US Says Countries Should Reject the Help Cubans Offer in Covid-19 Crisis

THE USA Government has launched an attack on Cuba’s medical-aid missions. The Trump administration has started imploring countries to reject the Cubans during the covid-19 pandemic.

Cuba has been playing a leading role in the global fight against the outbreak of the virus, medical teams and aids were sent to some of the countries that were severely affected, including Italy.

Cuba has also provided supplies of the interferon alfa-2b for some patients who are infected with the virus, and it has proven to be effective when it was used to treat more than 1,500 patients with the virus and it is one of 30 drugs chosen by the Chinese National Health Commission to fight respiratory diseases.

But the US revealed that Cuba has a plan not to stop the spread of Covid-19, but to recover money that they lost when some countries that already paid for the help of these doctors “abandoned the abusive program.”

In Havana the US embassy wrongly accused the Cuban government and said they were withholding most of the salary of doctors and nurses in international aid missions. Even after the workers were exposed to terrible working conditions.

Havana’s humanitarian medical programme was developed after the revolution in 1959 and has delivered healthcare to impoverished nations across the globe.

Cuban officials say over 600,000 doctors, nurses and medical technicians were sent to approximately 160 countries since the 1960s. The program is now active in about 60 countries.

Close to two dozen missions are provided free, other countries pay Cuba. The country earns around $6.3billion (£4.8bn) a year, helping to ease the impact of the six-decade US economic embargo.

The program was attacked last year when US President Donald Trump said the socialist island was using it to undermine democracy in Venezuela, where his Government seeks to overthrow the democratically elected government, that is now headed by President Nicolas Maduro.

The pressure from the US, some right-wing governments asked the medical missions to leave.

Brazil was one country that has a far-right President, Jair Bolsonaro sent back most of the 10,000 doctors from his country and labelled them as terrorists who were disguised as health care professionals.

He has since been forced to ask them to return, he took an embarrassing U-turn, and pleaded with the Cuban medical teams to return as Brazil is struggling to contain the spread of the very contagious virus.

The US has increased smears against both China and Cuba as their humanitarian-aid missions are leading the global response to the covid-19 virus outbreak.

Meanwhile, the US has recently tightened sanctions on countries such as Venezuela and Iran.