Facing the enormous local and global challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic that is already affecting 174 countries with enormous damage to human beings, families and communities across the planet, the Cuban Academy of Sciences, made up of nearly 400 academics and young associates specialized in various branches of science and closely linked to the entire Cuban scientific community, express the following considerations:
1.- Our support for the timely measures being adopted by the Cuban government to face the spread of Covid-19.
These are packages of measures that include the strengthening of the network of hospitals and primary care institutions in each urban or rural community throughout the country, as well as making available institutions with the necessary conditions to care for people with symptoms that require specialized medical prescription. All this absolutely free for Cubans and foreigners who are in the country.
Other measures include the reorganization of work centers, avoiding crowds and developing a system of social communication and educational work to advice the population about the disease, its dangers and the protection formulas to be developed by all. In addition, have been adopted socioeconomic measures taking into account the effects that Covid-19 causes in the country's economy, which is aggravated by the economic, financial and commercial blockade that the United States maintains on Cuba.
These are measures aimed at protecting the health of the entire people and promoting that people stay at home considering the scientific evidence already collected about this terrible disease and epidemiological criteria of proven efficacy, supported by international experiences and by Cuba's own experiences in dealing with other infectious diseases and catastrophe situations.
The measures that are applied are based on the solid public health system that we have, the professional experience, the human quality and ethics of Cuban doctors, nurses, researchers, technicians and workers from various branches of science in charge of supporting all the technical and social processes that must be developed in the battle against the new coronavirus.
2.- We acknowledge the valuable work carried out by several members of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, especially in the Biomedical Sciences section, who are working in hospitals and facilities where Cuban and foreign patients diagnosed with the new coronavirus and people at risk of contracting it are cared for. There are also several academics who continue in their research centers and those who participate in analysis commissions organized by the Ministry of Public Health and other ministries with the aim of outlining the strategies that correspond to each stage of confrontation with Covid 19.
3- The advance of the Pandemic shows the need to act collectively, at the level of each country and internationally. Today more than ever, mutual aid and scientific exchange between countries is vital, along with cooperation and solidarity with those who need it most.
From this perspective, our academy recognizes the scientific training, courage, and humanism of the health workers who are part of the Henry Reeve International Contingent, which today is in various countries in Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, offering its services to other peoples who lack the necessary resources to face the spread of the new coronavirus.
As a sign of the cooperation and solidarity that should prevail in the world today, we also recognize the timely support provided by Cuba to the passengers of the MS Braemar Cruise for their safe and immediate return to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and thus avoid a long sea voyage that could increase the number of patients on board who were already diagnosed with the new coronavirus.
4.- We consider of great importance the permanent link and the exchange with the international networks of academies of sciences and with national academies, today to combat Covid-19, tomorrow to combat any other disease that threatens countries and peoples and always to mutually nurture each other in the world in all the branches of science.
Sharing information and experiences is also part of our work and of the humanism that must characterize us to privilege international cooperation in all fields, to work for peace and the well-being of peoples.
We are convinced that the science academies have a lot to contribute so that there are medicines, vaccines, technological resources, education, food and social policies that favor the peoples.
Cuban Academy of Sciences
April 2, 2020