January 15 is Cuban Science Day. Yesterday, 15 January 2024, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Esteban Lazo Hernández, President of the National Assembly of People’s Power, sent congratulations to Cuban scientists via their X (Twitter) accounts. Díaz-Canel notes that the results of Cuban science have been the determining factor in the development of the country and in the defeat of the blockade. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parilla also released an extensive commentary of congratulations. And Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, described Cuban science as the pillar of Cuban revolutionary work, enabling the nation to confront difficult moments and to preserve the sovereignty of the nation.
In recognition of Cuban science, I repost an edited version of my commentary of January 18, 2022, entitled “Cuba - A nation of science and thought: State-directed scientific research, applied to socioeconomic development.”
On January 15, 2022, Cuba celebrated Cuban Science Day. Among the activities of the day, the Academy of Sciences of Cuba presented awards to research centers, companies, and institutions that have played an outstanding role in the confrontation with COVID-19, including BioCubaFarma, the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, the Center for Molecular Immunology, the Center of Neurosciences, the Finley Institute of Vaccines, the Henry Reeve Brigade, the Ministry of Public Health, and the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Havana.
It was on a January 15, but in 1960, that Fidel declared, “The future of our country has to be necessarily a future of men and women of science; it has to be a future of men and women of thought.” Fidel declared that the Cuban Revolution is seeding intelligence by ensuring that the people have full access to culture and to science. “Intelligence that will be incorporated into the life of the country, intelligence that will be incorporated into culture and science. This is the reason that we are converting fortresses into schools, so that in the future the country will be able to count on an accomplished group of men and women of thought, of research, and of science.”
Fidel spoke much, because his mission was pedagogical, and he spoke everywhere, tailoring his message to the particular audience. If there had been a society for the promotion of ridiculous causes, Fidel would have been there one day, no doubt calling upon the members to creatively search for ridiculous causes that happened to promote a more just world, offering a few modest examples. And so it was that on that historic day Fidel spoke to the Speleological Society of Cuba, where scientists from various fields were gathered, to exhort them to not leave the country, as they were free to do and as many did; but to remain in the country and contribute their capacities to the revolution, above all because the revolution needed men and women of science. He declared:
“Today, in the new country, the country that is truly free, scientists and researchers have full opportunity, so that all the things that you do are going to benefit directly the people. Today you have the satisfaction of knowing that there is a revolutionary government that seeks the truth, that needs scientists, that needs researchers, because this is the moment in which all intelligence has to be put to work. . .. Cuba needs men and women of thought, above all men and women of clear thought that put their knowledge on the side of good, on the side of justice, on the side of the country, because only thought can guide the peoples in the moments of great transformations.”
Over the following six decades, Cuba developed 208 scientific institutions, with ties to educational and productive institutions, so that Cuban scientific research is marked by interinstitutional collaboration and an orientation to the application of results, impacting the socioeconomic development of the country. Particularly important was research related to health, agricultural production, and animal husbandry. As a result, Cuba is rated with a high human development index by the United Nations Program for Development, much higher than underdeveloped countries in general and slightly higher than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that also is ranked in the high category.
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The Cuban political-scientific struggle against COVID-19
The fruits of Cuban investment in science and health and its development of a more consensual political process of people’s democracy were evident in the Cuban response to the pandemic.
The Cuban Plan of Prevention and Containment of COVID-19 was approved by the Cuban Revolutionary Government on March 5, 2020, before the arrival of any COVID cases on the island. The plan had been formulated by a temporary work team composed of high government officials along with scientists and health specialists, a human resource that had been formed through six decades of commitment to the development of science and public health. The plan included a number of measures conditioned by the contagion rate: face masks, physical distancing, and handwashing at the entrances of public places and workplaces; the closing of restaurants and stores that sell non-essential goods; suspension of tourism and international travel; suspension of schools and universities; the placing of persons who had had contact with confirmed cases in isolation centers; the cancellation or postponement of events involving large concentrations of people; and the organization of medical students to conduct door-to-door inquiries. Civil defense organizations in the fifteen provinces were activated for the implementation of the plan.
The people were well informed concerning the numbers of cases and deaths, the adaptation of the measures in accordance with evolving conditions, and the rationale behind the measures. Dr. Francisco Durán, National Director of Epidemiology of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, provided detailed televised sixty-minute reports each morning, and the daily television news program, La Mesa Redonda, was converted into space for scientists and public health officials to report to the people. There was nearly universal acceptance of the measures, although some people complied with a level of indiscipline, due to a low perception of risk.
In 2020, the number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in Cuba was significantly lower than in the United States and many of the developed economies of Europe, although higher than in China and Vietnam. This tendency was also true for COVID-related deaths per 100,000 population.
