Protests Erupt in Cuba

[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?

You thought right! Cuba does have such a great health care system! In spite of the U.S. blockade:

Quote:

« 96,7 % der kubanischen Bevölkerung ist vollständig geimpft und 80,9% sind geboostert »
Kuba weltweit führend bei der Impfung gegen COVID-19 pro 100 Einwohner (Granma.cu, May 23, 2022)

« 96.7% of the Cuban population is fully vaccinated (three jabs!) and 80.9% have received a booster shot »
Cuba is leading in the world in vaccinations against Covid-19 per capita

Quote:

This Monday the last press conference of the Ministry of Public Health for the update of COVID-19 took place, a space that for more than two years captured the attention of Cubans and contributed decisively to the information of the population.
(...)
"The mask and distancing remain a necessity, due to COVID-19 and other diseases that are going around the world," he said.
(...)
In the last week, for example, there were no deaths and the number of confirmed cases and admitted patients also decreased.
Of the 34,025 samples studied, only 390 were positive, the lowest number ever reported in 2022, Durán said.
It was also the week with the fewest confirmed pediatric cases this year.
On the other hand, the positivity of the samples continued to drop and was 1.1% in the last week, lower than that reached in the previous one, which had been 1.7%.
Llegar a la última conferencia de prensa sobre la pandemia marca un triunfo (Granma.cu, May 23, 2022)

Quote:

The inauguration in Iran of an anti-COVID-19 vaccine production plant makes this country the first to industrially manufacture Cuba’s Soberana 02 abroad, in collaboration with the Finlay Vaccine Institute
Iran will be the first country to produce Cuban anti-Covid vaccine abroad (Granma.cu, May 23, 2022)

Quote:

El presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador respondió a una campaña mediática en contra de los convenios firmados con Cuba durante su visita reciente a la Isla caribeña, que incluye la contratación de médicos cubanos en México.
Defienden contratación de médicos cubanos en México (Granma.cu, May 17, 2022)

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador responded to a media campaign against the agreements signed with Cuba during his recent visit to the Caribbean island, which includes the hiring of Cuban doctors in Mexico.
Defends Mexico's hiring of Cuban doctors

The Mexican presidents description of the deficit of the country's health care system is very interesting!

[dann]

12 days without Covid-19 deaths: Doce días sin fallecidos por la COVID-19 en Cuba (Granma.cu, May 25, 2022)

[dann]

Considering that the new child hepatitis may be connected to Covid-19, it is interesting that the country with the most extensive vaccination of children seems to have avoided it so far: En Cuba no ha habido ningún caso positivo a la viruela del mono ni a la hepatitis aguda grave infantil (Granma.cu, June 2, 2022)
That Cuba also hasn't had any cases of monkey pox may be due to the only-recently-suspended face-mask mandate.

[dann]

Let's talk about recent Biden Foreign Policy moves....
(Beau of the Fifth Column on YouTube, June 6, 2022 - 6:29 min)

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I AGREE

[dann]

Originally Posted by Arcade22

Yes how surprising that the only people allowed to "protest" unmolested in Cuba are the thugs who "protest" on behalf of the country's cruel ruling dictatorship that oppresses anyone who tries to assert their own freedom.

Another difference between Cuba and (allegedly) freedom-loving Sweden:
If they want to mask up, students and teachers in Cuba have the freedom to do so! No authoritarian ban on face masks.

Google translation from Spanish:

Quote:

Workers of the educational system and students who decide to maintain the use of the mask can continue to use it, although it is not mandatory (Granma.cu, June 2, 2022)
They recalled that students and workers with respiratory symptoms or symptoms related to COVID-19 will not be allowed to enter the centers, and morning meetings or other massive activities may be held as long as crowds are not generated in the areas.
The measures for schools also include complying with the capacities in rooms, classrooms and premises, in order to avoid overcrowding, as well as with the minimum distance of 60 centimeters between tables, and two meters from the first row to the blackboard. .
In day care centers and preschool grades located in primary schools, the sleeping cots will be placed alternating the location of the children's head and feet, between one and the other.
Adequate natural ventilation will be maintained in classrooms and premises of the institution, and follow-up will be given to workers and students who for different reasons have not been vaccinated or completed the schedule.
https://www.granma.cu/cuba/2022-06-0...-2022-01-06-09

Adequate natural ventilation means that windows are never closed. :smile2: Morning meeting typically take place outside.

