North Americans call for cooperation with Cuba in #SavingLives Campaign

For immediate release

April 29, 2020

‘Why not in the U.S. and Canada?’

North Americans call for cooperation with Cuba in #SavingLives Campaign

The U.S.-Cuba-Canada Collaboration to Fight Covid-19 announced today more than two hundred medical professionals, academics, elected officials and concerned multi-country residents endorsed a statement calling for medical, clinical and scientific collaboration with Cuba, incorporating Cuba’s Interferon Alfa 2B Recombinant in clinical trials and ending the attempts to stop other countries from accepting Cuban medical assistance and measures preventing Cuba from importing medical equipment and medicines.

In this moment, when the planet is facing a pandemic and the lives of human beings are at risk, solidarity and collaboration are essential. No source of life saving expertise can be sidelined in the fight against this new disease

Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and one of the country’s most respected health experts supports including Cuba’s Interferon Alpha 2B in trials. He said: “I hope that ALL possible drugs are rapidly and comprehensively evaluated without regard to country of origin.”

Medical collaboration between entities in the United States and Cuba have precedents.. The recent PBS Nova program Cuba’s Cancer Hope outlines Cuba’s partnership with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center for an FDA trial of Cuba’s lung cancer vaccine Cimavax-EGF. In 2016 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the U.S. Health and Human Services and Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health, laying the basis for collaboration such as this. In 2017 four Cuban doctors joined with the University of Illinois to work on high maternal and infant deaths in a Chicago neighborhood.

An April 21-22 snapshot of COVID-19 statistics comparing the City of Detroit, population 670,000, with Cuba, 11.3 million, gives ample reason to reach out for Cuban expertise. “With only 6 percent of Cuba’s  population, Detroit suffered 18 times more deaths,” said Cheryl LaBash, from the Miller Grove Block Club in Northwest Detroit. “Let’s try everything to save lives, now,” she ended.

For  interviews or more information, contact:

Isaac Saney (Canada) +1 902-449-4967; email: isaney@hotmail.com

Sean O’Donoghue (Quebec/French) +1 514-721-4527; email: tableqccu@gmail.com

Cindy Domingo (US) +1206 856-0324 email: CindyDomingo@gmail.com

Alicia Jrapko (Spanish) +1 510-219-0092; correo electronico: ajrapko@yahoo.com

This campaign is a united effort between the U.S. based National Network on Cuba (NNOC.info) and the Canadian Network on Cuba (.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca)

Find us on the web at SavingLives.US-CubaNormalization.org

Email: SavingLives@US-CubaNormalization.org