Covid-19 51
The virus and the immune system
Vaccines and Sovereignty (I):
The virus and the immune system
By Luis A Montero Cabrera
December 31, 2020
Translated by Merriam Ansara for CubaNews and other outlets.
This is the first in a series of articles.
A vial of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on December 16, 2020. Illustrative image: Craig F. Walker/Pool / Reuters
The word we all speak today with hope is “vaccine.” We have had an absolutely extraordinary 2020’s year. An unexpected and unprecedented pandemic has changed everything, in almost every way for the worse, although there also have been some good consequences. The political defeat of some enemies of our country who did not even know how to lead their powerful country in these extraordinary conditions may have been influenced by this factor, and that is a good consequence. That and the vaccines, four of them Cuban, mean a more optimistic outlook for 2021 for us. Unfortunately, those who lalready lost or will lose their lives to this pandemic will not be able to take advantage of what little good there is in the remains of this pandemic.
We already know how life originates, how it works and how it manipulates the laws of the rest of the universe to perpetuate itself, more as a system than in its individualities. Within that system of life, viruses appear at a given moment and have their own space. The one that has caused the current pandemic is only one of the many that exist and that have existed, and it will by no means be the last that affects humanity and other living beings. They can arise anywhere and will or will not spread depending on their characteristics and how science influences where they occur.
Molecules are inanimate particles of the nanoworld since their sizes are around one billionth of a meter. Some of them act as the “bricks” and “cement” that make up living organisms. There are many types of molecules that are part of this network and the most unique and complex are proteins (which are the ones that “work” and are also part of the functional structures), fats (which “cement” and store energy), sugars (which cement and hold, but in a much more specialized way, and also accumulate and transport energy), and the so-called “nucleic acids”. The latter are very special and complex molecules whose fundamental function is to accumulate the information of the living system so that all the others can exist.
Viruses are not living beings, but relatively stable aggregates or associations of various types of vital molecules, the fundamental component of which are nucleic acids. In this case, they carry their own information, but foreign to the system of other living organisms. However, they include the ability to self-replicate at the expense of the animal or plant, including us, in which they are housed. They change (or mutate) in the environment in which they develop and out of the many ways in which this happens, the vast majority fail. However, the few mutations that turn out to be successful put the cells they invade at their service to give rise to new viruses. And in that task, it always affects in one way or another the host cell that lent it its resources. If the virus is COVID-19, it seems to affect the cell to such an extent and in such a way that even the ways we defend ourselves against them can kill us.
There is a great debate among virologists about the origin of viruses. Three main hypotheses are usually mentioned: i) The “progressive” hypothesis that states that viruses arose from genes (made up of nucleic acids) in cells that showed the ability to move or transfer to other cells; ii) the “regressive” hypothesis proposes that viruses are genetic remains of dead cell organisms that showed the ability to be assimilated by other living cells and to reproduce there; and iii) the “primary virus” hypothesis proposes that viruses precede cells in evolution: they would have appeared first. For this reason, they may have been the initiating molecular aggregates of the ability to self-reproduce. If this is the correct hypothesis, it would make them predecessors of cells and in conditions of “coevolution” with them, which are their current hosts.
A living system such as the human being that has evolved in the last 3.7 billion years has very efficient ways to defend itself against potentially harmful agents that are carriers of foreign molecules. We do this through what is known as the “immune system.” This has a complex form of action, which can be understood in a simplified way.
The immune system of our body recognizes the vital molecular structures that are our own and not those of others. Our natural “identity card” is in the genes. Once our mother’s egg was fertilized by our father’s sperm, our genes became differentiated from theirs. We constitute ourselves as a new living entity similar to but different from that of our parents. Only a certain part of our cells preserve the identity of our mother.
Among all the information that is transmitted is also that of the system that identifies its own vital molecules with respect to those of any other living entity. These characteristic molecules of bacteria, fungi, viruses and all possible living beings can be of very different types. They are called “antigens.” The wonderful human immune system is capable of identifying foreign antigens that penetrate our body and generating an arsenal of its own components that are responsible for destroying their carriers.
