Protests Erupt in Cuba

[Lplus]

‘They want to make an example’: Cuba protesters hit with severe sentences

From the Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ences-sedition

[dann]

Did you wonder about the title of the article after you read it, Lplus? (If you actually did read it, that is.)

On the one hand, you have Cuba protesters hit with severe sentences, and on the other hand, you have stories like this one:

Quote:

One Sunday last summer, 18-year-old Eloy Cardoso left his mother’s house on the outskirts of Havana to collect an Atari game console from a friend.
He’d stayed at home the previous day, while the largest anti-government demonstrations since the revolution had ripped through Cuba.
The authorities had managed to quell the protests in most of the country overnight, but not in La Güinera: unrest was still raging in the humble and normally calm neighbourhood, and Eloy walked out into a bloody brawl.
Shops were smashed and looted, party supporters wielded clubs, police wrestled with youths, and one man was shot dead. Amid the tumult, Cardoso began to throw stones at the police.

So the poor guy just left his mother's house to collect an Atari game from a friend, and then he suddenly began to throw stones at the police amid the tumult. Why? Because the police prevented him from picking up the Atari game?! Or because they were trying to prevent people from smashing and looting shops?

And shops were smashed and looted, and yet the people hit with harsh sentences are protesters, not looters and people throwing stones at the police, according to the title of the article.

This looks like the kind of reporting on the Capitol riots that we have seen from Fox and other right-wing loonies recently when armed seditionists invading the Capitol building are described as peaceful tourists.

[dann]

Originally Posted by dann

Since last month, Nov 16:

Originally Posted by dann

The most recent SARS-CoV-2 numbers:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49.
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38.

Since it takes three jabs to be fully vaccinated in Cuba, the difference is even bigger if we look at
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99.

And even at this point, Cuba is still vaccinating much more than the USA:
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30.

Dec 17, 2021:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 6; USA 357
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.03; USA 3.98
The Cuban trend is still decreasing numbers of new cases and deaths.

Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19. Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 82.06, total 90.37; USA: fully 60.72; total 72.23
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99 --> Cuba 257.04; USA 147.6
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30 --> Cuba 0.44; USA 0.40

Today, Jan 17, 2022:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 6; USA 357. --> Cuba 275; USA 2,334
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.03; USA 3.98. --> Cuba 0.11; USA 5.33 (A weird jump in the Cuban numbers on Jan 10!)
The trend is now rising numbers of new cases and deaths in both Cuba and the USA.

Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19. Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 82.06, total 90.37; USA: fully 60.72; total 72.23 --> Cuba: fully 86.32, total 92.99; USA: fully 62.46; total 74.75
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99 --> Cuba 257.04; USA 147.6 --> Cuba 288.05; USA 158.7 (Cuba recently began administering booster shots to the general population.)
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30 --> Cuba 0.44; USA 0.40 --> Cuba 1.58; USA 0.24

It is obvious that the Cubans are worried about the new variant: Con la variante Ómicron no podemos confiarnos para nada, advierte Primer Ministro (Granma.cu, Jan 11, 2022)

[Lplus]

Originally Posted by dann

Did you wonder about the title of the article after you read it, Lplus? (If you actually did read it, that is.)

On the one hand, you have Cuba protesters hit with severe sentences, and on the other hand, you have stories like this one:




So the poor guy just left his mother's house to collect an Atari game from a friend, and then he suddenly began to throw stones at the police amid the tumult. Why? Because the police prevented him from picking up the Atari game?! Or because they were trying to prevent people from smashing and looting shops?

And shops were smashed and looted, and yet the people hit with harsh sentences are protesters, not looters and people throwing stones at the police, according to the title of the article.

This looks like the kind of reporting on the Capitol riots that we have seen from Fox and other right-wing loonies recently when armed seditionists invading the Capitol building are described as peaceful tourists.

Yes, I read the article

Another quote

Quote:

The trial is one of scores currently playing out across the island, as, six months after the demonstrations, Cuban courts have quietly started imposing draconian sentences on the protesters who – sometimes peacefully, sometimes less so – flooded the streets last summer.

Though the state has a history of issuing stiff sentences to organised political dissidents, the punishments now being meted out are unusually severe.

I'm sure you think they were all just innocent boys caught up in some sort of US inspired plot to oust a communist government - but then you would.

[dann]

No, I wouldn't and I don't.