And for the people who claim that you can't see children smile if they are wearing a face mask:
https://www.granma.cu/cuba-covid-19/...-cubanos-video
https://www.granma.cu/cuba-covid-19/...-2022-22-01-40
https://en.granma.cu/cuba/2022-06-06...ren-themselves
https://www.mep.gob.cu/es/noticia/en...rma-presidente

The numbers are still looking good. Zero deaths and the number of daily new confirmed infections still decreasing.
http://www.internationalskeptics.com...1#post13808681

[dann]

Cuba lifts mask mandate as vaccination rate soars and deaths plummet (Reuters, May 31, 2022)

Notice that Cubans don't stop masking up because they have learned to live with the virus! They do so because they don't have to 'learn to live with the virus'!


ETA: It is remarkable that Reuters reports this, and yet the mainstream media doesn't pick up the story and run with it: What is Cuba doing so much better than the rest of the world?

[dann]

It seems to be a pattern that Reuters news about Cuba's pandemic response is simply ignored by the mainstream media:

Quote:

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.
Omicron arrived in Cuba in December but fell far short of the pronounced spike in cases seen in many other places and infections have since fallen off by more than 80%, official data shows.
(...)
"It appears that Omicron is not going to have anywhere near the impact that Delta had in Cuba, or even the impact that it is having in other countries, nor will it exert the pressure on the hospital system as in other countries," Perez Riverol told Reuters.
Young children in particular have become vulnerable to the spread of Omicron in many countries as some vaccines, including those produced by Pfizer (PFE.N) , Moderna (MRNA.O) and Johnson and Johnson, have yet to be approved by global regulators for those under 5 years old.
Cuba's vaccine coverage and focus on children helped beat back Omicron, experts say (Reuters, Feb 17, 2022)

But why confuse people with reports about countries where people aren't forced to 'learn to live (and die) with Covid'? There actually are still countries out there where 'getting an Omicron booster' is not a euphemism for getting infected! Where an Omicron booster means getting a booster shot of an actual vaccine! Where the lifting of a mask mandate is not an attempt to reach herd immunity by infection. Where even children are protected against a disease that may be milder for most of them than for their grandparents but nevertheless still kills and maims a small minority of them.

[dann]

Originally Posted by dudalb

Agreed, but blaming the embargo for Cuba's economic ills we just another way of denying that the Cuban ecnomic system,modeled after the Soviet System, has been a miserable falure.
One reason why I suport lifitng the embargos is that the Cuban Regime and it useful idiots will no longer be able to use that as an excuse.

It will no doubt cheer you up to know how damaging the U.S. blockade is to Cuba, and how it has exacerbated the impact of the pandemic on Cubans of all ages:

Quote:

The search for flights was rendered all the more enjoyable thanks to interference by the US – which, in addition to subjecting Cuba to a debilitating 60-year-long embargo for the crime of refusing to submit to capitalist tyranny, has also ensured that travellers wishing to peruse flights to Cuba on the website of the Mexican airline Aeroméxico cannot do so without being bombarded with warnings about US restrictions on travel to the country. Required to certify that I qualified for one of the permissible motives for visiting Cuba as a US citizen, I selected “support for the Cuban people” – as if this has ever been a real concern for the global superpower that has since the 1960s literally schemed to starve the nation into submission.

Unfortunately, the pandemic provided the US with the opportunity for even more sadistic treatment of Cuba – and, rather than lift sanctions as per the urgent encouragement of United Nations human rights experts, the administrations of Donald Trump and his successor Joe Biden instead intensified them.

The embargo’s obstruction of medical imports to Cuba – a lethal business if there ever was one – means that Cuba has had to contend with an acute shortage of, inter alia, syringes and ventilators. In an August 2021 dispatch for NBC News, Havana-based journalist Ed Augustin specified that “two Swiss companies that had previously sold Cuba ventilators said they could no longer continue trading with the island after they were bought out by Vyaire Medical, an Illinois company” – such being the nature of US efforts to isolate an already isolated island.

And in a May 2021 article for the Guardian, Augustin reported that the various Cuban research teams working on the COVID-19 vaccines had to “share just one spectrometer – a machine essential for quality control – powerful enough to analyse a vaccine’s chemical structure”. As the machine’s British manufacturer had been bought out by a US firm – go capitalism! – the Cubans were no longer able to buy spare parts directly.
How to get a Cuban COVID jab in 1,000 easy steps (AlJazeera, March 26, 2022)

"... to use that as an excuse." Yeah, right! Do you want photos of dead children and octogenarians, too?!
And by the way, "support for the Cuban people" no longer seems to be an option.

Others may be interested in reading about how to get the Cuban Covid-19 vaccines if you are a foreigner. I have considered getting the Cuban jabs myself. And according to the article it is possible to get them, but unlike the Cubans, you have to pay. The price is $(US) 45, but it is not entirely clear if that is for one jab or for all three, two Soberana 2 and one Soberana plus.

[dudalb]

I see we have a Castro fanboy here.

