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: 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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Cuba: NYT goes Duranty on ebola

Walter Duranty, arguably the New York Times’s most [in]famous correspondent, earned his reputation as Stalin’s apologist. In keeping with this tradition, the NYT editorial board is touting Cuba’s Impressive Role on Ebola, actually parroting Cuba’s Communist propaganda (from the mouth of José Luis Di Fabio, the World Health Organization’s man in Havana), ignoring the fact that the embargo does not apply to medical supplies and equipment:

José Luis Di Fabio, the World Health Organization’s representative in Havana, said Cuban medics were uniquely suited for the mission because many had already worked in Africa. “Cuba has very competent medical professionals,” said Mr. Di Fabio, who is Uruguayan. Mr. Di Fabio said Cuba’s efforts to aid in health emergencies abroad are stymied by the embargo the United States imposes on the island, which struggles to acquire modern equipment and keep medical shelves adequately stocked.

In for a penny, in for a pound, the NYT rolls right along, exhorting the USA to

As a matter of good sense and compassion, the American military, which now has about 550 troops in West Africa, should commit to giving any sick Cuban access to the treatment center the Pentagon built in Monrovia and to assisting with evacuation.

For starters

Governments, China’s included, complain they simply don’t have enough experience with Ebola to send in large numbers: “This is a big challenge for our scientists,” said Qian Jun, team leader for the China Center for Disease Control Mobile Laboratory Team in Sierra Leone.

So the question is, Is Cuba Sending Unqualified Health Workers to West Africa? 

The Cuban dictatorship is willing to sacrifice anything — or anyone — for the sake of propaganda.

This appears to be the case of the health workers it has sent to West Africa to work on the Ebola virus.

The details that have been filtering out of Cuba regarding the terms and conditions that the Castro regime has given to these health workers are very concerning.

For example, the Cuban health workers have been compelled to agree that if they contract the Ebola virus, they will not be repatriated to the island.

Moreover, they have been warned of a 90% chance of no return.

As such, there has been a life insurance policy taken out for these health workers with the World Health Organization (WHO).

Surely the families are the beneficiaries of the policies, right?

Nope — the Cuban state is.

(It remains unclear whether the WHO is further paying the Castro regime for these health workers.)

In theory, the deal is that

Those fortunate enough to return have been “promised” nearly $10,000 per month — to be deposited in a Cuban state bank account during their absence — as well as a house and car.

Now, in practice, IF any are allowed to return, would the Cuban government actually pay, because no one outside the regime’s inner circle is allowed to collect.



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Venezuela: Don’t talk about the Chikungunya

A new turn on government-controlled healthcare:

Venezuela Seeks to Quell Fears of Disease Outbreak
The government is seeking the arrest of a doctor for saying a string of deaths in a Maracay hospital could point to a mosquito-borne disease

A string of deaths in a hospital here has sparked fears of a potent, mosquito-borne disease and led authorities to seek a doctor’s arrest for allegedly sowing panic, leaving residents wondering how to explain their symptoms.

Angel Sarmiento, president of the College of Doctors in Aragua state, told reporters on Sept. 11 that a virus or bacteria may have been responsible for the deaths of eight patients in quick succession at the Central Hospital of Maracay. A ninth patient died three days after Dr. Sarmiento’s comments.

Insisting there was no cause for general alarm, President Nicolás Maduro last week accused Dr. Sarmiento of “psychological terrorism.”

The confusion in Maracay over the deaths—and over who to believe on their cause—shows how difficult it has become to arrive at a rational approach to public health in Venezuela. Part of the problem, doctors here say, is that the silencing of independent media has squelched the flow of information.

“To dissent, to have a position different from the government, leads to a witch hunt,” Dr. Sarmiento said in a telephone interview on Friday. “I am not a terrorist. I am a doctor.” He said he was still in Venezuela but was in hiding because he worried he would face a politically motivated prosecution.

Much of the fear has been focused on Chikungunya, a viral disease transmitted by mosquito bites that has been present in Africa and Asia for decades but only recently spread to the Americas. Though there is no cure for the disease, its symptoms can be alleviated with medication. The disease has killed at least 113 people this year in the Caribbean region, according to the Pan American Health Organization, with the islands of Martinique and Guadaloupe hardest hit.

Two cents’ worth: bring back DDT.


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Cubazuela: Free healthcare for all

Without further comment,

Cuba:
An essay on the decay of the Pedro Borras Hospital, an Art Deco landmark building which housed one of the best hospitals in the Caribbean, The Ghost of a Preventable Death (via Babalu).

Venezuela:
Life in short supply at the Hospital Universitario’s HIV department,

“There are like sixty-five thousand patients receiving treatment in the country. We receive about ten percent of them,” he says, referring to the Universitario, a public entity supported by the government. “There are normally about twenty types of antiretrovirals in the country, of about thirty that exist in the world. Most of them are now not available.”

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