The hardships that most of the Cubans protested against peacefully were very real - and on July 11 about to get even worse due to the pandemic. However, looting food stores, smashing police cars and encouraging an invasion by U.S. troops missed the point. As does the kind of journalism that portrays invaders of the Capitol building in Washington as peaceful tourists and looters and stone throwers in Cuba as peaceful protesters.

And the hardships are still there, which the many articles about foreign aid serve to stress:
Cuba received 135 donations from compatriots abroad and friends in 2021 (Granma.cu, Jan 19, 2022)

That the USA tries to take advantage of those hardships is despicable and the reason why the protests against the U.S. blockade are always several times larger than the July 2020 protests:
Millions of U.S. dollars to destabilize Cuba (Granma.cu, Jan 18, 2022)

But you wouldn't want to hear about "some sort of US inspired plot to oust a communist government," would you?!

[dann]

Quote:

A group of US mayors is currently showing interest in Cuba's medical collaboration, mainly in the Henry Reeve internationalist brigade, which has assisted the fight against Covid-19 in several countries of the world.
This was reported by the website The Washington Informer, which gives details on the obstacles imposed by Washington to Cuba’s medical assistance.
Amid the spread of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in the United States, this media outlet notes, a group of local leaders will urge the Biden administration to lift this long-lasting blockade that prevents Cuban health professionals from assisting doctors on US soil.
US mayors show interest in Cuban medical collaboration (Prensa Latina, Jan 20, 2022)

Quote:

Throughout the pandemic, a collective of grassroots organizers and industry leaders have coalesced around a mission to compel the U.S. government’s collaboration with Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade in the fight against COVID-19.
As the omicron variant makes waves across the country, a collective of U.S. mayors have geared up to encourage the Biden administration to override a longstanding trade embargo that prevents the Cuban medical brigade from assisting doctors on U.S. soil.
(...)
“Cuba can be of tremendous help to us and we want to find a way to utilize your expertise [and] we’ll work on convincing our government to allow us to do that,” Ford said.
Media representatives for the White House didn’t return The Informer’s inquiry about the consideration the Biden administration has given to allowing Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Brigade to assist in domestic COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
Baraka’s office also didn’t provide comment about a recent meeting between his administration and the Cuban Ministry of Public Health.
Consortium of Mayors Organizes to Bring Cuban Medical Brigade to U.S. (The Washington Informer, Jan 19, 2022)

Cuba also offered to help New Orleans after Katrina so I doubt that much will come of this initiative.

[Arcade22]

Yes it's outrageous that people might violently protest against a brutal communist tyranny that rules with an iron fist and permits no non-violent means of removing them from power.

Think of the property damage!

[dann]

Tell us about how the brutal Social Democratic tyranny with an iron fist banned peaceful outdoor demonstrations in the summer of 2020:

Black lives matter-manifestation samlade tusentals i Stockholm (SVT.se, June 4, 2020)
Thousands defy pandemic ban to join Stockholm protests over U.S. police violence (Reuters, June 3, 2020)
Stockholm police end Black Lives Matter protest for exceeding gatherings limit (RadioSweden, June 4, 2020)

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Were any stores looted? Were police cars destroyed? Was there any property damage at all?
Why were the protesters pepper sprayed, attacked and arrested?

Some people seem to think that words like brutal communist tyranny and iron fist are reality, and then they get terribly upset when somebody points out to them that it isn't so.

[dudalb]

Cuba is now just another Latin American Dictatorship. Only difference is the Marxist rhetoric.

[dann]

Like I said:

Originally Posted by dann

Some people seem to think that words like brutal communist tyranny and iron fist are reality, and then they get terribly upset when somebody points out to them that it isn't so.

Edited by Agatha:

edited to remove breach of rule 12

[dann]

Information on criminal cases associated with July 11, 2021, disturbances (Granma.cu, Jan 27, 2022)

[dann]

The U.S. invests more for subversion in Cuba than it gets in return (Granma.cu, Feb 4, 2020)

Quote:

The demoralized counterrevolution is laying low these days, spending most of its time on in-fighting
(...)
These are the legions who oppose the Cuban Revolution: embezzlers, vandals, people who devote their efforts to fomenting hatred and disunity, amateur comedians: this is the true nature of those who think they canmake a few bucks with the "fable" of the "terrible dictatorship."
With enemies like this... (Granma.cu, Feb 3, 2020)

[dann]