[dann]

I see we have a blockade fan here, pretending to "suport lifitng the embargos" because the people harmed by those embargos would then "no longer be able to use that as an excuse." He wants to have it both ways:
1) He supports politicians who maintain and exacerbate a blockade whose purpose it is by “denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of [the] government."
2) While at the same time claiming that the hunger and desperation should be blamed on those that he wants the people who are harmed by the blockade to overthrow.
The level of dishonesty and hypocrisy of some Biden fanboys is grotesque.

Other Biden supporters are a little more honest. They know both what the blockade is intended to do and what it actually does:

Quote:

It hurts the Cuban people, impeding their ability to obtain medical supplies as basic as syringes and masks to fight COVID, and preventing small businesses from accessing U.S. products.
60 Years On, The Economic Embargo On Cuba Is An Abject Failure (Patrick Leahy, Vermont, Feb. 7, 2022)

[dann]

It's that time of the month again, and Cuba still seems to be holding out against Omicron. The surge that I feared might come as a result of the May 1st celebrations never materialized, and the recent suspension of the mask mandate also doesn't seem to have led to a rise in the numbers. Not only that, Cuba hasn't reached ZeroCovid, but for a month Cuba has now had Zero Covid-19 deaths, a remarkable victory over the virus!
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba since March 30, 2022.
As mentioned last month, it probably helps that most Cuban celebrations usually take place outdoors this time of the year. The U.S. number of daily new infections is considerably higher than last year in mid-June.

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 2, USA 297.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.0, USA 0.78.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people Cuba 753.61, USA 3,042.76. Cuba's 753.61 is the same number as last month!

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 88.09, total 94.33; USA: fully 66.84, total 77.92.
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 334.85, USA 178.39.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.51, USA 0.06.
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, April 17, 2022 and May 17, 2022.

[dann]

Maybe the mainstream media is beginning to take notice - at long last:

Quote:

Today, as the United States finally rolls out coronavirus vaccines for small children, Vérez is celebrating an unlikely achievement: Most of Cuba’s youngsters got their shots months ago.
(...)
The Cuban vaccines have not yet been approved by the World Health Organization, although they’ve gotten the green light from regulators in Mexico, Iran and Vietnam. Scientists say their development might become a case study of how poorer countries can invent their own shots.
“They were not privy to the gazillion dollars some of these companies received,” said Maria Elena Bottazzi, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, referring to multinationals like Pfizer and Moderna. “Sometimes, with very little, you can get very far.”
A coronavirus vaccine was a moonshot, even for the world’s most sophisticated laboratories. For Cuba, the obstacles were titanic. It faced U.S. sanctions, a snarled global supply chain and a domestic economy in free fall. Cuba had such a shortage of syringes it had to beg for international donations. A New York-based charity, Global Health Partners, sent 6 million.
(...)
Between the pandemic, U.S. sanctions and the inefficiencies of state planning, Cuba’s economy withered. A lack of medication was one factor spurring last July’s nationwide protests.
How Cuba became a pioneer in covid-19 vaccines for kids (WP, June 18, 2022)

[dann]

Study of Soberana 02 vaccine wins Annual Immunology Award (Granma.cu, June 22, 2022)
Exports of vaccines and the reactivation of tourism are driving economic recovery (Granma.cu, June 22, 2022)

[Roger Ramjets]

Originally Posted by dann

It's that time of the month again, and Cuba still seems to be holding out against Omicron. The surge that I feared might come as a result of the May 1st celebrations never materialized, and the recent suspension of the mask mandate also doesn't seem to have led to a rise in the numbers. Not only that, Cuba hasn't reached ZeroCovid, but for a month Cuba has now had Zero Covid-19 deaths, a remarkable victory over the virus!

Yes, Cuba has achieved a remarkable victory against the virus. But only because they have a functioning government healthcare system, and were able to enforce mask mandates and crack down hard on dissent while 'persuading' the population to vaccinate. IOW, they were only able to do it because Cuba is a communist hellhole.

And how has Cuba managed to maintain their repressive one party state for all these years? Why, American sanctions of course! Yes, Cuba has us to thank for their fantastic Covid response.