If the invasion is by bacteria, or any other living alien organism, then they identify their foreign antigens, design the appropriate molecules to associate with them, and from there the life span of the invading organism is counted. The intruder can win only if our immune reaction is less efficient than the intruder’s harmful action or if the action of the intruder damages the immune system specifically. Viruses and the cells they infect are identified and killed in a similar way. AIDS, for example, originates from a virus that affects the immune system, and thus it is very difficult to overcome.
How, then, can a disease caused by a virus-like COVID-19 be defeated?
Essentially in two ways: the first is to combat and neutralize the effects of the virus on the diseased organism, which has been attacked. It is achieved with effective treatments. The second is to help identify and destroy the invading species by our own immune weapons. This can be achieved by “teaching” the immune system to do its job, but without the symptoms of the disease that can be fatal. That is “to get vaccinated” against the virus.
Luis Alberto Cabrera Montero holds a Doctorate Chemical Sciences. He is a Senior Researcher and Full Professor at the University of Havana. He is President of the Scientific Advisory Council of the University of Havana and is a Merit Member and Coordinator of Natural and Exact Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. For a full biography, see http://www.academiaciencias.cu/en/node/674
Taking care of my health, and yours
Taking care of my health, I take care of yours
People over 59 years old and children under one year old are essentially symptomatic, but the rest can carry the disease without being suspected. That is why it is vital to respect to the letter the established biosecurity norms
Author:
Ana María Domínguez Cruz
anamaria@juventudrebelde.cu
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Young people are the ones who most often transit as asymptomatic. Author: Abel Rojas Barallobre Published: 19/01/2021 | 12:03 am
Where were you? Who did you meet? These and many other questions make up the survey that, with rigor and specificity, is carried out on each person who, confirmed as positive to COVID-19 or as a suspect, arrives at a hospital in our country.
It seems routine, but it can be very overwhelming, both for the patient, who suffers from that indescribable mixture of fear, uncertainty and anxiety; and for the health personnel who, with the required clothing, approach him/her without wanting to violate the health protocols, although with the desire to make him/her feel better.
This is what Niurka Molina Aguila, a specialist in II degree in Hygiene and Epidemiology, tells us, who carried out numerous surveys of this type as part of her work at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK).
“Do you know what is the most important and, at the same time, most overwhelming, especially for the patient? It is necessary to answer these questions by appealing to the memory as accurately as possible because it is urgent that the answers refer to the 14 days prior to detection. This is the only way we can properly follow the transmission chain,” she assures us.
It is hard to imagine, but this is the day-to-day work of epidemiologists and other specialists who have been working for months in the midst of a scenario as hostile as the one imposed by COVID-19 on the world.
“The greatest danger of this disease lies not only in the very act of suffering it, but in asymptomatic people who, precisely because they do not feel anything that alarms them, carry out their usual activities and have contact with others, and become carriers with the same risk of transmission as those who do manifest the symptoms.
“Who are these asymptomatic people? You, me, that one, her…, but fundamentally the young people. People over 59 years and children under one year are essentially symptomatic, the rest, adolescents, young people and adults of less age, can carry the disease without suspicion. Til/khat is why it is vital to respect to the letter the established biosecurity norms”.
I do not feel, but I suffer
Based on research carried out at the IPK since last year (which has not been published), when cases of the disease began to be reported in the country, it has been assessed during all this time that about 63 percent of the people identified as positive were asymptomatic. This figure, logically, increases as contact searches are carried out through active surveillance, that is, through research.
The also Master in Infectious Diseases specifies that this study covered Havana, fundamentally, but it will continue to evaluate the results according to a better work of prevention and control of COVID-19. “The disease has been known gradually, as people have become sick.
“Much is still unknown, and so describing symptoms is complex. We already see that sometimes the loss of taste and smell are the only symptoms, even, of the disease. Until it was proven in several patients, it could not be described as an associated symptomatology, and this has happened with other aspects.