Cuba had the virus under control in October 2020, having reduced the number of new cases to a low level, as defined by the standards recommended by the World Health Organization. As a result, the government decided to gradually reopen tourism and international travel. However, the reopening, combined with the arrival of the Delta variant, provoked a new peak, significantly higher than the two peaks of 2020, which reached its zenith in August 2021. However, because of the program of vaccination of the population, using vaccines developed by Cuban research centers, combined with the continued application of restrictive health measures such as masks and social distancing and a second suspension of international travel, the number of new cases declined rapidly from September through November 2021, again reaching a low level.
The vaccination of the people has been well organized, and it has proceeded from neighborhood to neighborhood with the support of the national organization of local neighborhood organizations, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. When necessary, local Party leaders have lent support to the vaccination campaign. As of January 15, 2022, 99.6% of the vaccinable population has received at least one dose, and 92.5% of the vaccinable population have received the full package of three doses. The vaccinable population excludes infants under two years of age and persons who ought not be vaccinated for health reasons. The distribution of a booster is now in process; 38% of the vaccinable population have received the booster to date.
From the beginning, Cuba had placed its hopes for the control of COVID-19 in drawing upon its own advanced scientific and health resources to develop and distribute vaccines to the entire population. Initially, Cuban research scientists had been oriented to developing a Cuban vaccine quickly, but they were thinking in terms of years, until they were visited by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who called upon them to develop a vaccine within one year. The Cuban President argued that, in the current geopolitical environment, it would be necessary for Cuba to have its own vaccine to protect its sovereignty. Persuaded by the President that the sovereignty of the nation was at stake, the scientists reevaluated their assumptions and conceptualizations, and arrived to a strategy of stimulating the immune system, different from the conventional strategy of simulating the contagion. Cuba had successfully used the stimulation of the immune system strategy in its development of previous vaccines. Because of the connection of the Cuban vaccines to Cuban sovereignty, the Cuban vaccines have patriotic names.
Cuba has developed five vaccines, three by the Finley Institute of Vaccines and two by the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. The vaccines have been shown to be among the most effective in the world, and Cuba is preparing to export them. The Biotechnological Complex of the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in the Special Zone of Development in Mariel (CIGB Mariel) recently has been established for the purpose of increasing the capacity of the Cuban state company BioCubaFarma to manufacture and export vaccines and new medicines for the treatment of principal health problems, including cancer; diabetes; autoimmune, infectious, and cerebrovascular diseases; and COVID-19. CIGB Mariel and BioCubaFarma are financed 100% by the Cuban government.
Having attained control of the virus for a second time, Cuba initiated a gradual reopening of international travel on November 15, 2021. This led to an increase in imported COVID-19 cases in the month of December, such that the government announced more strict sanitary measures for international travelers, which went into effect on January 5. In the first two weeks of 2022, there has been a significant increase in COVID-19 cases. At the January 11 meeting of scientists and experts, chaired by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health (the President was attending the presidential inauguration in Nicaragua), the Director of the Pedro Kourí Institute for Tropical Medicine reported that the Omicron variant is beginning to become prevalent in the country, although this is still a preliminary finding. The Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Havana, who is known for generating predictions with mathematical models, projected that the number of cases will increase rapidly in January and February, followed by an abrupt descent in the middle of March. The Vice-President of the Cuban Society of Epidemiology confirmed the greater transmissibility of the Omicron variant, but also noted that there will not be a proportionate increase in serious cases and deaths, due to the impact of the vaccination of the entire population. There was a consensus at the meeting that there must be individual and collective responsibility in complying with the health measures, especially facemasks, physical distancing, and frequent handwashing.
Note (1/16/2024): Cuba maintains to the present active vigilance of Acute Respiratory Infections and has attained control of COVID-19. During the week of January 6 to 12, 2024, Cuba confirmed three new cases of Coronavirus, reported by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. As of January 14, 2024, Cuba has an accumulated total of 8,530 total deaths from the coronavirus, which represents 754 deaths per one million population; in contrast, the United States has had 1,191,869 total deaths, which is 3,560 per one million population (a death rate that is 4.72 times higher than that of Cuba).
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Conclusion
You will not find in Cuba speculation by news commentators or alternative theories published by individual scientists. Rather, Cuban researchers continually collaborate in ongoing investigations, and their reports are discussed among themselves and in the regular meetings of the COVID-19 team of government officials and scientists. The COVID team arrives to a consensus with respect to analysis of the situation and the appropriate measures, which is announced and explained to the people. This makes possible united action on the basis of a consensual understanding among the people. This is the Cuban revolutionary way.
Cuba is poised to become a world power in science and health, based on the foundation of Fidel’s vision to create a nation of men and women of science and thought. The development of a sovereign pharmaceutical industry capable of forging an expansion of mutually beneficial trade relations with the nations of the world is a consequence of decades of giving priority to science and education.
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