[dann]

Even Cain might have been poe'd by that one.
Before I went to Cuba more than 20 years ago, even I had the suspicion that the stories I heard about oppression in Cuba in the media couldn't just be made up, could they? 'No smoke without fire' and all that.
So I can't blame people who come to believe what they do about the country. However, I do blame them when they just repeat those lies without having any actual knowledge at all.
A one-minute video (yes, 1 min!) with a short comparison of the U.S. response to protests in Cuba and Colombia in 2021:
How Biden Reacts to Cuban Protests (Belly of the Beast on YouTube, Aug 1, 2021)

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I AGREE

ETA: But maybe the preferential treatment of Colombia is over. I'm not sure.
Colombian Presidential Election, June 2022

[dann]

Cuba, Haiti, the Helms-Burton and the crime of insubordination (Granma.cu, June 23, 2022)

[dann]

Quote:

Cuba is the country with the largest number of booster doses against COVID-19 applied to its population, to date, in the world, reported the Finlay Institute of Vaccines, on its Twitter account.
Behind the Island are nations such as China, Italy, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Brazil, the United States, India, Russia and South Africa, among others.
The source also regrets that more than 220 million people in Latin America still do not have a single dose of an immunogen against the disease caused by SARS-COV-2.
Cuba es el país con mayor cantidad de dosis de refuerzo aplicadas contra la COVID-19 (Granma.cu, July 4, 2022)

Cuba is the country that has administered the highest number of booster doses against COVID-19 (per capita, it should have added! )

No version in English yet.
A German translation: Kuba ist das Land mit der höchsten Anzahl von Booster-Dosen gegen COVID-19 (Granma.cu, July 5, 2022)

[dann]

No Cuban child has died of Covid-19 after the vaccination campaign
Google translation from Spanish:

Quote:

Prior to it, unfortunately, 18 infants (between two and 18) lost their lives as a result of this terrible disease. This is the most relevant result of the Cuban Soberana vaccine, an immunogen from the Finlay Institute of Vaccines.
(...)
... the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing the symptomatic disease COVID-19 in children between two and five years of age, during the wave of Omicron in Cuba, was 90.1%.
Meanwhile, the effectiveness of vaccination with Soberana in the prevention of severe COVID-19 disease, in children between the ages of two and 18, was 95.8%.
(...)
... more than 63,000 children and young people were prevented from transmitting the disease, which undoubtedly determined the control of the coronavirus epidemic in the country.
On this highly sensitive issue for the Cuban family, the President of the Republic considered the campaign decisive, also, for the restart of the school year and, therefore, return to normality in the lives of children. Schools have not been complicated for us, no doubt due to vaccination, the Head of State appreciated.
Ningún niño cubano murió de COVID-19 luego de la campaña de vacunación (Granma.cu, July 12, 2022)

[dann]

The numbers of daily new cases rose since last month in both Cuba and the USA, but Cuba still has Zero daily Covid-19 deaths.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba since March 30, 2022. A rise from 1.65 on June 17 to 4.63 on July 16.
The U.S. number of daily new infections is four times higher than this time last year. By the way, this time last year was when the thread was started.

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 4.63, USA 398.16.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.0, USA 1.23.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people Cuba 757.70, USA 3,037.97. Cuba has had the same number since May 11. However, the numbers at Our World of Data for both Cuba and the USA seem to have be adjusted slightly since last month.

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 88.63, total 94.90; USA: fully 67.07, total 78.38.
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 346.5, USA 180.5.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.17, USA 0.05.
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, April 17, 2022, May 17, 2022 and June 17, 2022.

[dann]

Cuba reintroduces face-mask mandates on public transport and in children's daycare centers:
COVID-19: Anuncian primer refuerzo de vacuna en niños y uso del nasobuco en transporte y círculos infantiles (Granma.cu, July 19, 2022)

The country has had ZeroCovid deaths for a little more than two months, but a slight rise in the number of positive cases per million, from 1.65 on June 17 to 5.58 on July 19, has made Cuba decide to pull the brakes early instead of waiting till the numbers get out of hand and require more drastic measures.
Almost quadrupling the number of new daily cases may appear to be a huge difference, but the number is still insignificant in comparison to most other countries, in particular those that are letting it rip and encouraging people to 'learn to live with the virus'. See post from July 17 above.

[dann]

The number of cases increased in Cuba, but the country still has zero daily Covid-19 deaths.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba since March 30, 2022. A rise from 4.05 on July 14 to 7.69 on Aug 14 (most recent number).
For perspective: Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba and the USA since March 30, 2022.

The SARS-CoV-2 numbers from Our World in Data, Nov 16, 2021, and now:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 7.69, USA 337.27.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.0, USA 1.38.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people Cuba 757.70, USA 3,077.24. Cuba has had the same number since May 11, 2022.

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 88.68, total 94.96; USA: fully 67.30, total 78.75.
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 358.02, USA 182.57.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.78 (Aug 13), USA 0.04 (Aug 9).
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, April 17, 2022, May 17, 2022, June 17, 2022 and July 17, 2022.

[dann]

Trece semanas consecutivas sin fallecidos por COVID-19 en Cuba (Granma.cu, Aug 16, 2022)
Seit dreizehn Wochen in Kuba keine Todesfälle wegen COVID-19 (Granma.cu, Aug 17, 2022)
13 weeks with zero Covid-19 deaths, five patients in ICUs, two critical and three serious.

