Cuba’s bet on home-grown Covid vaccines is paying off
nature.com
nature.com
The embargo has had an exception for food and medicine for the past 30 years.
I’d guess the reason has more to do with minimal foreign exchange reserves to purchase vaccines from any country.
Honestly, the Cuban people can stop this embargo tomorrow morning by simply returning stolen property to it's rightful owners and deciding to chose democracy over the support of the Castro family.
Same way the patriots at the Boston tea party chose democracy.
The Castro family could have ended this suffering decades ago. They decided not to, preferring to see "their" people starve and die of preventable diseases.
Moreover even if the ‘rightful owners’ of property were found, it’s far from obvious how that would solve geopolitical difficulties with the US; after all, all sorts of governments which violate most Americans’ notions of property rights are on very good terms with it.
As for the possibility of spontaneously choosing ‘democracy over the support of the Castro family’, at best this is an almost vacuous statement akin to ‘if nobody were to litter there would be no more additional litter’. Even quite praiseworthy and courageous peoples have some difficulty overthrowing their governments (e.g. in Sudan, Myanmar, Hong Kong…); the ‘patriots at the Boston tea party’ made similar choices, but merely choosing revolt does not guarantee success.
Finally, on the embargo: the medicines exception of course exists, but US sanctions can, if desired, affect trade with most of the world economy, since most companies have some connexion e.g. to the US financial system. To the extent that is not the case in Cuba, that is because the implicit suggestion of the original quote, viz., that were sanctions loosened certain economic benefits would accrue in Cuba, has itself either been implemented or not been contradicted by some contrary policy.
Democracy and freedom are never granted; they are fought for.
> Finally, on the embargo: the medicines exception of course exists, but US sanctions can, if desired, affect trade with most of the world economy, since most companies have some connexion e.g. to the US financial system.
If they would rather trade with Cuba than the US, that's their decision.
What a brave thing to say from the confort of your sofa.
I mean you being American I imagine that should be read “they are fought for mostly by the French with French money and weapons in a proxy war against England”.
Lafayette sure helped the revolution a lot, but it's a stretch to claim that it was France who liberated the US.
You would need a lot of archeological findings to "find" all these extra french soldiers.
This is not quite correct; sometimes they are both fought for and granted—as, e.g., in every mostly agreed decolonisation, or the path from Groote Schuur to the interim constitution, &c. &c.
More to the point, that is precisely why I quibble with the claim that the people of Cuba ‘can stop this embargo tomorrow morning’; they could tomorrow start to fight for democratisation (which plausibly leads to the end of the blockade)—with no guarantee of success.
> If they would rather trade with Cuba than the US, that's their decision.
This is more goalpost-shifting; the initial claim here is ‘Cuba is also free to trade with 179 other countries in the world’, which it isn’t in the case where all the other countries decide not to trade with Cuba because of American pressure. Of course in this case it is also other countries’ decision quite how to respond to American pressure. Now it so happens that sanctions on Cuba do not seem to have as much extraterritorial effect as e.g. those on Iran, so the question does not in practice arise to the same extent as in this hypothetical. But your original point seems to be that a blockade by one country couldn’t be to blame for that much economic difficulty because other countries may not have instituted such a blockade themselves; this is, as a general point, wrong. (Incidentally, where does the number 179 come from? The UN alone has 193 members—and presumably one ought to add Taiwan &al.)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/madeleine-albright-back-she-...
Here is the opposite of current US policy of starving people in countries whose regimes we oppose:
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/herbert-hoover-ussr-gre...
We know what George Bush thought, of course and we probably know what most oil consuming countries would want --which aligns with GHW, but what is the responsibility of these sides? Is OPEC obliged to export because if they didn't millions would die? Would it be okay to invade at that point? How do we square things?
Or as Joe Biden put an embargo and withheld vaccine supplies to India as they were dying from Coronavirus even though the US had overcapacity and had already had more vaccinations in stock than the population. Should India attack the US for killing lots of its citizens?
Thousands risking their lives on makeshift rafts in the hope of making it to the US.
That sounds like a happy place.
Please do not use our suffering for gotchas on internet discussions. If you actually care, do something about it instead.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/11/how-fidel-castros-n...
They used to send homosexuals to labor camps
> Please do not use our suffering for gotchas on internet discussions.
Are you Cuban?
> Are you Cuban?
I'm a transgender woman who lives in a country with an active agenda against LGBTQ+ people today, and will not stand for my (and my friends') suffering being used to spread any propaganda that doesn't seek to liberate us.
Same leaders. Same party.
> I'm a transgender woman who lives in a country with an active agenda against LGBTQ+ people today, and will not stand for my (and my friends') suffering being used to spread any propaganda that doesn't seek to liberate us.
A house divided against itself, cannot stand. Let's defend the Cuban regime because... it doesn't help the cause of your country's LGBTQ+ people?
