Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Another “free Cuban healthcare” scam

Healthcare scams involving the “excellent free Cuban healthcare” pop up every few years. Capitol Hill Cubans report,
U.S.-Cuba Clinical Drug Trial (Scam) is Not the First

Last week, in an article entitled, “In a first, U.S. trial to test Cuban lung-cancer vaccine,” The Washington Post‘s health reporter wrote:

“The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first clinical trial to test a Cuban drug in the United States — a lung-cancer vaccine developed in Havana.”

Obama, the Castro regime and its lobbyists also celebrated and sensationalized the story.

But facts matter: Not only is this cancer drug not a vaccine — but this U.S.-Cuba clinical trial is not a first.

These bio-scams — courtesy of Castro’s regime — have long been authorized by U.S. law.

For example, in 2004, another one of Castro’s cancer “vaccines” was licensed to U.S.-based CancerVax.

Pursuant to intense lobbying, the Treasury Department caved and authorized U.S. trials for the cancer vaccine.

Two years later, the scam was on us — Castro’s cancer vaccine was some sort of placebo.

And, in 1999, there was a similar scam with one of Castro’s meningitis “drugs.”

Read the full report.

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Venezuela: As expected, infant mortality rises

21st Century Socialism collateral damage:
Infant Mortality Soars in Venezuela. With hospitals suffering a catastrophic lack of supplies, the country’s babies are dying at a rate higher than Syria’s

Venezuela’s overall infant mortality rate—defined as deaths within the first year of life—is currently 18.6 per 1,000 live births, according to the most recent government statistics. That is well beyond the upper range of 15.4 Unicef estimates for war-torn Syria.

Infant deaths in Venezuela remain significantly rarer than in the world’s most impoverished countries like South Sudan and Congo, but they are rising fast, while rates in those poorer countries have been falling.

You may recall that infants are placed on cardboard boxes due to the shortage of cribs and incubators.

Additionally, gangs of colectivos are attacking medical personnel who accept supply donations,

Related: Amid government silence, Venezuela’s microcephaly babies struggle.

There are reports of prison cannibal deaths.

Elsewhere,
Now that the government is easing price controls and inflation worsens, the shelves are full of unaffordable goods.

In case you are wondering, there ain’t gonna be no referendum.

Cross-posted at Wow! Magazine.



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Venezuela: CNN can’t figure out why pediatric care is so bad

NewsBusters: CNN Exposes Disastrous Pediatric Hospital Care in Venezuela, But Doesn’t Mention Socialism

The network gets one hearty cheer for the detailed report’s existence. It lost a chance for a second cheer when it failed to mention the country’s socialist form of government which is directly responsible for these conditions. The third cheer went down the drain when one woman who was interviewed seemed to think that the healthcare system’s desperate situation may just as likely be caused by the nation’s utterly powerless opposition and not the Chavista government of Nicolas Maduro, where the blame totally and obviously lies.

Here’s the video,

And, by the way, Cuba sent thousands of medics to Venezuela, many of which are now trying to come to the U.S. Americans who attended Cuban medical schools, on the other hand, flunk their certification exams once they come back to the States.

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Brazil: All this, and Zika virus, too

The country that imported 4,000 cuban medics two years ago faces another health crisis:

Spreading Virus Adds to Brazil’s Woes. Some health officials link outbreak of mosquito-borne pathogen to rising instances of infant deaths from rare disease

With its introduction into Brazil and other countries in the Americas, including Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico, Zika is following a pattern similar to other mosquito-borne viruses that are riding speedily to new parts of the world.

The virus is carried by the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus species, the same mosquitoes that transmit dengue and a similar disease, chikungunya. Those mosquitoes populate the southern U.S., Caribbean, Central and South America, Dr. Powers said.

The size of the Brazilian outbreak may be the reason health authorities are finding unusual neurological symptoms and disorders for the first time, she said.

Another reason may be a mutation in the virus, she said, adding that scientists are studying genetic sequences to look at whether changes have occurred that could lead to these disorders.
. . .
The Zika virus first surfaced in Africa in the late 1940s, and has hopscotched to Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific and more recently to Latin America. Exactly how it reached Brazil, why it is spreading so fast and how it became such a threat to developing fetuses isn’t yet understood. Brazilian health officials don’t know the exact number of adults infected with the Zika virus because the vast majority of them don’t receive hospital treatment

Brazil is scheduled to host the 2016 Olympics. Now may be a good time to reconsider DDT.

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Venezuela: The shocking state of its health service

Venezuela’s hospitals on life support

There is almost no official information available about waiting lists, operating times, or treatment. The government argues that its critics simply distort any figures they release to make them look bad. Opposition politicians say this lack of information means they are hiding the truth.

H/t Caracas Chronicles.

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Answers: Where can women go, instead of Planned Parenthood?

Don’t believe for a moment that poor women have no alternatives to the abortion-mills-trading-in-human-organs. To be specific, there many better options than Planned Parenthood:

More answers at my post, Answers: Where can women go, instead of Planned Parenthood?

Related:
I Used To Be Pro-Choice. So I Know This Is An Opportunity For Life Advocates To Start Changing Minds.

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Venezuela healthcare system approaching Cuban levels

One of the most tragic consequences of Venezuela’s premeditated Cubanization is the descent of its healthcare:
Venezuelans Suffer Amid Crumbling Health System
As country’s economy struggles, lack of hospital funding and widespread shortages of medicine and surgical supplies put patients at risk
For instance:

In late November, the director of cardiovascular surgery at the University Hospital sent out letters to the cardiology ward’s patients, telling them they were being discharged. The reason cited: a dearth of operating-room supplies—no catheters, no working blood-processing machine, no heart valves.

A comment on the following graph: Any information on Cuba’s spending is provided by the government, and, therefore, dubious,

Read Juan Forero’s article in full, and browse through the comments.

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Cuba: $8 billion/yr off human traffic in doctors

Mary O’Grady writes,
Cuba’s Slave Trade in Doctors
Havana earns almost $8 billion a year off the backs of the health workers it sends to poor countries

Cuba is winning accolades for its international “doctor diplomacy,” in which it sends temporary medical professionals abroad—ostensibly to help poor countries battle disease and improve health care. But the doctors are not a gift from Cuba. Havana is paid for its medical missions by either the host country, in the case of Venezuela, or by donor countries that send funds to the World Health Organization. The money is supposed to go to Cuban workers’ salaries. But neither the WHO nor any host country pays Cuban workers directly. Instead the funds are credited to the account of the dictatorship, which by all accounts keeps the lion’s share of the payment and gives the worker a stipend to live on with a promise of a bit more upon return to Cuba.

It’s the perfect crime: By shipping its subjects abroad to help poor people, the regime earns the image of a selfless contributor to the global community even while it exploits workers and gets rich off their backs. According to DW, Germany’s international broadcaster, Havana earns some $7.6 billion annually from its export of health-care workers.

A Brazilian prosecutor is asking that Cuban doctors be paid a full salary directly. She has also declared the present arrangement illegal.

Brazil’s Conselho Federal de Medicina (Federal Council of Medicine) called the plan “irresponsible,” given questions over the quality of Cuban doctors’ training and the low standards of Cuban medical schools.

Because of the low standards, the lack of travel to and participation in medical conferences, and the total lack of research, I think the more accurate term is medic, not doctor, when referring to the Communist regime’s most profitable export.

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