[dann]

The number of daily new confirmed cases in Cuba has decreased since last month, but the country had one Covid-19 death in August, the first since May.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba since March 30, 2022. A drop from from 7.55 on Aug 16 to 1.90 on Sep 14 (most recent number).
For perspective: Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba and the USA since March 30, 2022.

The SARS-CoV-2 numbers from Our World in Data, Nov 16, 2021, and now:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 1.90, USA 187.44. Also a considerable decrease in the USA.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.0, USA 1.27.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people Cuba 757.79, USA 3,125.80. On Aug 20, the Cuban Covid-19 death toll per million people rose from 757.70 to 757.79.

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19 Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 88.75, total 95.07; USA: fully 67.66, total 79.19.
It takes three jabs to be considered fully vaccinated in Cuba, so the difference is even bigger if we look at:
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99. --> Cuba 370.05, USA 184.57. Cuba has administered twice as many jabs per capita as the USA.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.22, USA 0.07 (Sep 13).
CNN's Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide

The numbers in this thread from Dec 17, 2021, Jan 17, 2022, Feb 17, Mar 16, April 17, May 17, June 17, July 17, and Aug 17.

[dann]

On Sunday, Sep 25, there is a referendum on a new family law in Cuba.

Quote:

The new Family Code will be submitted to a popular referendum on Sunday, September 25 after a broad consultation process in which more than 6,480,000 Cubans participated.
Reasons to vote Yes for the new Family Code (Granma.cu, Sep 20, 2022)

Los derechos ni se sancionan ni se censuran (Granma.cu, Sep 21, 2022)

As mentioned in another thread, Evangelical Homophobia in Cuba, it took a couple of years to get to this point.

[dann]

U.S. Agency finances campaign against Cuban doctors in Mexico (Granma.cu, Sep 22, 2022)

[dann]

I got back from Cuba earlier this week - boosted with the Cuban Soberana Plus vaccine. It turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined since the hurricane over the eastern provinces of Cuba made it impossible to get vaccinated in Havana.
However, I and two others, another Dane and a Swede, succeeded in getting the shot in Cienfuegos at a clinic catering to tourists, €45.
Sucursal SMC Cienfuegos - CSMC S.A. - 5ta Avenida, La Habana, Cuba. Teléfono +53 7209 0977.
I assume that it will be possible for foreigners to get vaccinated in Havana again when the city has returned to pre-hurricane conditions.

[dann]

Correction:

Originally Posted by dann

... the hurricane over the eastern provinces of Cuba ...

It was the western provinces.

[dann]

The number of daily new confirmed cases in Cuba has decreased since last month:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba since March 30, 2022. A drop from 1.90 on Sep 16 to 0.27 on Oct 16 (most recent number).
For perspective: Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba and the USA since March 30, 2022.

The SARS-CoV-2 numbers from Our World in Data, Nov 16, 2021, and now:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 0.27, USA 106.08. Also a decrease in the USA.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.0, USA 1.02.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people Cuba 757.79, USA 3,160.58.

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19, Nov 19, 2021 and now: Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 88.80, total 95.12; USA: fully 68.13, total 79.70.
It takes three jabs to be considered fully vaccinated in Cuba, so the difference is even bigger if we look at:
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99. --> Cuba 374.94, USA 189.11.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.08 (Oct 14), USA 0.10 (Oct 11).
CNN's Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide

The numbers in this thread from Dec 17, 2021, Jan 17, 2022, Feb 17, Mar 16, April 17, May 17, June 17, July 17, Aug 17, and Sep 17.

[dann]

Originally Posted by dudalb

Agreed, but blaming the embargo for Cuba's economic ills we just another way of denying that the Cuban ecnomic system,modeled after the Soviet System, has been a miserable falure.
One reason why I suport lifitng the embargos is that the Cuban Regime and it useful idiots will no longer be able to use that as an excuse.