“The main thing is to respect the established sanitary norms. We cannot get tired of repeating them and enforcing them, because it is the only way we have to make it clear that this disease will not disappear completely, but rather that we will live with it as a seasonal disease, like H1N1 or others.
-Even if they are asymptomatic, can these people suffer from the sequelae of the disease?
-Yes, it is possible. The sequelae left by COVID-19 have already been described in healthy people who suffered from it. Having symptoms or not, does not necessarily condition the appearance of the sequelae, but when in doubt it is better to avoid contagion.
-The vaccine is the hope…
-Because of our human condition, we need hope to move forward. Certainly, we are anxiously waiting for the vaccine, but the population must know that every vaccine has a time to raise the immunity of the organism. That we vaccinate ourselves today does not mean that tomorrow we are already immune to the virus, especially when new strains are reported from time to time.
“There are vaccines that require two doses, and completing the cycle is essential. However, from the appearance of new strains, it is preferred in not few cases to delay the application of the second dose, and this prolongs the immunization process”.
The doctor, also researcher and assistant professor, underlined that until there is not a high number, very high of vaccinated and immunized people, one will not be out of the greatest danger and never absent completely.
The Cuban population must be informed and correctly oriented, based on the results of the researches carried out and the patients’ reactions when they receive the vaccine.
“I do not intend to alarm, but it must be taken into consideration that another new strain of the virus may emerge and the vaccine may not have the capacity to face it, so it will be necessary to continue studying and creating.
“The health measures that are so much repeated today in the different media are for life, because from now on the world will no longer be the same as the one we knew before the pandemic.
“The family must insist on their children and demand that they respect these measures, because one of the greatest dangers of this pandemic is that health services will collapse, as has happened in other nations. Not only do they collapse because people get sick, but because they don’t avoid getting sick.
Niurka Molina Aguila, specialist in II degree in Hygiene and Epidemiology, researcher at the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee
Molina Águila also mentioned the process of surrendering patients as convalescents. “Many times it is the time to complete the questionnaire that, when they first arrived at the institution, they could not continue with its completion”.
She emphasized that we should not go to closed places or places where crowds predominate, that the nasobuco should be worn correctly, that frequent hand washing should be deep, that when coughing or sneezing we should protect ourselves with our forearms, that we should maintain distance between one person and another.
“You, me, him, her… any one of us can transmit the disease without knowing it, and that’s what you have to understand. To the extent that someone who lives with other people takes better care of their health, their love and integrity cannot be questioned. These are not times to love as in the old days, but to demonstrate that by taking care of our life, we take care of the lives of others.
“Living for the second time”
After nine days in a coma because of COVID-19:
“Living for a second time”
January 16, 2021
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
María Lourdes, Antonio and their son Sandir constitute a family and live in the Vedado. Photo: Facebook/Naturaleza Secreta
María Lourdes, Antonio and his son Sandir are a family and live in Vedado, in Havana. They keep in their memory the memory of a terrible fight against COVID-19. Months ago they received a friend from Malaga, Spain, at a time when no positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 had been reported in that city and through her they were infected.
María Lourdes, 64 years old, is hypertensive, has a slight heart failure and therefore it was feared that the disease in her case would manifest itself in a more aggressive way. However, it was Antonio -without any comorbidity- who experienced more evident symptoms. He stopped eating, had pains all over his body, fever, a lot of dry cough, numerous diarrheas, all of which led him to intensive care and nine days in a coma.
Doctors told his family to prepare for the worst. We share with you his testimony, which is part of the recently completed documentary Parallel Stories, which tells the stories of several people who were sick with COVID-19:
“The anguish, the suffering, the strongest tragedy was for the two of them, who were aware that I was in an extremely critical situation, and my younger children who were in Mexico and were totally desperate, totally unhinged. They made a huge chain of people so that they would have me in their prayers, in their hearts, that also helps.