Analysis: Biassed reporting about Cuban protests in NYT and WP:

Quote:

Although people in both countries protested for many of the same reasons—inequality, poverty, and unemployment exacerbated by Covid-19; rising cost of living; police violence; and systemic racism—the Colombian protests lasted far longer and were met with a harsher crackdown than in Cuba. According to respected human rights and civil society groups, the death toll ranged from 21 to 44 deaths in Colombia in a population of 51 million and one to five deaths in Cuba in a population of 11 million. In addition to disproportionately killing more people, Colombian police also injured protesters more severely than their Cuban counterparts, such as deliberately shooting at dozens of protesters’ eyes.
U.S. Media Provides Biased Coverage of Cuban and Colombian Protests (NACLA, Nov 15, 2021)

[dann]

Prosecutions stemming from July 11-12 disturbances advance (Granma.cu, Feb 14, 2022)
With descriptions of the not-so-peaceful events.

[dann]

One of those protests you would probably never have heard about:

Quote:

As protesters also denounced the high price of food, banks and stores pulled down their security gates, and mass transit stopped running. Protesters warned:
“Crime cannot reign in our country. If Pérez is not freed, we will intensify our demonstration.”
Cuban doctor kidnapped in Haiti – her community protests (Workers, Jan 28, 2022)

Still nothing new about the Cuban medical brigades coming to the USA.

[GraculusTheGreenBird]

Originally Posted by dann

Tell us about how the brutal Social Democratic tyranny with an iron fist banned peaceful outdoor demonstrations in the summer of 2020:

Black lives matter-manifestation samlade tusentals i Stockholm (SVT.se, June 4, 2020)
Thousands defy pandemic ban to join Stockholm protests over U.S. police violence (Reuters, June 3, 2020)
Stockholm police end Black Lives Matter protest for exceeding gatherings limit (RadioSweden, June 4, 2020)

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I AGREE

Were any stores looted? Were police cars destroyed? Was there any property damage at all?
Why were the protesters pepper sprayed, attacked and arrested?

Some people seem to think that words like brutal communist tyranny and iron fist are reality, and then they get terribly upset when somebody points out to them that it isn't so.

Sorry, how does that answer the charge that Cubans have no non-violent means of removing the dictatorship from power?

[dann]

I didn't notice any argument for the charge. Did you?

[dann]

- with a message for Joe Biden:

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Quote:

2021 was a rough year for the Cuban people, who not only faced the pandemic, but devastating sanctions imposed by Trump and kept in place by Biden. So what are their hopes for 2022?
(Belly of the Beast on YouTube, Jan 1, 2022 - 3:00 min.)

(Notice that Cuban toddlers can both dance and wear a face mask at the same time!)

[dann]

It's that time of the month.
The SARS-CoV-2 numbers from Our World in Data, Nov 16, 2021, and today:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 79, USA 410.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.37, USA 6.80.

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 87.12, total 93.59; USA: fully 64.29, total 75.88.
Since it takes three jabs to be considered fully vaccinated in Cuba, the difference is even bigger if we look at:
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99. --> Cuba 306.92, USA 164.89.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.23, USA 0.11.

The numbers from this thread for Dec 17, 2021, and January 17, 2022.

CNN's Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide

[dann]

The protests in Cuba on July 11, 2021:

Quote:

On July 11, unprecedented protests erupted across Cuba. Most media organizations portrayed the demonstrations as a cry for freedom against Communism. But the reality was far more complex. Journalist Liz Oliva Fernández explores the root causes of the devastating economic crisis that has pushed Cuba to the brink. She takes the viewer to Cuba’s working class neighborhoods, where we see the impact of ever-intensifying U.S. sanctions during the COVID pandemic and the near fulfillment of a 1960 State Department memo justifying the purpose of the U.S. embargo: “[to deny] money and supplies...to decrease...wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.”
The War on Cuba — Episode 5 (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, Nov 13, 2021 - 20:54 min.)

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[dann]

Three very short videos that put the OP of this thread into perspective:

Quote:

Mitchell Valdes-Sosa is the Director of The Cuban Center for Neuroscience. He busts the myth that the U.S. embargo hasn’t affected Cuba’s health care system in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic by showing how sanctions have impeded Cuba from making its own masks, ventilators and swabs for PCR tests.
Sanctions In a Pandemic, Pt. 1 (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, Oct 9, 2021 - 2:33 min.)