The alleged excuse:

Cuba will present resolution condemning the blockade at UN today (Granma.cu, Nov 3, 2022)

Quote:

Cuba celebrates Thursday a new victory in its struggle against the U.S. blockade, by achieving overwhelming support in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for a resolution approved by 185 votes in favor, two against and two abstentions.
Overwhelming victory for Cuba at the UN: 185 countries vote against the blockade (Granma.cu, Nov 3, 2022)

Quote:

Since 2019, the United States government has escalated the fence against our country to an extreme dimension, more cruel and inhuman, to deliberately inflict the greatest possible damage on Cuban families.
In the first 14 months of President Joseph Biden, the damage caused by the blockade reached 6,364 million dollars, more than 15 million a day.
Between August 2021 and February 2022, they set a record, for just seven months, of $3.806 million. In the absence of the blockade, in that period our GDP could have grown by 4.5%.
The accumulated damages in more than 60 years, reach 154 thousand 217 million dollars, at current prices; and, at the value of gold, they amount to 1 billion 391 thousand 111 million, one million million 391 thousand 111 million. What would Cuba be like today, if it had had those resources? What else could we have done? What would our economy look like?
Cuba's case against the US blockade as put to the United Nations General Assembly vote (Cuba Solidarity UK, Nov 4, 2022)

[dann]

Quote:

Heute, mehr als ein Jahr nach Beginn der groß angelegten Kampagne, gibt es nie mehr als drei positiv gemeldete Fälle, (an manchen Tagen wird überhaupt kein Fall gemeldet). Seit Monaten treten keine Todesfälle mehr auf, und die Auswirkungen der durch die gefährliche Omicron-Variante ausgelösten Welle wurden ohne Rückschläge überwunden.
Kubas COVID-19-Impfstrategie war ein durchschlagender Erfolg (Granma.cu, Nov 9, 2022)

Today, more than a year after the large-scale vaccination campaign began, no more than three positive cases are reported - some days there are no reported cases at all. For months, the death toll has been zero, and the effects of the wave unleashed by the dangerous Omicron variant have been overcome with no setbacks.
Cuba’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy has been a resounding success


Since May, one (!) Covid-19 death has been confirmed, in August.
I assume that most of the reported infections at this point are found in incoming travellers, but the article doesn't say so.

[dann]

Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba since March 30, 2022. Oct 16: 0.27, Nov 17: 0.28.
For perspective: Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in Cuba and the USA since March 30, 2022. USA Nov 17: 110.61.

The SARS-CoV-2 numbers from Our World in Data, Nov 16, 2021, and now:
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 33, USA 251. --> Cuba 0.28, USA 110.61. .
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average. Cuba 0.23, USA 3.49. --> Cuba 0.0, USA 0.79.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people Cuba 760.78, USA 3,182.16.

Vaccinations:
Share of people vaccinated against COVID-19, Nov 19, 2021 and now: Cuba: fully 73.41, total 89.07; USA: fully 57.58, total 67.38. --> Cuba: fully 89.19, total 95.55; USA: fully 68.61, total 80.27.
It takes three jabs to be considered fully vaccinated in Cuba, and Cuba offers booster shots more often, so the difference is even bigger if we look at:
COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people Cuba 238.92, USA 130.99. --> Cuba 378.68, USA 194.73.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people. Rolling 7-day average. Cuba 0.98, USA 0.30. --> Cuba 0.07 (Nov 8), USA 0.09 (Nov 8).
CNN's Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide

The numbers in this thread from Dec 17, 2021, Jan 17, 2022, Feb 17, Mar 16, April 17, May 17, June 17, July 17, Aug 17, Sep 17 and Oct 17.

[dann]

On Nov 15, I mentioned and linked to the German version of this article, but it has now been translated into English:
Cuba's COVID-19 vaccination strategy has been a resounding success (Granma.cu, Nov 16, 2022)

[dann]

Originally Posted by dudalb

Agreed, but blaming the embargo for Cuba's economic ills we just another way of denying that the Cuban ecnomic system,modeled after the Soviet System, has been a miserable falure.
One reason why I suport lifitng the embargos is that the Cuban Regime and it useful idiots will no longer be able to use that as an excuse.

No, the purpose of the blockade, i.e. to ruin the Cuban economy in order to ruin the standards of living of ordinary Cubans, has not been a failure. It just hasn't accomplished its objective, to make Cubans so dissatisfied with their government that they overthrow it. Most of them know what the U.S. blockade does to their country and to themselves. The rest of the world is also aware of this:

Quote:

Currently, more than 190 nations maintain relations with Cuba, and only the U.S. punishes that country with its foreign policy," the representative of Azerbaijan stressed.
On behalf of the Central American Integration System (SICA), the representative of the Dominican Republic expressed solidarity with Cuba, which teaches the world to share.
Likewise, Singapore spoke on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and pointed out that this is the seventh year that the organization has intervened in the General Assembly urging the United States to immediately lift the blockade against Cuba, since the sanctions affect the welfare, health and development prospects of the Cuban people.
They also hinder humanitarian aid, especially in cases of natural disasters and events such as Hurricane Ian; they hinder world cooperation operations and limit regional relations.
Why doesn't the United States respect the international consensus against the blockade? (Granma.cu, Nov 21, 2022)

Quote:

