The US Blockade and its Effects on Cuban Medicine

Carlos L. Garrido Rural health care in Cuba (Photo by Carol Foil, 2009). The Cuban socialist healthcare system is internationally recognized as one of the best in the world.1 It is innovative, preventative, people-oriented, comprehensive, community-centered, internationalist, and, of course, de-commodified—treating healthcare as a human right, not a profitable commodity. However, in spite of its extraordinary successes,…

How the US War on Cuba Harms the American People

Dylan James A worker at the National Center for Bio-preparations, Biocen, inspects vials of the Cuban-made VA-Mengoc-BC vaccine for meningococcal disease as they are packaged in Bejucal, Cuba, July 15, 2022. | Ramon Espinosa / AP Americans Could Beat Lung Cancer if U.S. Lifted the Blockade of Cuba The Cuban government has established an extensive network…

Cuba: Eradicating Child Mortality and Banishing the Diseases of the Poor

Vijay Prashad, Manolo De Los Santos The authors at a clinic in Palpite in Cuba. Photo: Odalys Miranda/Twitter The drastic reduction in infant mortality rates is yet another testimony to the Cuban Revolution’s attention to the health of the country’s population Palpite, Cuba, is just a few miles away from Playa Girón, along the Bay of…

Cuba is Moving Closer to Controlling the Pandemic

Alejandra Garcia photo: Ismael Batista Two years ago, when COVID-19 broke out, we had no idea that it would be the most traumatic experience that every country in the world would have to live through, and that it would hit especially hard those nations with low resources, such as this small Caribbean island. As soon…

Interview with Aleida Guevara, Internationalist Doctor: ‘I Do It Because I’m Cuban’

Rania Khalek sat down with Aleida Guevara, the daughter of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, in Havana, Cuba. They discussed Che’s legacy, his impact on her decision to become a doctor, her earliest memories about his personality in the home, how people treated her after his death, her time serving in Cuba’s revolutionary medical missions in Nicaragua,…

This Socialist Island Has Saved the Lives of 97% of Covid-19 Patients

Kawsachun News Minister of Public Health José Angel Portal Miranda and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz visit the Celia Sánchez Manduley Provincial Hospital in Granma where they held a meeting with health workers. January 13, 2022. Photo: MINSAP 97.4% of Cubans confirmed with Covid-19 have been saved over the last two years despite the extreme…

“The Cuban Soberana Vaccine is Not Due to a Miracle but the Consequence of Political Decisions”

Maurizio Coppola Giuliano Granato, national spokesperson of Potere al Popolo, was one of the Italian volunteers participating in the clinical trial SoberanaPlusTurin. Picture: Maurizio Coppola. From November 15 to 25, 35 Italian volunteers participated in a clinical trial on the Soberana vaccine in Havana, Cuba. Thanks to its public and high quality biotechnological research and…

Why Cuba Does Not Have an Anti-Vaccine Movement

Marc Vandepitte, Toon Danhieux Increasingly, large sectors of the European population, and in the US to a lesser extent, openly express their distrust towards their government’s policies to combat COVID-19. The reaction of the traditional policy is one of panic and is characterized by paternalism and repression: general obligation to vaccinate and restricting freedom of…