I did not even know I was in the Naval Hospital, I believed that I was in a therapy room in a totally deserted place that was guarded by soldiers, the things I thought. I in front of me there was a tree that I imagined as a woman with many arms, who danced in front of me as if mocking and I closed my eyes and all those leaves became thousands and thousands of coronaviruses.
María Lourdes, wife of Antonio, convalescent of COVID-19. Photo: Facebook/Naturaleza Secreta
When I came to my senses in the midst of the gravity, that I came out of the coma, that they took away the intubation, the first thing I thought about is her (his wife) and that was for me the most critical moment, in which I think she had died. Because of her basic disease and heart problems, I thought I had lost her. She is the mother of my children, but she has been my partner for 46 years, the other half of my life. I cried in silence, I am a strong man, I consider myself an enthusiastic, fighting person, but I thought that I would never see again what sustains my life, because that is it, the wife, the children, the grandchildren fighting together for life. We think about everything, even about getting rid of the most intimate relationships that we can still have at our age, which are limited, but they are there.
I remember that once I was pricked in the groin, on this side, what I did see was that they were continuously giving me all kinds of medication, interferon, antibiotics, I don’t know how many, I’m not exaggerating, I think that every day they were 14, 15 times that they came to give me medication. When I came out of gravity, I had no smell, no palate, I still did not speak, it left me with a lung lesion, I was practically unable to walk for a month, I was able to climb the stairs of this house after a month, skin lesions, I could not sleep, sleep was disturbed.
I am a man of dreams, I had dreams before the pandemic and I still have them, in all aspects of life, the day I don’t have dreams is not worth living and there was a moment, I will tell you honestly, after you put it or not in the interview, when I thought that values had been lost, all of them: moral, spiritual, solidarity, to help your neighbor, to cooperate, to share your bread and your soul, and I have seen how the neighbors have come without you calling them, without you asking them anything, knocking on your door and sometimes without asking them anything they said: I brought you this, I threw away the garbage, I found you the food, what do you want? That spirit. The artisans who made 10 beds for a hospital, the cooperative that left with a food truck for an old people’s home, that spirit of solidarity that was there, that I thought was like baby teeth, that were falling out, because they didn’t have any calcium, and yet it was enough for this situation to happen, unfortunately, for that spirit to come out again with more strength than ever.
I felt as if those nurses, those doctors, the intensive care doctors at the Naval hospital were part of my family. That team of nurses, technicians, doctors, gave me the possibility of living for the second time.
Son of Antonio, convalescent of the COVID-19. Photo: Facebook/Naturaleza Secreta.
The team of nurses, technicians, doctors, gave me the possibility to live for the second time, said Antonio, convalescent of COVID-19. Photo: Facebook/Naturaleza Secreta.
2500+ French defy coronavirus restrictions
France: More than 2,500 people defy coronavirus restrictions at illegal holiday
France introduced fairly strict rules in mid-December to curb the spread of the coronavirus, including a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., as it has been one of the European countries most affected by the pandemic, reporting more than 2,600,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 64,892 deaths
Author: Web Editor | internet@granma.cuJanuary 3, 2021 09:01:14
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo: Getty Images
The French police intervened in an illegal New Year’s Eve party held at an industrial warehouse in Lieuron, northwest of the country, where about 2500 people broke the health restrictions imposed by the coronavirus, reports the BBC news portal Mundo.
Some of those attending the massive celebration came from Spain and the United Kingdom.
At least three police officers were injured. A statement from local authorities details that the police faced “fierce hostility from many in attendance.
The organizers of the event were identified, and participants were fined as they left the site.
MORE THAN 1200 FINES ISSUED FOR VIOLATING SANITARY MEASURES
More than 1,200 fines were issued for failing to observe curfew, not wearing a mask and attending an illegal meeting, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on a tweet.
He reported that the police seized trucks, sound equipment and power generators at the scene, and that they were investigating the events.
The authorities reported that they had opened a cordon sanitaire around the party and urged all those who attended the event to remain isolated for seven days.
One of the participants, who identified herself as Jo, told AFP that “very few had respected social distancing” during the time of the event.
Another interviewee said that the party was “very well organized” and that there were even food stands inside.