As this is exactly what is missing from the US, it's not hard to see how disastrous an economic and cultural colonization of Cuba by the USA would turn out.
Cuba is free to do that, but what about the countries? Or more specifically, the companies who wanted to also trade with US-based companies? In Europe, there were occasionally cases of US-companies who tried forcing European companies to stop trading with Cuba because of their own legal situation. Some succeeded, some not.
And when somebody stole property from American and Spanish families to make a new country claiming liberty, that was unfair and unacceptable and they must return it ASAP. Correct?
Cuba also regularly sends doctors to help with medical emergencies and to support developing countries - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_medical_internationalism
Do you find Cuban government statistics more credible than US ones?
At least that’s my take, would be happy to read up on anything irt the stats being falsified if you have that.
From what I heard, they are decades behind.
Keep in mind that it's harder to become a taxi driver than a "doctor" in Cuba.
Med school in Cuba is 6 years of study. I can't find where it's harder to become a taxi driver. Can you clarify?
The most difficult taxi license I know is the black cab license for London, which takes some people years to acquire "The Knowledge." Quoting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxis_of_the_United_Kingdom#Th...
] It is the world's most demanding training course for taxicab drivers, and applicants will usually need to pass at least twelve "appearances" (periodical one-on-one oral examinations undertaken throughout the qualification process), with the whole process averaging 34 months to pass.
3 years < 6 years, and I find it hard to believe that Cuba's taxi license acquisition process is more arduous than London's black cab one.
I tried searching Google Scholar, but the topic is vast and my time little. I thought https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10... ("Medical training for universal health coverage: a review of Cuba–South Africa collaboration") was an interesting read:
> Doctors play an essential leadership role in achieving UHC, but in most countries, their training is orientated towards curative, high technology sub-specialisation in medicine and surgery. The financial and academic barriers to admission to medical school tend to favour the selection of students from privileged backgrounds, leading to young doctors who have limited direct experience of the health needs of poor rural and under-served urban communities, with few choosing to serve these communities ...
> RSA’s long heritage of British medical education traditions and academic excellence, selection of the brightest students and its strong emphasis on specialisation have not helped in developing primary health care. ..
> Cuba adopted an entirely different approach to medical education with the emphasis on primary health care, an interdisciplinary approach, a strong community participation, an internationalist focus, and a health workforce of sufficient size and skills to meet population needs. Much of the training is in rural polyclinics as part of a primary care team, giving students a community and primary care orientation for a large part of their training. Moreover, their values are different: solidarity with poor and disadvantaged communities, and a willingness to serve in a variety of challenging settings [17]. Importantly, Cuba has achieved impressive improvements in population health, aided by these innovations [18].
It's not the years of schools. It's just getting the capital to start, and bribing the right people to be able to do it.
It's one of the only job that gives a cuban access to real currency. [0]. That's why it's more competitive than medicine.
Doctors have the perks of sometimes being "loaned" to foreign countries (usually developing or other communist states) allowing these cubans to get exit visa (otherwise impossible to get). There they can work under the table to try to bring back real currencies to their families, or if they don't have any, try to escape and claim asylum.
A NYC taxi medallion in 2010 cost around $600,000. Does that mean it was harder to be a NYC cab driver in 2010 than to get an MD at Mount Sinai?
I'm perfectly fine if your answer is "yes" - it just means that "harder" doesn't mean something like "years of hard study".
Being Queen of England was clearly one of the hardest jobs in the 20th century as there was only one. And she used family connections to get it.
No. Taxi medallion in NYC is an open market. You can just pick up a license if you have the means to buy it and operate legally. It is not the case in Cuba. Good luck going into the business and keeping the "right" to operate there. Meanwhile medical school is just an application you need to fill for those who couldn't get a job as a taxi driver or in a tourist resort.
> I'm perfectly fine if your answer is "yes" - it just means that "harder" doesn't mean something like "years of hard study".
I'm not going to comment on the "hard" part but perhaps working smarter and not harder would be better for them. Seems medical degrees from Cuba are recognized almost nowhere in the world. That speaks for the quality.
$600,000 certainly sounds like rather a lot of capital in 2010. Are you now saying that acquiring that capital isn't hard, so only knowing who to bribe is the hard part?
> Seems medical degrees from Cuba are recognized almost nowhere in the world
I ... don't know what that means. If a Cuban MD visit the US, they aren't referred to as doctor?!
Or do you mean they can't practice as an MD in US without some sort of re-qualification?
In the US, a doctor can't move to another state and immediately start working as a doctor (though many states are members of a compact, which simplifies those transfers). As a check, I see https://medicalcredentialing.org/help-applying-medical-licen... says "Discussing options with the licensure board if an applicant’s application is deficient in some way (ex: a required course was not part of professional’s schooling)"
So I wouldn't be surprised that an MD moving countries wouldn't be recognized without some sort of re-qualification.
