Aleida Guevara, a doctor and human rights activist who is also the daughter of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, claimed on Wednesday that Cuba has developed alternative healthcare systems as a result of the “criminal” U.S. blockade.
She told students at the Asian College of Journalism that Cuba has created five COVID-19 vaccinations. It was developing therapeutic drugs for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disorders as well as vaccinations for lung, prostate, and breast cancer. She claimed that in addition to creating such medications, the nation was looking for alternatives in homoeopathy, acupuncture, and conventional Indian medicine.
She argued that the term “blockade” was more appropriate than “embargo” to describe the U.S.-imposed sanctions, which have been in place for more than 60 years. She claimed that no country, including the United States, wanted to do business with Cuba.
Ms. Guevara stated that it frequently happened that eight out of ten new drugs launched had a U.S. patent and so could not be accessed by Cubans, highlighting the fact that the supply of food and medicines were most adversely affected by the embargo.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation can impose severe sanctions on any corporation that sells medications to Cuba, so if a Cuban child need a life-saving drug from the U.S., the nation would need to find five middlemen to transport the medication through. The cost of the medication would be astronomical by the time it got to Cuba because each intermediary would add to the expense.
She emphasized the strength of Cuba’s healthcare system, stating that the free and universal system gave preventive treatment priority. The healthcare system began at the level of family doctors, who regularly dealt with the local people together with nurses, social workers, and psychologists. It then expanded to the level of municipal, provincial, and national institutions, as well as sophisticated investigative centers.