The Ministry of the Interior organized an emergency meeting and later all the party’s vehicle exits were blocked while the police tried to control the situation.
FRANCE INTRODUCED A CURFEW FROM MID-DECEMBER
France introduced fairly strict rules in mid-December to curb the advance of the coronavirus, including a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
More than 100,000 police officers were deployed throughout the country to enforce the curfew and break up the holiday season.
The French police are ordered to end the underground parties as soon as they receive a complaint, and are also tasked with fining participants and identifying the organizers.
France has been one of the European countries most affected by the pandemic, registering more than 2,600,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 64,892 deaths.
The most dangerous professions
The most dangerous professions in the world in 2020
None of the murdered, disappeared, assaulted, or imprisoned communicators without cause, despite what the barometer of Reporters without Borders indicates, is Cuban
Author: Raúl Antonio Capote | internacionales@granma.cu
January 4, 2021 23:01:57
Julian Assange resists the oppression of journalism professionals committed to the truth Photo: reuters
According to the barometer of press freedom violations, website of the NGO, Reporters without Borders (RSF), 51 journalists were killed in 2020 and 400 were imprisoned. The source itself stops to list arbitrary detentions, disappearances, torture, mistreatment and other methods, country by country.
The subject of the moment draws attention, that of the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, who suffers a marked deterioration of his health in the prison where he is held, in Great Britain, for which the judge in the case, Vanessa Baraitser, accepted the diagnosis of the psychiatrists and ruled to prohibit the transfer to the U.S., due to the high risk of suicide.
The same judge described the judicial process as defective and punitive, but did not grant him bail, since the Australian journalist faces charges in the U.S. country for the leaking of thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011.
The other side of the story is the proposal by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who asked for Assange’s freedom and offered his country to grant him political asylum.
However, RWB does not refer to the case, but marks Cuba in black along with other countries, symbolized as the worst violators of that freedom, although none of its figures include the Cuban archipelago.
The explicit contradiction in the information on the RSF website demonstrates the double standards and political intent with which this data is measured and the information is manipulated with the aim of demonizing the Cuban Revolution.
On the other hand, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported, on December 23, that 59 journalists were killed in 2020, four of them women. There is a difference of eight between the two reports.
According to UNESCO data, during the last ten years, 888 journalists and media workers, that is, one every four days, were killed.
These crimes continue to be committed with total impunity, according to the report on the safety of journalists, published in November by the UN agency, which shows that in 2020 there were no consequences in 87% of the cases.
The agency reflected the increase in harassment and attacks on information professionals, for example, in the attacks they suffered during the coverage of protest demonstrations in Chile, where 90 attacks were reported, and the case of the Black Lives Matter mobilizations, where up to 500 different attacks against the press occurred.
The document of the multilateral organization detailed that, in the first half of the year, press workers were attacked in 125 protests held in 65 countries.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations recently asked all the governments of the world to release, immediately, the journalists who have been arrested for carrying out their professional work. “Many have been subjected to harassment, acts of intimidation, sanctions, killings and also arbitrary arrests. We know that prisoners, detainees and prisoners, in general, are very vulnerable to the rapid spread of the virus,” said António Guterres.
It should be noted that none of these murdered, disappeared, assaulted or imprisoned communicators without cause, despite what the barometer of Reporters without Borders indicates, is Cuban. The last journalist murdered in the Greater Antilles fell victim to Fulgencio Batista’s police in 1958.
Health workers, the most dangerous job in 2020
Although practicing journalism remains an extremely dangerous profession, in the year that ended, health workers contributed, through their dedication and courageous stand in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the greatest number of victims.
At least 7,000 of them have died from COVID-19 in the world, with Mexico being the hardest-hit country, according to a recently released study by Amnesty International.
Behind Mexico, the study places the United States (1,077 deaths), United Kingdom (649), Brazil (634), Russia (631), India (573), South Africa (240), Italy (188), Peru (183), Iran (164) and Egypt (159). Cubans did not add to this last statistic either.