The U.S. representative insists on saying that the blockade is maintained to "support the Cuban people" and that Washington does so in the "name of democracy." However, how can this be explained to the families of the children who cannot receive a prosthesis, a medicine, an operation on time? What support and democracy is he talking about?
How can the U.S. representative say that he feels concerned about the Cuban people when his government, at the worst moment of the COVID-19 pandemic, prevented our country from having access to treatments, medical oxygen and the purchase of raw materials to produce vaccines and pulmonary ventilators? That is neither support nor democracy, it is an act of genocide.
Counter-reply at the height of the courageous people of Cuba (Granma.cu, Nov 21, 2022)

[dann]

Cuban vaccines Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus receive emergency use authorization in Mexico (Granma.cu, Dec 2, 2022)

[dann]

Democratic lawmakers visit Havana, meet with Cuban president (ABC News, Dec 11, 2022)

[dann]

US-led panel exploring Cuba's solo development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines calls for lowering barriers blocking global access to the country’s biotech innovations (EurekaAlert!, Oct 31, 2022)

Quote:

November 3, 2022 – Cuba’s ability to develop homegrown COVID-19 vaccines and immunize most of its citizens should serve as a model for developing countries around the world dealing with public health emergencies, according to a new report.
The report was issued October 31 by the first U.S.-led scientific delegation to visit Cuba in five years. The delegation was organized by MEDICC (Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba), a U.S.-based non-profit promoting health-related dialogue and collaboration.
(...)
The authors also noted that Cuba’s COVID-19 vaccination rate in children and adolescents was much greater and was achieved much earlier than any other country in the world, and that the emphasis on vaccinating kids—who often serve as significant vectors for spreading infectious diseases to populations more at risk, such as the elderly—should be considered by other countries to blunt transmission rates in the general population. The possibility of using Cuba’s SOBERANA Plus vaccine as a universal booster globally should also be explored, the report said.
Cuba’s COVID-19 vaccine success could serve as global model: report (Harvard T.H. Chan, School of Public Health, Nov 3, 2022)

"As a model for developing countries," sure, but did industrialized countries fare so much better? Cuba's pandemic response can serve as a model for all countries around the world. It is not as if the 'developed' world has fared so much better than third-world countries during the (still ongoing) pandemic.

[dann]

Quote:

Cuba produces its own vaccines, exports them and has one of the highest vaccine coverage ratios in the world. When it comes to pandemic outcomes, this seems to be paying off. Taking into account primary and booster vaccinations, Cuba is currently the most-vaccinated developing country in the world.
(...)
Cuba’s experience has been truly remarkable. The country stood out in terms of developing and producing its own vaccines. Thanks to that, it was able to ramp up vaccine coverage very quickly – a home bias advantage that other vaccine manufacturing nations have enjoyed. Success on the vaccination side seems to have resulted in some very good pandemic outcomes, especially on the mortality side. Other factors are of course at play, but the results are nevertheless impressive.
Cuba, one of the most-vaccinated countries (Pandem-ic.com, Dec 27, 2022)

After a relatively slight (in comparison to most other countries) increase in the number of new registered infections, Cuba reintroduces face masks in public places indoors.

Quote:

Las autoridades sanitarias cubanas recomiendan a la población usar nasobuco para entrar a centros comerciales; a ferias de ventas; a transportes públicos, y a espectáculos en cines, teatros, y a los que se realicen en espacios cerrados.
(...)
Otro dato de interés, al cual hizo referencia José Angel Portal Miranda, es que al cierre de la semana 51 se mantenían activos 138 casos, lo cual representó el aumento de un 43,8 % respecto a la semana precedente.
«La letalidad: 0,77», refirió el titular del Minsap, quien además hizo énfasis en que «no tenemos fallecidos en la semana; llevamos 18 semanas consecutivas sin reportar fallecidos por esta causa».
COVID-19: ante una transmisión que aumenta, acrecentar la responsabilidad (Granma.cu, Dec 27, 2022)

Google translate:
The Cuban health authorities recommend that the population use a mask to enter shopping centers; to sales fairs; to public transport, and to shows in cinemas, theaters, and those that take place in closed spaces.
(...)
Another piece of information of interest, to which José Angel Portal Miranda referred, is that at the end of week 51, 138 cases remained active, which represented an increase of 43.8% compared to the previous week.
"Fatality: 0.77," said the MINSAP headline, who also emphasized that "we have no deaths in the week; We have gone 18 consecutive weeks without reporting deaths from this cause.
COVID-19: in the face of increasing transmission, increase responsibility

[dann]

The Cuban vaccines against Covid-19 appear to be better than other vaccines at maintaining their immunogenic effect even when the virus mutates:

Quote:

- How effective have Cuban vaccines proven to be against the Omicron variant?