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Quote:

Tania Urquiza Rodríguez is the Vice President of BioCubaFarma, the country's state-run biotech conglomerate. She breaks down how U.S. sanctions have impacted Cuba's ability to produce its own vaccines and medications during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sanctions In a Pandemic, Pt. 2 (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, Oct 16, 2021 - 3:41 min.)

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Quote:

Eulogio Pimentel is Vice President of BioCubaFarma, the country’s state-run biotech conglomerate that has made two of the world’s top vaccines against the COVID-19 virus. He explains how U.S. sanctions have cost lives in Cuba by forcing a delay in the vaccines’ production.
Sanctions In a Pandemic, Pt. 3 (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, Oct 23, 2021 - 2:00 min.)

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[dann]

The SARS-CoV-2 numbers from Our World in Data, Nov 16, 2021, and today:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 49, USA 96. (Decreased testing?)
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.04, USA 3.82.

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 87.44, total 93.83; USA: fully 65.27, total 76.54.
Since it takes three jabs to be considered fully vaccinated in Cuba, the difference is even bigger if we look at:
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99. --> Cuba 310.74, USA 167.81.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.11, USA 0.05.
CNN's Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide
The numbers from this thread for Dec 17, 2021, January 17, 2022 and Feb 17, 2022.

Italian volunteers participating in Soberana Plus-Turin clinical trials arrive in Cuba (Granma.cu, March 9, 2022)
Abdala demonstrates safety and immunogenicity in children (Granma.cu, Feb 17, 2022)

Google translate:

Quote:

In March alone, eight people have died from this disease, and that keeps the lethality at 0.12%. Since the start of the pandemic in Cuba, the total number of fatalities is 8,503.
El mayor peso de transmisión de la COVID-19 en Cuba se concentra en los casos autóctonos (Granma.cu, March 15, 2022)

[dudalb]

One or our resident Marxists loves a Marxist dictatorship. No news in that.

[dann]

One of our self-proclaimed centrists didn't even discover the lie in the OP. No news in that.

Originally Posted by dudalb

A System modeled after that of the old Soviet Union fails badly. Whatta surprise.
But I though Cuba had such a great health care system?

Meanwhile in the real world:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people: Cuba 0.06, USA 2.51.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people: Cuba 752, USA 2,934.
Apparently, Cuba does have such a great health-care system - in spite of all the obstacles the U.S. blockade puts in its way.
The only reason why the USA's health-care system is not considered to have failed is that it is considered a moral obligation for old people to be willing to die on the altar of capitalism.

Quote:

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, described the recognition of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with its Medal for Inventors as “well deserved” for the authors of four Cuban anti-COVID vaccines.
On the social network Twitter, the Head of State expressed that “with the control of the pandemic, the people gave them the first prize. Many more will come.”
The MSc. María de los Ángeles Sánchez Torres, General Director of the Cuban Industrial Property Office (OPI) informed the Cuban News Agency (ACN) that Soberana 01, Soberana 02, Abdala and Mambisa are the ones selected for the stimulation for their contributions to the national economic and technological development.
He also announced that next Monday Daren Tang, director general of WIPO, will travel to Havana at the head of a delegation from this specialized organization, to deliver the medals to the creators of Cuban immunogens.
Despite the existing limitations due to the siege of the United States against the Caribbean nation, ten products of Cuban science have received the WIPO Gold Medal from the first, in 1989, to the last, in 2015, the ACN mentioned.
“Well-deserved international recognition” for the creators of Cuban anti-COVID vaccines (Euro24, March 26, 2022)

Diaz-Canel acknowledges vaccine creators in Cuba (Prensa Latina, March 26, 2022)
«Muy merecido reconocimiento internacional» para los creadores de vacunas cubanas anti-COVID (Granma.cu, March 26, 2022)

[dann]

Quote:

The Director General commended Cuba’s robust response to the COVID-19 pandemic which showed the island’s expertise in the biopharma area. President Díaz-Canel said the COVID-19 vaccines were developed in record time.
Later in the day, Mr. Tang presented the inventors of the vaccines with WIPO awards in recognition of their achievements, in the presence of President Díaz-Canel.
WIPO Director General Ends Latin America Four-Nation Visit in Cuba (World Intellectual Property Organization, March 28, 2022)

Recibió Díaz-Canel al Director General de la Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (+ Video) (Granma.cu, March 29, 2022)
I'm surprised to see Díaz-Canel without a face mask, but I assume that was exclusively for the photo opportunity.
Face masks still play an important role in Cuba's successful fight against the virus:

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[dann]

This is one of those Reuters articles about Cuba that are almost entirely ignored by the Western media, but it is worth remembering now when some of the most persistent countries in the struggle against the virus have surrendered to Omicron.