It is not a matter of informative curiosity, a simple coincidence or mere chauvinism on our part, it is a reality marked by results, it has to do with the culture of socialism that places human being in first place, in the center of all priorities.
Sources: RT, RSF Barometer and reports from the UN.
Ralph Gonsalves Wins Fifth Term
Ralph Gonsalves Wins Fifth Election in St. Vincent and the Grenadines
By Caribe, Elections, Ralph Gonsalves, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
November 6, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves
The citizens of St. Vincent and the Grenadines elected Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves to a fifth consecutive term in Thursday’s general elections, according to preliminary figures released in Kingstown, the capital.
According to these figures, the United Labor Party (ULP) achieved a major victory by winning nine of the 15 seats in Parliament, compared to the eight it controlled until now.
Godwin Friday’s opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) lost one seat and took the remaining six.
In declaring himself the winner in the elections, Gonsalves affirmed that the population adopted “our progressive agenda for the future” and rejected “the policy of hate, backwardness and colonialism.
He also stressed the need for the unity of the country to address the challenges of development.
For the elections, this regional body sent a group of six observers, led by Anthonyson King, a member of the electoral commission of Antigua and Barbuda.
Voter registration for the election was 89,119 persons over the age of 18 out of a total population of 110,000.
Those subject to quarantine because of COVID-19 were also able to cast their vote. The consultation took place under a pandemic prevention protocol.
The country is one of the few in the world that has not recorded any deaths from the disease and only 75 cases, 70 of them recovered, since the beginning of the health crisis in March, while CARICOM as a whole reports some 45,000 confirmed cases and just over 1,000 deaths.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines is among the 10 smallest countries in the world and this month it holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, a position it holds from last January until December 2021.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez today congratulated St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and the United Labor Party (ULP) on their election victory.
In his Twitter account, the Foreign Minister highlighted the relations of friendship and cooperation between both nations, on which he expressed the will to continue advancing in their development.
(With information from Prensa Latina)
United States declines, China progresses
United States declines, China progresses
By Hedelberto López Blanch
October 14, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
After the economic-social debacle represented by the expansion of the Covid-19 pandemic through almost all the nations of the world, the People’s Republic of China, where the virus was detected for the first time, has managed to raise its economy while that of the United States continues to fall.
The specialists assure that this great difference between the two main economic powers of the world is due to the fact that China, from the first moments, took the pertinent measures to control the disease, in contrast to the United States whose President Donald Trump dismissed the seriousness of the virus.
The North American retreat has been occurring since the last decade and it increased with the appearance of the coronavirus, fundamentally due to the laziness of its officials to face it.
Several data point out the weaknesses of the American giant because despite being a power with very important resources and capabilities for the welfare of most of its inhabitants, their real wage today is lower than 40 years ago.
Under that premise, the average employee must work twice as many years as three decades ago to pay the price of a small apartment.
The level of inequality has progressively worsened among the population with stagnation of real wages compared to the cost of living. Almost 50 million people are below the poverty line and 36% of Americans lack the health insurance that gives them access to specialized health care.
In the last decade, suicides increased 24% and at the same time life expectancy decreased to only 76.10 years. In Cuba, a developing country economically and financially blockaded by Washington, that rate is 78.2 years.
Recently the Department of Commerce reported that the country’s economy contracted in the second quarter of 2020 at the fastest rate in its history and represents the biggest debacle since World War II.
According to the Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined at a rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020 due to the disastrous effects of the pandemic. In the first quarter, it was minus 5 percent.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimated a 7.3% drop in US GDP for 2020, a figure that could be altered if the coronavirus wave is sustained or increased.
Meanwhile, China emerges as the powerhouse that will end the year of the pandemic with positive economic growth. If in the first quarter its GDP was at minus 6.8%, in the second quarter it grew by 3.2%, exceeding all analysts’ forecasts.
The National Statistics Office of the Asian giant indicated that “in the second quarter growth went from negative to positive”, in a context of economic recovery after the stagnation caused by the coronavirus and that “the market outlook is generally good”.
