April 25, 2020. Henry
Reeve International Medical Brigade contingent prepares to leave for
South Africa to participate in fight against COVID-19
Isaac
Saney is a Cuba specialist at Dalhousie University in Halifax and
Co-Chair and Spokesperson of the Canadian Network on Cuba.
Cuba continues to receive international accolades for its
singular role in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. This
is illustrated by the numerous nominations of Cuba's internationalist
medical contingent -- the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade
against Disasters and Serious Epidemics -- for the 2021 Nobel Peace
Prize.
Many countries
are drawing on Cuba's expertise in fighting COVID-19. Almost 4,000
medical personnel in at least 39 countries and territories have
participated and are participating in the frontlines 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 health care
personnel are organized in brigades depending on the local request. To
date, 55 such brigades have served abroad during the pandemic, and
several countries have requested the assistance of a second brigade
when their case load spiked.
Cuba also offers
treatment regimens, some of which are not available in the United
States. A key component of the protocols being used on the island and
in the medical missions is Cuba's Interferon Alfa 2B Recombinant
(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 there are no
specific therapies available, having demonstrated its ability to
activate the patient's immune system and to inhibit viral replication.
In Cuba, IFNrec has been used successfully to combat outbreaks of
dengue hemorrhagic fever and conjunctivitis, as well as to treat
hepatitis B and C. It also demonstrated effectiveness in combatting and
providing protection against infections caused by various versions of
the coronavirus, such as SARS-CoV (the coronavirus of the 2002
outbreak) and SARS and MERS-CoV (the coronavirus of the 2012 outbreak).
IFNrec is a crucial part of Cuban treatment protocols and is
also used as a preventative measure to protect health care workers from
contagion. Various countries have incorporated IFNrec into their
national protocols and clinical guidelines for COVID-19 treatment,
where it is a crucial component of the anti-viral treatment to combat
the coronavirus. Nebulized Interferon Alfa 2B is also recommended as a
treatment for children and pregnant women with COVID-19. While IFNrec
is not a panacea, it has shown considerable promise as a therapeutic
response to COVID-19 in boosting the immune system's response.
Additionally, the Cuban-developed Itolizumab and Biomodulin T have been
credited with 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. To
date results have been very encouraging. At the time of writing, three
of the candidates are either in phase 1 or phase 2 of clinical trials.
Soberana 2 is already in phase 3 testing, with Abdala poised to start
later in March. These testing stages evaluate efficacy and safety. All
candidates must pass phase 3 testing in which the efficacy and safety
is further confirmed by expanded trials encompassing thousands of
persons. If they successfully pass this stage, Soberana 2 and Abdala
will be very close to 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 biopharmaceutical
industry already produces eight vaccines that are integral to the
island's immunization program. In the 1980s, it developed the first
vaccine against meningitis and, 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 intends to produce 100 million
vaccine doses for use across the global South, with various countries
having already reserved doses. Export of Cuban pharmaceutical products
is managed through the state company BioCubaFarma, which currently
distributes more than 300 products to at least 50 countries. Rolando
Pérez Rodríguez, BioCubaFarma's Director of
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 require it. It is about
sharing with the world what we are, the answer that Cuba can give to
the problem of the pandemic."
Driving Cuba's
vaccine production is not only the determination to protect and
preserve the health of the people of Cuba and the world but also the
exercise and defence of sovereignty and the right of
self-determination. For example, Soberana means sovereignty in Spanish,
while Abdala is named for the famous poem by José
Martí, Cuba's national hero and principal intellectual,
author and organizer of the 1895-1898 war to free Cuba from Spanish
colonial domination. Mambisa is a direct reference to Cuba's national
liberation fighters during the19th century wars for independence.
In this time of pandemic, Cuba's international medical
humanitarianism reflects the island's history and dedication over the
last six decades to concrete international solidarity. Under the
leadership of Fidel Castro, Cuba established an unparalleled legacy of
internationalism: actively supporting and engaging in the anti-colonial
and national liberation struggles and social development and
emancipation aspirations of countries across the global South. From 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 racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Nelson
Mandela never forgot. After he was released from prison, one of the
first countries outside of Africa and the first country in Latin
America that he chose to visit was Cuba.