Quote:

HAVANA, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Cuba's widespread COVID-19 vaccination coverage and early move to inoculate its children proved pivotal in beating back the highly infectious Omicron variant before it ever took hold on the island, local and international experts say.
(...)
Health workers on the Caribbean island have since fully inoculated 1.8 million children between 2 and 18 years of age, or upwards of 96% of the total, with no serious side effects reported, according to official Cuban data.
(...)
"Elsewhere in the world, the virus is circulating more in the pediatric population, but that is not happening in Cuba," he said.
Cuba´s success to date against Omicron comes as a relief to authorities. A spike in cases in 2021 and economic crisis resulted in food and medicine shortages, power blackouts and the largest anti-government protests since Fidel Castro´s 1959 revolution.
Cuba's vaccine coverage and focus on children helped beat back Omicron, experts say (Reuters, Feb 17, 2022)

Cuba, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people + test positivity rate (some countries absent)
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people
Cumulative[/hilite] confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people
You can "Type to add a country" if you so desire. I deliberately left out the USA because it tends to 'flatten the curves' of other countries - particularly the cumulative confirmed deaths.

Notice that Cuba's rates of infections and deaths skyrocketed in the summer and fall of 2021 when the population had not yet been vaccinated, but the country has managed to keep them very low since then. There is obviously a big difference between, on the one hand, trying to spare children from getting infected and, on the other hand, deliberately using them as a vector for spreading the virus in order to achieve an imaginary herd immunity.

[dann]

English translation of a Belgian (= French language) article:

Quote:

As soon as the vaccination campaign was launched in Cuba, the results were spectacular. On Sept. 20, when the campaign began, there were still more than 40,000 new infections and 69 deaths per day. Today, Cuba has fewer than 80 new infections and one death per day.
Cuban children are also vaccinated from the age of two. As of Dec. 6, some 90% of Cubans had received their first dose. This places the island second only to the United Arab Emirates in terms of vaccination rates. No other country in Latin America has such a high vaccination coverage. In Belgium, it is at 76%.
Why Cuba has no anti-vaccine movement (Workers World, Dec 13, 2021)

[dann]

Cuba's anti-Covid vaccine Abdala:

Quote:

The president reacted to the announcement that the scientific documentation on the results of the Abdala vaccine, with which millions of Cubans have been immunized, is ready to be analyzed by specialists from the Pan-American (PAHO) and World Health Organizations (WHO).
(...)
Abdala will be a pioneer in Cuba in presenting its dossier to the WHO and initiating the process of international recognition.
Formal exchanges with the WHO on this vaccine began in March by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).
Impact of Cuban vaccines against COVID-19 is unstoppable (Granma.cu, April 7, 2022)

[dann]

Originally Posted by dudalb

A System modeled after that of the old Soviet Union fails badly. Whatta surprise.
But I though Cuba had such a great health care system?

No, dudalb never thought that Cuba had such a great health-care system. Why would anyone thinks so when they never make the effort to read up on it instead of continually bleating, 'four legs g-o-o-o-o-d, two legs b-a-a-a-a-d!'?

Quote:

Cuba is home to one of the world’s largest medical schools and is training the next generation of doctors to care for the poor. From helping people after the devastating earthquake in Haiti to treating patients with Ebola in West Africa, Cuba has answered the call. Cuban doctors and nurses are providing medical care in over sixty five developing countries around the world.
Meet the U.S. Students Studying Medicine For Free in Cuba (Break Through News on YouTube, Feb 2, 2022)

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Quote:

Big problems need big solutions, sparked by big ideas, imagination and audacity. In this talk, journalist Gail Reed profiles one big solution worth noting: Havana’s Latin American Medical School, which trains global physicians to serve the local communities that need them most.
Gail Reed: Where to train the world's doctors? Cuba. (TED talk on YouTube, Oct 1, 2014)

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Quote:

