The blockade that the United States has imposed on Cuba for the last 60 years prevents, among other things, products manufactured in the United States from being exported to Cuba. This has prompted the small island nation to develop its own vaccines for COVID-19 and to work with open source designs for life-saving medical equipment such as ventilators.
We spoke with leading Cuban scientist Dr. Mitchell Valdés-Sosa about how coordinated work and enormous support from the population helped Cuba produce three self-designed vaccines that have proven to be highly effective against the coronavirus. “At a time when the entire world was mobilizing to face this tremendous threat that was killing people around the world, the United States did not lift any of the 400 sanctions that were imposed on Cuba during the Trump administration, which are added to the blockade. that we have lived for decades,” says Valdés-Sosa, director of the Center for Neurosciences of Cuba. “Medicines and vaccines are not merchandise. It is not something to get rich. It is something that is used to save lives.”
For more information, see our conversation with Mitchell Valdés-Sosa.
Source: Democracy Now