Today this
commitment to humanity is mirrored in the thousands of Cuban medical
personnel and educators who continue to serve around the world. Many of
the medical personnel now intimately involved in 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 engaged in its own
fight against COVID-19 on the island. It is doing this in the face of
an unrelenting economic war waged by Washington against the people of
Cuba, a war that limits the island's access to equipment and other
necessary items required to preserve the health of Cubans. Under the
Trump regime, the U.S. economic war against Cuba reached unprecedented
levels with more than 240 distinct measures being targeted against the
island nation.
Standing out as the epitome of
duplicity was the designation of Cuba by the United States as a sponsor
of state terrorism. It is Cuba, since 1959, that has been the victim of
all manner of terrorist attacks that have been carried out with the
complicity, participation and sponsorship of Washington. Many of these
acts of terror were directly launched from and/or planned in the United
States. Some 3,478 Cubans have been killed and 2,099 injured as a
result of these acts of terrorism.
This last move
by the Trump regime reflected Washington's failure to isolate Cuba in
international relations and public opinion. This failure is poignantly
underscored by the growing global movement -- encompassing
parliamentarians, prominent world figures, distinguished academics and
multiple petitions -- to award Cuba's Henry Reeve International Brigade
the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. These nominations argue instead that it is
Cuba that shows the world a model of international relations that
stands diametrically opposed to terrorism.
February 18, 2021.
Montreal car caravan in support of Cuba
Despite
ongoing U.S. aggression, 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 U.S., 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
upholds that health care is a human right and places the well-being of
its people at the centre of its policies and political decisions. Every
Cuban is visited regularly by a doctor and has free access to all the
treatment protocols available on the island.
There
is a growing recognition that Cuba's example needs to be globalized. A
pandemic is by definition global. Surely, in the face of this worldwide
menace, now is the time for international medical cooperation and
solidarity. A time for joint efforts to confront COVID-19. A time to
put political differences aside in order to save lives. As Cuban
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez declared on March 27, 2020:
"Humanity faces a common challenge. This pandemic does not respect
borders or ideologies. It threatens the lives of all, and it is
everyone's responsibility to address it."
This is
especially imperative as social fissures and chasms, the historic and
prevalent inequalities, inequities and disparities, particularly in the
health care system, have not only been starkly exposed but also
amplified. Recognizing this imperative, 15 U.S. cities, states and
labour councils, at present, have passed resolutions calling for
medical collaboration and cooperation with Cuba.
Cuban
internationalist medical missions are the lived expression of symbolic
dreamcatchers. Just as dreamcatchers allow only good dreams to pass
through, while preventing nightmares, so too the Cuban medical
internationalist missions do their utmost to stop the nightmares of
disease from reaching the people. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic
ravaging the world, in a world fraught with the dangers of
planetary-wide conflagration, the Cuban medical brigades demonstrate
that relations among the world's nations and peoples do not have to be
determined by self-interest and the pursuit of power and wealth. They
hold out to us the inspirational example that it is possible to build
relations based on genuine human solidarity.
Cuba
is also in the midst of a significant domestic project of rectification
and economic renewal. The immediate context is monetary unification and
the recent significant expansion of the non-state sector, i.e.
self-employment and private economic activity. The broader context is
the more than decade-long series of economic measures to address
inefficiencies and distortions in the Cuban economic model. As the new
arrangements are being phased in, the Cuban government has repeatedly
reaffirmed its commitment that no one will be abandoned or left to fend
for themselves. All the social guarantees remain in force, including
universal free health care and education and an array of other social
programs.
The aim of the restructuring is to
strengthen social programs, not privatize nor dismantle them. As former
Cuban President Raúl Castro stated, the goal is to achieve a
sustainable and prosperous socialism. However, it is no small feat for
any country to overcome the worldwide economic crisis in a manner that
favours its people, not the global monopolies. A number of questions
naturally arise: How will the historic commitment of the Cuban
Revolution to the goal of equality -- especially gender and racial
equity -- be affected by the new economic policies? Do these measures
entail fundamental departures from the previous praxis of the Cuban
Revolution?
Across Cuba a frequent slogan
emblazoned on billboards is, "Each day in the World 200 Million
Children Sleep in the Streets. Not one is Cuban." Perhaps, in these
uncertain times, in the face of immense challenges, this best sums up
what Cuba represents and strives to be.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 8 - March 21, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/MS51087.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