Cuba is home to one of the world’s largest medical schools and is training the next generation of doctors to care for the poor. From helping people after the devastating earthquake in Haiti to treating patients with Ebola in West Africa, Cuba has answered the call. Cuban doctors and nurses are providing medical care in over sixty five developing countries around the world.
Gail Reed and William Gumede on Cuba's medical success (CGTN on YouTube, July 29, 2015)

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Quote:

Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba. www.wicuba.org
Studying Medicine in Cuba - Alexandra Skeeter (MATA Community Media (MCM) on Youtube, Nov 15, 2017)

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And then, of course, there's still:
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people

So, dudalb, if you actually thought that Cuba had such a great health-care system, you would have been right. Too bad that you didn't and weren't. Things have obviously changed since your sneer on July 12, 2021.
Much too often, sarcasm is nothing but an attempt to cover up ignorance.

[dann]

Health as a right instead of as a commodity to be bought and sold - if you can afford it.

Quote:

In the midst of efforts to contain the pandemic, the Ministry of Health achieves commendable results that distinguish Cuba worldwide.
Among the main achievements is pediatric vaccination against COVID-19, the only one of its kind in the world.
La salud como derecho y no como mercancía (+ Video) (Granma.cu, April 9, 2022)

[dann]

The SARS-CoV-2 numbers from Our World in Data, Nov 16, 2021, and today:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 43, USA 98. (Decreased testing?)
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.03, USA 1.44.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people Cuba 752.73, USA 2,969.40.

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 87.71, total 94.05; USA: fully 65.87, total 77.13.
Since it takes three jabs to be considered fully vaccinated in Cuba, the difference is even bigger if we look at:
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99. --> Cuba 314.18, USA 171.02.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.11, USA 0.12.
CNN's Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide
The numbers from this thread for Dec 17, 2021, January 17, 2022, Feb 17, 2022 and March 16, 2022.

Quote:

Five factors that explain the difference between Cuba and the rest of the world after the Omicron variant appeared
(...)
1. When Omicron arrived in Cuba, there was a level of immunity in the population close to 90%.
2. In Cuba, the vaccinations were more recent than in the rest of the world.
3. From the very beginning, the immunization campaign of three doses was conceived. The importance of a third dose in the maturation of the response has been confirmed, not only in the amount of antibodies, but also in their neutralizing capacity.
4. Mass vaccination of the pediatric population of two years of age and older has been another key element and a distinguishing factor of what has been done on the Island, unlike in the world.
5. Faced with the spread of the new supertransmitter strain of Omicron, the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) decided to accelerate the administration of an additional dose, so that, in the month of January 2022, around 50% of the population in Cuba received a booster dose.
Cinco factores que explican la diferencia de lo que ha ocurrido en Cuba con la llegada de Ómicron respecto al mundo (Granma.cu, April 16, 2022)

It isn't mentioned in the article, but the importance of Cuba's policy of masking up is also a major difference in comparison to (some) other countries.

[dann]

In the USA, a federal judge in Florida strikes down the mandate for planes and public transport:

Quote:

"Wearing a mask cleans nothing. At most, it traps virus droplets."
Colbert: That's the masks job, you dummy! So the droplets don't get on you. That's like saying, 'This diaper is useless. Every time I put one on my baby, it fills up with poop! That's not doing anything!'
The genius jurist behind the ruling is judge Kathryn Mizelle, a 35-year-old appointed by the former president after he lost the 2020 election. At the time Mizelle received a "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association and had "never tried a criminal or civil case.
Airlines Drop Masks And CDC Puts The People In Charge (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, April 20, 2022)

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I AGREE

A little more context:

Quote:

In a 59-page ruling issued Monday, Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida wrote that although the CDC said the mask mandate was required as a sanitation measure, "'sanitation' [refers] to measures that clean something, not ones that keep something clean. Wearing a mask cleans nothing. At most, it traps virus droplets. But it neither 'sanitizes' the person wearing the mask nor 'sanitizes' the conveyance."
Decision on Mask Mandate 'Creating Chaos,' Says Public Health Advocate (MedPage Today, April 19, 2022)

Meanwhile in Cuba:

Google translation:

Quote:

