thus, they learned to move the elderly, the disabled and even the mentally ill to higher ground in the event of an approaching hurricane. Today, they help remove mosquito breeding sites during yellow fever outbreaks, participate in health education programmes, ensure the distribution of children's vaccination cards and help train relief workers. As the Professor of Environmental Psychology emphatically states Don Fitz, «Cuba has been prepared for coronavirus since 1959!».
Efficiency and solidarity
At the same time, the EU, with the incredible amounts of money at its disposal, has not been able to prevent the virus, nor has it been able to deal with it. In Cuba the investor and guarantor is the state, while in the EU the money is mainly put up by the companies. So, when the EU is being paid off by companies - not only in health, but in general - the strategic choice of research is (co-)shaped by companies making deals with bureaucrats who publicly claim “solidarity”. At the same time, the Cubans have experienced a brutal economic stranglehold from the West, but they manage exemplarily without begging for funds from a Centre.
In Cuba they followed Castro's precepts of solidarity with those in need. Cuban doctors helped the Algerians in the 1960s, Cuban doctors helped the Italians in the first wave. The famous Cuban International Henry Reeve Medical Brigade has sent more than 50 medical teams to countries around the world to treat people with coronavirus and prevent transmission. As of October 2020 alone, more than 3,700 Cuban health professionals have participated in this effort. Rightly so, 200 universities in the US Retrieved from to be given a Nobel Prize.
Before the US -perhaps- lands McDonald's in Havana and the Europeans their sky-high free market rules, the Cubans have offered something much more important: the message that internationalism is not -so much about travelling comfortably and cheaply for entertainment or education, but about travelling to give.
