January 23, 2021
A resolution of the Seattle City Council, recently approved, calls for collaboration between Cuba and the United States in relation to the fight against COVID-19.
“The Seattle City Council encourages local medical, health care, scientific, academic, and pharmaceutical institutions to actively explore collaboration with their Cuban counterparts in knowledge transfer and joint collaboration between Seattle-King County and Cuban institutions in public health prevention methods, methods for preventing infection of health workers, innovation treatments, and development of new treatments, vaccines, and protocols.”
The document states that the United States has the highest number of deaths and positive cases of the disease and that deaths in black and indigenous communities are notorious, for which they advocates international cooperation and solidarity.
In this sense, the resolution, signed by the City Clerk of the Seattle government, Mónica Martínez Simmons, states that Cuba has effectively dealt with the disease, based on a free health system, “the unified government approach and the robust biopharmaceutical industry.”
The document indicates that 80 percent of patients in critical and serious condition in Cuba recover, while throughout the world the same percentage of patients with complications die.
“Cuba has a long history of providing international medical aid and healthcare to the peoples of the world, especially in developing countries, under the banner that healthcare is a human right”
Likewise, the importance of the Cuban “Henry Reeve” medical brigades in confronting the pandemic in several countries that have requested the island’s help is exposed.
In this sense, the document maintains that the US blockade against Cuba has severely restricted collaboration in scientific and medical research, which interferes in the international confrontation with COVID-19.
To this, they add that “Seattle and King County are home to some of the most prestigious research, teaching, and medical treatment centers in the country,” and that “the Washington State Labor Council and MLK Labor passed resolutions calling for cooperation with Cuba to save lives in the face of COVID-19”.
The resolution maintains that Seattle and the entire United States and the world can benefit from collaboration between institutions and governments to fight the pandemic together.
On the other hand, the City Council called on the United States Congress and the current administration to reverse the inclusion of Cuba in the list of countries that sponsor terrorism and put an end to Washington’s economic, commercial and financial blockade against Havana.
Taken and translated from: www.cubadebate.cu
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Together vs the Blockade against Cuba 