In Cuba, the trend in the behavior of the COVID-19 epidemic points towards a decrease in the number of confirmed cases. The prediction is an advance towards the control of the disease, although the appearance of new variants is not ruled out. It is something that shines a red light on the need not to lower our guard, not to lower our levels of risk perception.
This is how Dr. Raúl Guinovart Díaz, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computing of the University of Havana, reflected this Tuesday, from the Palace of the Revolution and supported by his usual forecast models, which stated that for the next ten days a decrease is expected in the number of confirmed cases and those hospitalized.
The prediction should not mean carelessness or forgetting that – although lethality due to COVID-19 on the Island has decreased much – there will always be very vulnerable people, for whom responsibility and the decision to be vigilant must prevail.
(...)
Dr. Pablo Feal Cañizares, director of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Unit of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP), addressed the population's perception of risk in the face of COVID-19.
According to a study carried out in March 2022 in all the provinces – with the aim of evaluating the perception of risk – of the total sample, 4.6% showed an inadequate perception of the risk of becoming ill; while 64.3% showed an "average" perception; and 31.2%, an adequate approach. The numbers show, as the expert said, gaps to be filled, related to compliance with protection measures and knowledge about the disease.
Ante una epidemia que no termina, elevemos la percepción de riesgo - Para los próximos diez días se espera una disminución en la cifra de los casos confirmados, y de los hospitalizados (Granma.cu, April 19, 2022)

[dann]

Quote:

Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla told reporters in Havana the Biden administration "has been carrying out intense efforts and exerting pressure on countries in the region to try to exclude Cuba" from the summit.
In fact, he claimed, Cuba "has already been excluded from all the preparations and working groups for the summit," including development of a new, Pan American health and resilience plan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That is "something shameful, given Cuba's contribution in promoting health for its population and the region," Rodriguez said.
(...)
"There is no justification for excluding Cuba or any other country from this event that we have attended the last two editions," Rodriguez said while calling on U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken "to say in an honest way if Cuba will be invited" to the summit.
Cuba says U.S. seeking to exclude it from upcoming Summit of Americas (UPI, April 25, 2022)

It is rather obvious why the USA would like to exclude Cuba from any talks that touch upon the response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

[dann]

The UPI article was probably based on the Spanish version of this Cuban article:

Quote:

A central axis, according to preparations for the event, will be health. And I must inform our people and international public opinion that there are currently negotiations underway, conducted in an unclear manner, with quite a few neoliberal elements, and many shortcomings, in relation to the real needs of the peoples regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the structural causes of precarious health systems that have led to tragic consequences and caused an extremely high number of deaths in our hemisphere, including the United States of America, and have avoided substantial cooperation and basic financing to address these consequences, and are now negotiating in an opaque manner a so-called Health and Resilience Action Plan for the Americas through the year 2030.
I must note that these negotiations are being held, in an obscure manner, with the exclusion of Cuba and other member states of the Pan American Health Organization, which are participating in these processes, in violation of their own mandates.
Cuba has always, in a modest but altruistic and persistent fashion, provided the possibility for international cooperation in health, which has been recognized worldwide.
There are Latin American vaccines against COVID-19 which are Cuban. The medical brigades that responded to the COVID emergency in the region, in the hemisphere in more than 50 countries on the planet, have been Cuban.
Cuba denounces U.S. government exclusion of Cuba from preparations for Ninth Summit of the Americas (Granma.cu, April 26, 2022)

[dann]

Now that Fauci has declared that the USA is 'out of the pandemic phase', there is every reason to ask Cuba for help. Its doctors and researchers have managed to fight the virus better than most other countries and are not about to abandon the fight in favor of delusional wishful thinking:

Quote:

The legislator asked that organization for support to convene Cuban health professionals to help fight Covid-19 and other diseases such as cancer, diabetes and AIDS, in association with US medical entities.
When I initially learned that 40 countries from five continents opened their doors to the medical community IN the island to cooperate in the response to the pandemic, I realized that the interest in saving lives is a matter of common interest, said the Alabama parliamentarian .
(...)
Sanders also called for promoting that young African-Americans be eligible and study at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, from which more than 30,000 students from 118 countries have graduated.
Senator asks for Cuban medical brigade to come to the US (Prensa Latina, April 29, 2022)

Henry Reeve Brigade (Wikipedia)

[dann]

It is interesting to observe the outcome of Cuba's pandemic response since Nov 1, 2022, when the country was on the verge of finishing its vaccination campaign:
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people: USA, Cuba (Our World in Data, Nov 1, 2021, to May 1, 2022)

[dann]

Quote:

