Endorse the US-Cuba-Canada Saving Lives Campaign

A Cuban doctor at a consult. Cuba has a free universal access health system which has so far helped keep its COVID-19 case and death numbers low, even though many Cubans struggle with the necessities of daily life due to shortages and scarcities mostly caused by the US blockade of Cuba. Photo by Yoamaris Neptuno Dominguez, used with permission.
 

By Leni Villagomez Reeves
Co-chair, Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issue Committee 

August 2020

The focus of the Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issue Committee has been on the Saving Lives Campaign of the US-Cuba-Canada Collaboration fighting COVID-19. Cindy Domingo has been working with the elected officials subcommittee, which just scored a stunning success on July 21 as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a resolution calling for Promoting Medical and Scientific Collaboration between San Francisco and Cuba to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Read about the approval of this resolution in an article published in 48hills.org, the official publication of the nonprofit San Francisco Progressive Media Center.)

Leni Villagomez Reeves has been working with the medical subcommittee, which is sharing information about Cuba’s innovative pharmaceuticals, effective public health, medical internationalism, and education of doctors from all over the world at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM). The Cuban medical teams working internationally have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. To learn more and support this campaign go to: www.cubanobel.org

Specifically, the Saving Lives Campaign calls for:

• Allowing US-Cuba-Canada medical, clinical, and scientific collaboration, including inviting Cuban medical brigades to provide direct medical assistance and/or to provide advice and guidance in treating COVID-19.
• Incorporating Cuba’s Interferon Alfa 2B Recombinant in clinical trials in the US, Canada and the WHO, and the granting by the US Food and Drug Administration approval for Cuba’s Interferon Alfa 2B Recombinant.
• Ending US economic and travel sanctions against Cuba, including its extraterritorial nature and the attempts to stop all other countries accepting Cuban medical brigades and assistance, and all ongoing measures that prevent Cuba accessing and importing medical equipment and medicines to confront COVID-19.

WILPF US has endorsed this campaign. If you, as an individual, wish to endorse, or your branch would like to do so, go to: nnoc.info/us-cuba-canada-collaboration-to-fight-covid-19/

Learn more about Cuba’s work to contain COVID-19 in the July eNews article “Cuba Contains COVID-19: Here's How It's Done”