Or do you mean that the Cuban MD program is worthless, and students need to start from scratch if they, for example, want to be an MD in the US?
That's clearly not correct. In a parallel thread I linked to https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10... . Table 1 lists things like
> Cape Verde had no medical school until 2015 and was dependent on international collaborations. Human resource secondary data were used to map the training of doctors. Cuba has trained almost half (189) of the doctors trained since 1975.
> "Medical students from Equatorial Guinea Bata Medical School are taught by Cuban academics and go to Cuba to take their sixth academic year and graduate. So far, 208 doctors have graduated from the Bata school."
and says "US citizens trained in Cuba have demonstrated success in examinations to work in the US health system". The citations include http://mediccreview.org/latin-american-medical-school-class-... , which has numbers:
> A decade after the first US graduate received his diploma from ELAM, 113 have followed. While most (especially recent) grads are still finishing their USMLE exams, 40% of the total are already in residencies or have completed them: of these, 90% have chosen to practice in three main primary care specialties—family medicine (61%), internal medicine (23%) and pediatrics (6%). Of US graduates already practicing, 65% work in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) and/or Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs). The success of these doctors also helps destigmatize the Cuban program; US foreign medical graduates are often viewed as substandard, the assumption being that they studied abroad because they couldn’t get accepted anywhere else. But often, as in the case of ELAM-trained doctors, US medical education poses a financial, not intellectual, barrier to their training.
So, the US appears to recognize medical degrees from Cuba like it recognizes degrees from other countries.
To be absolutely clear, that first paper describes how Cuban-trained students "are perceived to have inadequate skills", while also pointing out "RSA’s long heritage of British medical education traditions and academic excellence, selection of the brightest students and its strong emphasis on specialisation have not helped in developing primary health care."
Doctors who have been trained in hospital and speciality services might indeed consider someone trained in primary care for the poor and disadvantaged as being under-trained. But if you need MDs for primary care for the poor and disadvantage then perhaps specialist training is the wrong thing.
Raising money in NYC is not the same as in Cuba.
First of all, in NYC you need USD and that's what the market will loan you. You can use your house as colateral, finance it through other means or rent the license from an owner. It's a scummy business and I'm glad Uber disrupted it, but there were several legal ways of doing so.
In Cuba, you'll need USD as well (the "official" currency is worthless) but it's illegal to carry it and the local warlord won't let you exchange it for a fair price. You need black market connections and potentially help from abroad to even have the slimmest chance at getting some real currencies.
> I ... don't know what that means. If a Cuban MD visit the US, they aren't referred to as doctor?!
This is America, they can refer to themselves how they want. Signing a prescription with their name and MD however would be a felony.
> So, the US appears to recognize medical degrees from Cuba like it recognizes degrees from other countries.
But earlier
> "US citizens trained in Cuba have demonstrated success in examinations to work in the US health system"
It's unclear how much classes they had to re-take before being able to pass the exam. The article won't say (of course).
What world do you live it? Apparently one where you expect taxi drivers to 1) own a house instead of rent, and 2) have enough collateral in the house. I certainly couldn't get that sort of loan.
> Signing a prescription with their name and MD however would be a felony.
Like I said, if an MD moves to another state and does the same thing (that is, doesn't get a medical license in the state) then it's also a felony. Does that make the MD program from other states bad? No.
> It's unclear how much classes ...
It's also unclear how many classes a German MD (or one from India, Russia, Japan, or any other non-US program) would need to take to be an MD in the US.
You haven't pointed to anything to back your statements. I have.
Here you go - https://www.ama-assn.org/education/international-medical-edu... :
] "After ECFMG certification, physicians who wish to practice medicine in the United States must complete an accredited residency training program in the United States or Canada. This process will take at least 3 years. The physician will have to complete a residency program regardless of the training he or she has received overseas."
By your categorization, NO medical degrees from outside the US and Canada are recognized in the US. I guess we can conclude "That speaks for the quality" of ALL overseas medical programs, not just Cuba's.
"Vérez Bencomo says the Finlay Institute can produce 10 million Soberana 02 doses per month..." With a population of 11 million, this would allow Cuba to get vaccinated in short order, one would think?
Everywhere else the Delta variant has led to more cases, hasn't it? So why would it cause fewer cases in Cuba?
Yes, that would explain why Cuba is one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world.
India?
This is debatable. It has a lot of doctors and invests what little resources it has into healthcare, but that doesn't make it rich in medical resources. It comes down to the decisions made by the government on what to do with their limited resources.
> It comes down to the decisions made by the government on what to do with their limited resources.
Limited resources applied over a long period of time can lead to rich resources in certain areas. I’m not sure what you are disagreeing with here.