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Cuba vaxx. more than 90% of its population, despite embargo

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:15 pm
by Nilokeras
I struggled a bit about whether to put this in the covid megathread but I think it's enough of a tangent to spin off on its own.

The Guardian wrote:General Máximo Gómez, a key figure in Cuba’s 19th-century wars of independence against Spain once said: “Cubans either don’t meet the mark – or go way past it.”

A century and a half later, the aphorism rings true. This downtrodden island struggles to keep the lights on, but has now vaccinated more of its citizens against Covid-19 than any of the world’s major nations.

More than 90% of the population has been vaccinated with at least one dose of Cuba’s homegrown vaccines, while 83% have been fully inoculated. Of countries with populations of over a million, only the United Arab Emirates has a stronger vaccination record.

“Cuba is a victim of magical realism,” said John Kirk, professor emeritus of Latin American studies at Dalhousie University, Canada. “The idea that Cuba, with only 11 million people, and limited income, could be a biotech power, might be incomprehensible for someone working at Pfizer, but for Cuba it is possible.”


The big headline here of course is that Cuba has vaccinated over 90% of its total population, including children, sailing past other more developed countries' vaccination efforts and keeping its own COVID case number down to a positively quaint couple of hundred cases a day. All this thanks to a homegrown vaccine developed by Cuban state industry, put into development because the Cuban government foresaw the widespread vaccine apartheid the developing world now experiences with Western-developed vaccines.

More interesting though is what the article does and doesn't mention as bits of descriptive detail about Cuba. See for example:

The vaccine success is all the more striking when set against the parlous state of the healthcare service in other areas. With hard currency inflows cut in half over the last two years, antibiotics are now so scarce that 20 pills of amoxicillin trade on the black market for the equivalent of a month’s minimum state salary. Out of plaster cast, doctors in some provinces now resort to wrapping broken bones in used cardboard.


Today, Cuba posts tens of thousands of doctors and nurses doing humanitarian work abroad – but fails to grow enough potatoes for the population.

Cuba’s highly centralized, state planning system – one of the last in the world – goes some way to explaining this paradox. When there is political will from the top, objectives can be driven forward; when there’s a lack of direction, the island’s rigid, Kafkaesque bureaucracy can elevate passing the buck to an art form.


It portrays the shortages as seemingly the result of Cuba's own 'quirky' economic system and 'Kafkaesque' bureaucracy. Curiously it doesn't mention one particularly important fact - the continuing impact of the decades long Cuban embargo. The embargo places severe restrictions on US businesses and those who do business with those businesses in other countries when it comes to trade with Cuba;

NBC News wrote:Eight U.S.-based groups that mainly support closer cultural and business ties to Cuba, including Engage Cuba, the Cuba Study Group and the Washington Office on Latin America, issued a letter on March 26 [2020], urging the U.S. government to suspend sanctions against Cuba during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Though there are supposed to be humanitarian allowances under the embargo framework, in practice, there are severe limitations and obstacles to delivering humanitarian assistance to Cuba," they wrote.

The group cited examples, such as a cap on the sale of medical goods "that restrict the percentage of U.S. content allowed in foreign sales to Cuba to less than 10%" and the fact that donations of supplies such as testing kits and respiratory devices "require a specific license, which takes time and a tremendous amount of paperwork."


And this places barriers on purely humanitarian aid as well:

Last month, a shipment of aid from Jack Ma, Asia’s wealthiest person and the founder of Alibaba, did not arrive in Cuba, after Colombian airline Avianca declined to take it.

An Avianca Airlines spokesperson referred NBC News to a press release from October that stated they were suspending ticket sales to and from Cuba while they resolve a pending matter with the Office of Foreign Assets Control, after a U.S. company became a majority shareholder of Avianca holdings.

The shipment to Cuba included face masks, gloves, and ventilators. The Jack Ma Foundation has been sending aid to countries all over the world, including the United States.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday in a press release that it is ensuring the international flow of humanitarian aid continues to sanctioned countries, including Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and North Korea.

Asked why Cuba was not mentioned, a Treasury Department spokesperson said, “the list was illustrative, not exhaustive. It reflects the concentration of concerns that have been raised to OFAC over the last several weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.”


All this pains a clear picture: it's time for the Cuban embargo to end. We regularly do business with and even sell weapons to regimes that are far more violent and repressive than the Cubans with no moral compunction whatsoever. The embargo is a Cold War hangover that has persisted through the outsized influence of a tiny clique of reactionaries in the back-and-forth game of tug of war over Florida, and has become all the more offensive in the light of the pandemic.

What say you, NSG?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:35 pm
by Fauzjhia
I believe the Embargo must end as well

but concerning vaccines. I believe that anti-vaxers should be jailed for endangering public health.
Freedom of an individual should end where the freedom of other begin.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:36 pm
by The Jamesian Republic
Fauzjhia wrote:I believe the Embargo must end as well

but concerning vaccines. I believe that anti-vaxers should be jailed for endangering public health.
Freedom of an individual should end where the freedom of other begin.


That’s a little extreme. I suggest hypnosis.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:37 pm
by Deblar
Based Cuba, WTF?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:37 pm
by Flanderstan
communism actually got something done!!!!! Took them long enough.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:38 pm
by Blessed Regent Sergey Taboritsky
Flanderstan wrote:communism actually got something done!!!!! Took them long enough.


