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We have entered a time of pandemics. COVID-19 dominates the headlines, and rightly so; January saw a record number of cases worldwide. But that’s not all. The AIDS pandemic continues – 34 percent of people living with HIV did not receive a viral eradicator by 2020. Meanwhile, a rapidly changing climate will turbocharge malaria, as warmer temperatures help spread the mosquitoes that carry the disease. The World Bank estimates that 5.2 billion people will catch the disease by 2050.
However, we do not have to end today’s pandemics or stop tomorrow. In contrast, similar to the AIDS crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen empty commitments and insignificant donations, leaving government panic responses, stigmatization of marginalized communities, and unprofitable pharmaceutical companies.
One thing I have learned from my work against the AIDS pandemic is that we simply cannot trust the wisdom of pharmaceutical directors or the generosity of the Global North in which they live. To end the pandemic, we need a radical break, a transformative move away from the short-term and captive profit model of global health governance. But what would a new model look like?
Enter Cuba. While world leaders are delaying decisive action, Cuba has developed its COVID-19 vaccines, successfully immunized most of its population, and is now ready to help vaccinate the world. His approach is based on two principles: investment in public health and internationalism.
In the summer of 2021, the Cuban regulatory agency CECMED approved two homemade vaccines, Soberana and Abdala, which were found to be more than 90 percent effective, placing Cuba at the top of the list of countries in terms of vaccination rates within a month. With an inoculated 86 percent of the island’s population, Cuban vaccines are being touted as “the best hope for low-income countries,” mainly because they are cheap to produce, can be manufactured on a scale, and do not require deep freezing.
Cuban vaccines have been included in medical journals and the country has applied to the World Health Organization for emergency permits for its vaccines. Vicente Verez, head of the Finlay Vaccine Institute in Cuba, said he would send all the necessary documents and data to the WHO in the first quarter of 2022.
How could Cuba achieve this feat? The country has a long history of prioritizing public health and investing in pharmaceutical production. This focus has been driven in part by the need for domestically produced goods to overcome the shortage caused by the severe US embargo imposed after the Cuban Socialist Revolution, but also by a strong commitment to public health over private gain.
Between 1990 and 1996 alone, Cuba invested $ 1 billion, about 1.5 percent of its GDP, in a set of biotechnology institutions in which the money earned was reinvested. Of the 800 medicines consumed in Cuba today, 517 are produced at home, increasing the country’s public health capacity. The benefits of Cuba’s large state investment in medicine science benefit the Cuban people, not Big Pharma. In contrast, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom granted the rights to vaccines produced using huge public funding. As a result, pharmaceutical companies keep vaccine prescriptions locked up.
I remember hearing the words of then-WHO Director-General Margaret Chan in 2015 when Cuba became the first country in the world to eradicate HIV from its mother. He called it “one of the greatest achievements of public health.” For those of us on the move, it was a significant milestone, a source of hope for an AIDS-free generation.
When public health and medical science strengthen each other, each successive success comes after the previous ones. Cuban COVID-19 vaccine technology, for example, is adapted from an existing hepatitis B vaccine for faster testing.
As rich countries accumulate vaccines and large pharmaceutical companies make big profits by refusing to share technology, Cuba has claimed a commitment to share its vaccines through open licenses and at low prices. It has started exporting to two countries that need two vaccines at home, and in particular, the group plans to ship to Vietnam and Iran to support technology transfer to help countries produce vaccines.
This second principle, that of internationalism, is an example of the Cuban Henry Reeve Brigade, often referred to as the “mostly white army”. At the beginning of the pandemic, Crema, a small town in Italy, saw the rise in the number of cases overcome, with few hospitals and public doctors available. Soon, 52 Cuban health professionals arrived to help; “We were overwhelmed by their sense of humanity,” said Stefania Bonaldi, the town’s mayor. Since the start of the pandemic, some 40 countries on five continents have received Cuban doctors.
Based on this legacy, representatives of the Cuban state biotechnology organization BioCubaFarma and the Ministry of Public Health will speak to members of the international press and the scientific community this week at a Cuban vaccine showcase. Called by Progressive International, it is an opportunity for the international media and the Cuban community to question the development, regulatory protocols and dissemination of their COVID-19 vaccines.
There is no excitement about the way forward. The US embargo will limit Cuba’s ability to obtain credit and cooperate with suppliers, reducing its ability to produce and export at the scale level. Cuba needs to move quickly to share not only its vaccine, but also its message and model of internationalism. Whatever reservations we may have about the Cuban political system, its commitment to global health equity is unparalleled. If we continue on its path, it can herald the end of the realm of pharmaceutical monopolies established by rich countries. A new international health order is available.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial attitude of Al Jazeera.
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