London, 29 Sep (Prensa Latina) British academic Helen Yaffe today nominated the Cuban internationalist doctors of the Henry Reeve Brigade for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for their contribution to the fight against COVID-19 in 39 countries around the world.
After studying the development of Cuba's public health system and its 'medical internationalism', I appeal to the Nobel Committee to break the silence surrounding this incredible feat and award the Nobel Peace Prize to the Henry Reeve international medical contingent, Yaffe said in a letter to the Norwegian committee in charge of nominating the winners.
In her letter, the professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow also points out that before the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus broke out, more than 400,000 Cuban health professionals had provided services in 164 countries since 1960.
“Who better to deserve this recognition than Cuban doctors who make enormous personal sacrifices, far from their families and homes, their culture and their community, to work in difficult and dangerous conditions for months, and even years?”, Yaffe wondered.
After pointing out that politicians and the major media speak very little about them, the British academic stressed that the doctors of the Caribbean island have saved millions of lives and improved the health conditions of hundreds of millions more.
She also gave the Nobel committee an account of the internationalist record of Cuban doctors which began, she remarked, with the aid provided to the victims of the 1960 earthquake in Chile, and then included dozens of countries most affected by natural disasters or epidemics such as Ebola, and more recently COVID-19.
All of this is the result of a development model based on well-being that promotes collaboration over competition, and in which international solidarity is seen as the highest expression of humanity, Yaffe pointed out, noting that Cuba also founded a medical school to train doctors from other countries.
The academic, author of several books on the Caribbean island, added that this work deserves even greater recognition for being carried out by a small country, which the United States has kept under a commercial, financial and economic blockade for almost 60 years.
In this regard, she emphasized that only in 2019, the government of President Donald Trump introduced 86 new sanctions against Cuba to deprive the island of its sources of economic income, drive away foreign investors and cause shortages of food and basic necessities.
The Nobel Prize Committee has an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the values it wishes to promote. I hope that you will pay attention to the international call for a better and fairer future, and award the Cuban internationalist doctors the Nobel Peace Prize, the letter concludes.
Source Prensa Latina