Cuba, China, and the Coronavirus cover-up

Breaking through the false narrative to save lives

Cuban healthcare facilities are in a poor state.

Taken and updated from CubaBrief

Reuters reported the claim made by the official press on March 11, 2020 that "four Italian tourists who were staying at a hostel in the southern town of Trinidad after arriving at Havana airport on Monday had presented respiratory symptoms and were taken to a hospital on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the hospital confirmed that three of the tourists had tested positive for the coronavirus, the broadcaster said."

Prior to this, the Cuban government claimed that it had no cases, and claimed to be mobilized and prepared. On March 6, 2020 Granma, the official communist newspaper of Cuba, made the claim that "to date, no cases of Coronavirus ( Covid-19 ) have been confirmed in Cuba." Presently, there are cases in Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Argentina, Paraguay, Spain, the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, France, and many other places. Regime officials claim to be ready if and when an outbreak takes place. At the same time officials of the Castro regime have reported that there is a shortage of soap and detergent in Cuba that will not be alleviated until May - June 2020.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending a number of measures, two of which are: washing your hands regularly, and maintaining social distancing. (Maintain at least 1 metre [3 feet] distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing.) There is a shortage in Cuba of the ingredients needed to wash your hands, and a housing shortage. Cubans live one on top of another in tight spaces. This is not sufficient for a good public health response.

Cuba has covered up epidemics in the past targeting doctors and journalists who speak out, just like in China We have witnessed in China how the communist regime covered up the coronavirus outbreak making it worse. Doctors and journalists who tried to warn about the coronavirus were arrested. Is this something to be congratulated or declared a huge achievement?

The Castro regime has done the same thing in Cuba during other outbreaks, and endangered lives in the process.

In 1997 a Cuban doctor was silenced for warning about a deadly dengue epidemic. Dr Desi Mendoza Rivero, married with four children at the time, was arrested on June 25, 1997. On November 28, 1997 he was sentenced to eight years in prison for "enemy propaganda." Amnesty International declared Dr. Mendoza Rivero a prisoner of conscience and campaigned for his freedom. He was released on November 20, 1998 due to health reasons following the visit of the Spanish Foreign Minister, under the condition that he leave Cuba for exile in Spain.

First official report to the World Health Organization of the dengue outbreak was six months after initial identification made by the jailed and later forcibly exiled physician. Mendoza Rivero's reports were eventually confirmed. This episode would have a chilling effect on other doctors coming forward.

News of a cholera outbreak in Manzanillo, in the east of the island, broke in El Nuevo Herald on June 29, 2012 thanks to the reporting of an independent reporter in the island. Calixto Martinez, the independent Cuban journalist who broke the story was jailed. The state controlled media did not confirm the outbreak until days later on July 3, 2012. The BBC reported on July 7, 2012 that a patient had been diagnosed with cholera in Havana. The Cuban government stated that it had it under control and on August 28, 2012 said the outbreak was over.

In July 2013 an Italian tourist returned from Cuba with severe renal failure due to cholera. New York high school teacher Alfredo Gómez contracted cholera during a family visit to Havana during the summer of 2013 and was billed $4,700 from the government hospital. A total of 12 tourists were identified who had contracted cholera in Cuba. On August 22, 2013 Reuters reported that Cuba was still struggling with cholera outbreaks in various provinces.

In the August 22, 2019 The New York Times article by Carl Zimmer, "Zika Was Soaring Across Cuba. Few Outside the Country Knew", the newspaper tries to shift the blame for an unreported outbreak of zika in Cuba in 2017 on a reporting glitch. This ignored a decades long government pattern of covering up epidemics.

"Until now, the Pan American Health Organization had no record of any Zika infection in Cuba in 2017, much less an outbreak. Following inquiries by The New York Times about the new study, published in the journal Cell, officials acknowledged that they had failed to tally 1,384 cases reported by Cuban officials that year. [...] Officials at P.A.H.O., an arm of the World Health Organization, blamed the failure to publish timely data on the Cuba outbreak on a “technical glitch.” The information was held in a database, they said, but not visible on the website. By Thursday afternoon, the website had been updated."

On September 2, 2016 the Associated Press reports that Cuba had "remarkable success in containing Zika virus." This report made no mention of the regime's past history of covering up epidemics. On January 8, 2019 New Scientist reported: "Cuba failed to report thousands of Zika virus cases in 2017."

 Reality of Cuba's healthcare system
Cuba has a two tiered health care system one tier for the nomenklatura and foreign tourists with hard currency that offers care with modern equipment and fully stocked pharmacies, then there is a second tier which is for the rest with broken down equipment, run down buildings and rooms, scarce supplies, a lack of hygiene, the denial of certain services and lengthy wait times. Healthcare professionals are poorly paid and lack food.

There are serious consequences for travelers to Cuba when they are not properly informed with what to expect with Cuba's public health failures and the disastrous state of Cuban healthcare. Not to mention a hefty bill for catching Cholera while on vacation, or worse yet discovering that you had been exposed to Zika virus when your child is born with microcephaly, a serious birth defect.

Reports that travelers that passed through Cuba tested positive for coronavirus have already emerged, but the Cuban government continues to maintain the claim that the country is without the illness..
The healthcare claims about Cuba made by many who should know better are but one of the many myths propagated by the Castro regime that do not hold up under scrutiny.

Hospital bed in Cuba

What to do?
Call on civil society in and out of the country to provide soap and detergent to Cubans on the island. Tell the Cuban government to get out of the way. Now is not a time to profit off of human need but help each other.  The Castro regime, like their Chinese counterpart, cannot be trusted.

The Conversation on March 6, 2020 published  a must read article titled "China’s coronavirus cover-up: how censorship and propaganda obstructed the truth" that also contains a video of Chinese nationals trying to circumvent repression and censorship that is both heart breaking and compelling.  Sadly, Cuban nationals are suffering the same type of practices in Cuba.