Said well, my friend.

It's a shame that the Cubans are smarter than some Americans, eh?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:40 pm
by Segland
Fauzjhia wrote:I believe the Embargo must end as well

but concerning vaccines. I believe that anti-vaxers should be jailed for endangering public health.
Freedom of an individual should end where the freedom of other begin.

What would constitute an anti-vaxxer, in your view?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:41 pm
by Imperial States of Duotona
Damn, mad props to Cuba. They managed to get most people to do the right thing!

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:41 pm
by Hispida
Deblar wrote:Based Cuba, WTF?

they usually are tbf

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:43 pm
by Washington Resistance Army
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo you can't say Cuba does anything good or that the embargo should end, that's unamerican > : (

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:43 pm
by Blessed Regent Sergey Taboritsky
Fauzjhia wrote:I believe the Embargo must end as well

but concerning vaccines. I believe that anti-vaxers should be jailed for endangering public health.
Freedom of an individual should end where the freedom of other begin.


People who eat peanut butter are a threat to those with peanut allergies. Should we imprison them too?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:43 pm
by Fauzjhia
Segland wrote:
Fauzjhia wrote:I believe the Embargo must end as well

but concerning vaccines. I believe that anti-vaxers should be jailed for endangering public health.
Freedom of an individual should end where the freedom of other begin.

What would constitute an anti-vaxxer, in your view?



Someone who is against Vaccines.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:43 pm
by Deblar
Washington Resistance Army wrote:nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo you can't say Cuba does anything good or that the embargo should end, that's unamerican > : (

hahaha 90% vax rate go BRRRRRRRRRR

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:44 pm
by Nilokeras
The topic of this thread is not antivaxxers, as a reminder. Take it to the covid thread if you want to discuss the politics of that.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:47 pm
by The Jamesian Republic
Nilokeras wrote:The topic of this thread is not antivaxxers, as a reminder. Take it to the covid thread if you want to discuss the politics of that.


I think if we showed this to people who don’t want to get vaccinated then they may change their tune. I mean if the Cubans can do it why not us?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:48 pm
by Deblar
The Jamesian Republic wrote:
Nilokeras wrote:The topic of this thread is not antivaxxers, as a reminder. Take it to the covid thread if you want to discuss the politics of that.


I think if we showed this to people who don’t want to get vaccinated then they may change their tune. I mean if the Cubans can do it why not us?

Cuba is communist, so they could easily spin it as "vaccines=communism"

But like they said, this isn't the tread for that discussion

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:48 pm
by The Jamesian Republic
Deblar wrote:
The Jamesian Republic wrote:
I think if we showed this to people who don’t want to get vaccinated then they may change their tune. I mean if the Cubans can do it why not us?

Cuba is communist, so they could easily spin it as "vaccines=communism"

But like they said, this isn't the tread for that discussion


I know that. Just something I wanted to say.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:51 pm
by American Legionaries
The Jamesian Republic wrote:
Nilokeras wrote:The topic of this thread is not antivaxxers, as a reminder. Take it to the covid thread if you want to discuss the politics of that.


I think if we showed this to people who don’t want to get vaccinated then they may change their tune. I mean if the Cubans can do it why not us?


Can the Cubans do it, though?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:52 pm
by Deblar
American Legionaries wrote:
The Jamesian Republic wrote:
I think if we showed this to people who don’t want to get vaccinated then they may change their tune. I mean if the Cubans can do it why not us?


Can the Cubans do it, though?

They have been so far

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:56 pm
by The Islands of Versilia
Well done to Cuba. I cannot say much, as I’ve not at all monitored Cuba’s situation over the past couple of years, but I get a sense of ‘quiet competence’ on this matter specifically. Something that a great many supposedly rich and powerful states lack to the point it’s downright depressing. Again, kudos to them (Cuba).

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 3:14 pm
by Chan Island
Yeah, the embargo at this point is silly, and only exists to get the votes of a couple of old farts in Florida. The US does business with far worse regimes all the time, and Cuba’s barely a threat to boot.

Kudos to Cuba for that high vaccination rate, though truth be told that’s not surprising. The country is well-known for its focus on healthcare.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 3:28 pm
by Genivaria
Flanderstan wrote:communism actually got something done!!!!! Took them long enough.

This is a very weird take since the US's percentage for fully vaccinated is only about %62.
You haven't really earned the right to gloat.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 3:45 pm
by Nilokeras
Chan Island wrote:Yeah, the embargo at this point is silly, and only exists to get the votes of a couple of old farts in Florida. The US does business with far worse regimes all the time, and Cuba’s barely a threat to boot.

Kudos to Cuba for that high vaccination rate, though truth be told that’s not surprising. The country is well-known for its focus on healthcare.


I really can't think of many other examples of a way a small minority of people exert such an outsized influence on something as important as foreign policy. Just a bizarre blind spot in the American political firmament.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 3:52 pm
by Stellar Colonies
Being a small, focused state as opposed to a large disorderly patchwork of differing mentalities has its advantages.

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 4:07 pm
by Kazak Yeli
It’s hardly a shock.

Cubans have a lot of trust their government.