-Cuban vaccines have proven to be effective against the Omicron variant, the most infectious variant of this disease known so far.
"Epidemiological evidence proves it. In Cuba, unlike most countries in the world, the peak of infections with the Omicron variant and its subvariants have been lower when compared to the previous ones, including the peak with Delta.
"Undoubtedly, the effectiveness of the vaccines created by our scientists against these new SARS-COV-2 strains and the vaccination strategy have a lot to do with this behavior on the island.
"We have found, in laboratory studies done in Cuba and in other nations, that the antibodies induced by Cuban vaccines neutralize the Omicron variant. While some vaccines report a decrease of up to 20 times in their capacity to neutralize the Omicron variant of SARS-COV-2, compared to the original, Cuban vaccines only decrease this neutralization capacity by two times.
"This phenomenon we are observing has its explanation in the nature of the antigen we use and the very design of our vaccines.
"The Abdala and Soberana vaccines use the RBD antigen, that is, the spike (S) protein region, which binds to the virus receptor in the cell.
"The RBD antigen has been found to induce neutralizing antibodies against a conserved region of that protein among the different variants of the virus, possibly because of the importance of that region in the functionality of the virus; therefore, mutations in this area of the protein are not selected.
"However, when immunized with the complete spike (S) protein, this conserved region is not immunodominant, in other words, antibodies are preferentially induced against other areas of the protein, in which there is a high rate of mutations, and a process of selection of variants that escape recognition by neutralizing antibodies occurs.
"Most of the vaccines currently on the market use the spike (S) protein as antigen, which has generated the phenomenon of successive pandemic peaks resulting from the appearance of variants of the virus that escape the immunity generated by these vaccines."
How is the international recognition, and the evaluation by WHO, of Cuban vaccines against COVID-19 going? (Granma.cu, Jan 5, 2023)

Since I got a booster shot with the Cuban Soberana Plus vaccine in October 2022, I sure hope that it has provided me with some protection against the most recent variants. The current Danish numbers are bloody awful:

Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people. 7-day rolling average.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people. 7-day rolling average.
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million people

[dann]

A good question:

Quote:

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez presided over the usual meeting of experts and scientists on health issues on Tuesday afternoon, in which a review was made of everything undertaken during 2022 by Cuban science in the field of health.
(...)
In his opinion, the high levels of development shown by those who have excelled in the task of defending health were what made it possible "to face a complex problem efficiently and effectively, such as COVID-19". And then he shared questions that directly gravitate on the wellbeing of Cubans:
(...)
"How do we turn this example, in the shortest possible time (the one carried out by Cuban science in the field of health), into something that is the rule and not the exception? He defined the topic as a learning that cannot be left out of hand; because "it is extremely eloquent how by making use of science and innovation we were able to face a complex problem (that of COVID-19), which today continues to be complex for the world".
(...)
On COVID-19, which is still "quite present" at the global level, the Head of State praised the ways in which Cuba chose "the approach of inclusive systems, of what is emancipatory". The pandemic, the dignitary reflected, called into question neoliberal thinking: with it "the gaps that existed between poor and rich countries were demonstrated", and the inadequacies of the planet's health systems came to light in all their crudeness.
Díaz-Canel presides over meeting with Cuban experts and scientists (Granma.cu, Jan 11, 2023)

[dann]

Quote:

COVID-19 has not disappeared
(...)
[José Angel] Portal Miranda [Minister of Public Health of Cuba] called for extreme hygiene and compliance with distancing and personal protection measures in places where activities involving concentration of people are carried out.
It is essential to give priority to the use of face masks, especially by vulnerable people, he added, while reiterating that you should not go to work, school or social events if you have respiratory symptoms.
As part of the actions of the health system, a new booster dose for pregnant women, women who are still lactating, people over 70 and others who could be vulnerable due to their pathologies or workplaces, recalled the Minister, recently began to be applied.
According to him, he said, the second booster dose will also be completed for people between the ages of 19 and 48 who have not received it.
(...)
Portal Miranda assured that at the end of the first week of this 2023, 135 positive patients were diagnosed, 27 less than in the previous seven days; however, he emphasized the importance of reinforcing compliance with virus containment measures.
At the end of 2022, Cuba reported 145,545 positive patients for COVID-19 —diagnosed during the year—, a figure that meant a considerable reduction in infections compared to 2021, the year in which 954,417 people were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 in the country.
La COVID-19 no ha desaparecido (Juventud Rebelde, Jan 12, 2023)

I assume that this is the reason why the number of daily vaccinations in Cuba is beginning to rise again, a necessity, along with the other precautions mentioned above, if the country is to continue to keep people from dying of Covid-19.

As for the rest of the world:
When will they ever learn?!