Led by the slogan, “Cuba Works and Lives,” Havana’s 2022 May Day parade was attended by more than 700,000 workers and students from across Havana, demonstrating both a joyful celebration and triumphant victory of the Cuban Revolution.
More than 5.5 million people celebrated throughout Cuba on May 1 in their respective provinces, for a total of 6 million people at events over the weekend.
It was a special celebration because of the parade’s cancellation the last two years due to COVID-19 restrictions. Cuba’s May Day parade is historically the largest in the world, and this year it came back with a roar in one of the largest turnouts seen in years.
Intense fuel shortages due to the U.S. blockade make transportation difficult — even so, people from all provinces of Cuba traveled to take part in this historic International Workers’ Day celebration.
(...)
The dedication to the youth of Cuba is seen in every sector of Cuban society, but most remarkably in the handling of COVID-19. Cuba was the first country to vaccinate children two years old and up, and — under the protection of a highly vaccinated society — in November, Cuba opened up all schools and daycare centers.
In stark contrast, the U.S. government’s for-profit, capitalist approach to COVID-19: the banning of mask mandates in schools, forcing children back to school and workers back to work despite low vaccination rates across the country, and so on, now has the United States well on the road to one million dead from COVID-19.
Over 5 million people march on May Day in Cuba, a country of 11 million (Liberation News, May 2, 2022)

I feared that a celebration of this size might give rise to more infections, but so far that doesn't seem to have been the case.
On the contrary, in fact: Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people
And after a minor increase in the number of daily deaths in February, the number of daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people has been below 0.10 since Feb. 27, i.e. insignificant in comparison to most other countries.
Maybe Omicron is so contagious that it is a good idea to mask up even for outdoor celebrations like this one. In the photos, I see only one exception to the rule. Other photos from May 1 in Havana seem to confirm that everybody is masking up.

[dann]

And the number of daily new confirmed cases in Cuba is still decreasing even after the May 1 celebrations: Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. The combination vaccinations and masking up seems to be what it takes, but it probably helps that most Cuban celebrations take place outdoors this time of the year.

The SARS-CoV-2 numbers from Our World in Data, Nov 16, 2021, and today:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 8, USA 275.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.03, USA 0.90.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people Cuba 753.61, USA 3,003.29.

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 87.98, total 94.23; USA: fully 66.45, total 77.53.
Since it takes three jabs to be considered fully vaccinated in Cuba, the difference is even bigger if we look at:
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99. --> Cuba 321.32, USA 175.25.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.20, USA 0.08.
CNN's Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide
The numbers from this thread for Dec 17, 2021, Jan 17, 2022, Feb 17, 2022, Mar 16, 2022 and April 17, 2022.

[dann]

Q&A about

Quote:

Q: Take us a little bit into the logic of not going back to the kind of sanctions relief that the Obama administration, or I should say Obama-Biden administration, had in place at the end of their time in office. And what are you getting from the leverage of holding back on some of the sanctions relief?
(...)
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: But I’ll say that the crackdown by the Cuban regime after the July 11th protests were there for, I think, the world to see. And the sentences that were imposed on people that were just singing in the streets and asking for food and to have a greater say in the future of their country really shows the situation — the lack of respect for human rights on the island.
Background Press Call By Senior Administration Officials On New Cuba Policy (White House, May 17, 2022)

This corresponds to talking about the sentences imposed by the U.S. regime on peaceful protesters behaving like ordinary tourists in the Capitol building on Jan 6, 2021.
For some reason, the Nov 2021 protests, i.e. after the success of Cuba's vaccination program and not during the one Covid-19 wave that Cuba experienced, aren't mentioned.

[dann]

Quote:

The Communist government, nervous that the shortages could pose risks to the one-party system, is trying to stimulate agricultural production. “We have to improve things quickly,” Johana Odriozola, the vice minister of economy, acknowledged in an interview.
In Cuba, a frantic search for milk (WP, May 21, 2022)

Is it impossible for the mainstream media to consider that the Communist government is concerned simply because Cuban children don't get the milk they need?

WP does write that ...

Quote:

It was one of the great promises of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. In a nation plagued by malnutrition, Fidel Castro pledged a liter of milk every day for every child. He enshrined a super-producing cow, Ubre Blanca, as a national hero. He was such a dairy nut that the CIA once tried to poison his daily milkshake.

... and yet, to a WP journalist, it can't simply be a question of keeping that promise because the government wants people to get milk. It must be because it fears "risks to the one-party system."

Which, I assume, is also the reason why the USA has instituted its blockade to help Cuban children get the milk they need ...