Campaign to Support Cuba's Contribution to World Fight Against COVID-19
- Isaac Saney, Spokesperson,
Canadian Network on Cuba -
Members of Cuba's Henry Reeve International
Medical Brigade in Barbados during the COVID-19
pandemic. Cuba has sent similar brigades
throughout the Caribbean and around the world.
The Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC) is launching
the Campaign to Support Cuba's Contribution to
World Fight Against COVID-19 to assist the heroic
island's internationalist medical missions that
are combatting the pandemic across the world. At
the time of writing, Cuba has more than 800
medical personnel serving humanity in the trenches
of 16 countries against the dreaded coronavirus:
including Italy (currently with the greatest
number of fatalities), Spain, Andorra, in Europe;
Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Suriname,
Grenada, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and
Belize, in the Caribbean; Venezuela and Nicaragua,
in Latin America, and Angola in Africa. In the
coming days more Cuban medical missions will be
dispatched to other countries.
Currently, at least, 45 countries have sought to
use Cuba's Interferon Alfa 2B Recombinant (IFNrec)
for confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. The
international profile and acknowledgement of
IFNrec is steadily growing. For example, there is
the March 24 Newsweek article, "Cuba Uses
'Wonder Drug' to Fight Coronavirus Around the
World Despite U.S. Sanctions," and, "The World
Rediscovers Cuban Medical Internationalism," in
the March 30 issue of Le Monde Diplomatique.
The Chinese National Health Commission is using
IFNrec as a crucial component of the anti-viral
treatment to combat the coronavirus. In the
recently published extensive medical handbook by
Zhejiang University School of Medicine on how to
treat COVID-19 based on China's experience with
the pandemic, IFNrec is identified as a
significant part of the treatment. It has been
very effective among the most vulnerable patients
in China, Cuba, and Italy.
Cuba's medical missions and other generous
assistance to humanity in this time of pandemic
reflects the island's history and dedication over
the last six decades of always standing with the
peoples of the world in their time of need. During
the course of the Cuban Revolution more than
400,000 Cuban health care workers have served in
164 countries. For example, many of the medical
personnel now intimately involved in the fight
against COVID-19 in the 16 countries mentioned are
part of the specially trained Henry Reeve
International Medical Brigade against Disasters
and Serious Epidemics, which distinguished
themselves the fight against the Ebola epidemic in
West Africa.
Cuban internationalist medical missions have
often been compared to 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.
Cuba is also engaged in its own fight against
COVID-19. It is doing this in the face of an
unrelenting economic war waged by the United
States 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. However, as it has always done, and
continues to do, 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.
The Campaign to Support Cuba's Contribution to
World Fight Against COVID-19 echoes the 2010 CNC
Cuba for Haiti Campaign, which was warmly and
enthusiastically received by Canadians. As
Haitians struggled to recover from the devastating
earthquake, more than $200,000 were raised to
assist the Cuban medical mission in Haiti. That
campaign demonstrated the confidence that the
Canadian people have in Cuba, with many people
giving contributions simply on the grounds that
their money would safely reach its destination and
not be squandered in corruption or misused. This
shows the respect and admiration of Canadians for
the Cuban people and their efforts to build and
defend a society centred on independence, justice
and human dignity.
For more information on the Campaign to Support
Cuba's Contribution to World Fight Against
COVID-19 contact Keith Ellis, Coordinator,
Campaign to Support Cuba's Contribution to World
Fight Against COVID-19 at: 905-822-1972 or Isaac
Saney, CNC Spokesperson at: 902-449-4967.
To contribute to the Campaign to Support Cuba's
Contribution to World Fight Against COVID-19:
cheques should be made out to the "CNC," with
"COVID-19" written in the memo, and then mailed
to:
c/o Sharon Skup
56 Riverwood Terrace
Bolton ON L7E 1S4
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 11 - April 4, 2020
Article Link:
Campaign to Support Cuba's Contribution to World Fight Against COVID-19 - Isaac Saney, Spokesperson,
Canadian Network on Cuba
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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