Historic People's Appeal Calling For Cuban Medical Personnel To Help Eradicate COVID-19/SARS-COV-2 on US Soil
In loving memory of cultural icons Manu Dibango, Ellis Marsalis and Bill Withers.
Also dedicated to The New York Assemblyman Charles Barron and Councilwoman Inez Barron both lifetime friends and supporters of Cuba, currently recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic.
On April 13, 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba informed via Diplomatic Note to the Embassy of the United States in Havana that it rejects the statements that the Newsweek magazine, on its article dated April 3, 2020, attributes to a “high official” of the U.S. Department of Defense, according to whom “the U.S. intelligence community has evidence” that there have been drug shipments between Venezuela and Cuba.
Cuba will not be able to acquire pulmonary ventilators from several of its usual suppliers as two firms manufacturing this medical equipment have been purchased by a US company. These devices are key elements in the care of serious and critical cases of COVID-19.
Things are always harder for Cuba. We Cubans don’t even get a break during a pandemic. When Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese electronics giant Alibaba and the foundation that bears his name announced to the world his intent to donate 500,000 COVID-19 rapid tests to the U.S. and a million masks, overlooking the xenophobic and racist slurs of the current Present, he had already done so for countries such as Japan, South Korea, Italy, Iran, and Spain. These were then considered to be the most at-risk countries.
By Luis A. Montero Cabrera
Doctor of Science and Chair of the Scientific Council of the University of Havana; Honorary member and coordinator of natural and exact sciences at the Academy of Sciences of Cuba.