In nominal terms, China’s total wealth in the first half of the year stood at 45.66 trillion yuan ($6.53 billion).
For the Beijing government, the health policy adopted throughout the nation has been fundamental, through which it has been able to control covid-19, even in asymptomatic people.
Since August 16, no local infections have been recorded and only imported cases have been detected, people who immediately go into a 14-day quarantine.
Of course, this way of stopping the proliferation of the disease contrasts with those applied in the United States and other Western nations. A free health-care policy has been essential to achieving this.
The IHS Markit agency reported that exports represented 20% of the global total between April and June, seven percentage points more than in the same period in 2019, and also applied the alternative of increasing domestic consumption among its large population.
The Asian giant’s recovery has been influenced by the rapid digital transformation of its economy, which was growing strongly before the pandemic, and which accelerated with it.
In 2018 it already represented 34.8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a percentage that grew year after year above the growth of the Product.
Zhang Jun, dean of Fudan University’s School of Economics and director of China’s Center for Economic Studies, explained that families, unable to leave their homes, adopted applications such as JD.com, Meituan, Eleme and Pinduoduo for daily product purchases.
The companies took advantage of digital tools, from communication platforms such as Enterprise WeChat and DingTalk to electronic contracts, to keep their businesses running.
The end result has been that China is on its way to an economic revival, while in the United States there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.
No Hugs Yet
No Hugs Yet
By Julio César Sánchez Guerra
internet@granma.cu
July 29, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo: Martirena
This coronavirus that goes around the world, brings us some lessons and challenges. There are ancient truths that sometimes remain hidden in the agility of the days. These are some of them: sickness can knock at the door of the prince or the beggar; man’s life is fragile, and we all have, as an increasingly connected species, a common destiny. That, in a way, reminds us of César Pavesse’s dramatic verse: “Death has a look for everyone”.
Overwhelming were the images of empty cities in the midst of quarantine. It seemed as if a flutist had taken away the inhabitants of a town, or that we were leaning out of a window that let us see clip from one those science fiction images in dystopian and apocalyptic societies.
There are countries where human health is just another commodity; where a test to determine whether someone is a carrier of the virus could cost $3,000. Is that true? And how do those who have no health insurance manage? COVID-19 lays bare the structural flaws of social systems, where people are the screws of the great machinery that produces millions of dollars for a few, and poverty for many.
Now the virus is also an examination of ethics; selfishness makes its trenches, lies and morbidity run through the social networks exacerbating panic and uncertainty, and solidarity is a bit of fire that survives the drizzle.
How beautiful was the scene of the Italians singing as a chorus from their balconies! It is as if they were contaminated by the virus of collective happiness, of laughter, or that mystery of love that cannot be defeated in the best of peole.
That’s why Evangelina, in Havana, took three of her sheets and turned them into nasobucos for anyone who needs them, no matter who is a stranger. And a ship, where there were people carrying the virus, was given permission, despite the risks, to enter a Cuban port for humanity, and then sent them all home by plane.
Perhaps for Cubans, the biggest problem has been how to avoid hugs, effusive greetings, that habit of affection that identifies us as much as an identity card. It’s just is that we are used to rolling over in a conga, even after that cyclone that blows us away; to throwing the domino on the table to sing a capicua; to dance casino or to argue about a ball in a corner.
Today we still need that distance that this terrible disease forced us into. In spite of the phases that put the country on the road to a new normality, it is still necessary to delay the overdose of affection; to continue the truce by talking to us so closely; to extend the rest to the squeezes of euphoria. We still need to greet each other with closed fists, with forearms, with that gesture, which is not ours, of bowing like someone going to a judo match, or retiring from the tatami.
Let’s give ourselves one more time. Everything has its time. We are winning, but let’s not be in a hurry to go back to the burden of divided hugs, to that mania of walking mixed up in the noise and the affections. Let responsibility and patience dominate our actions, so that the unwanted return of the virus, in the form of carelessness, does not destroy love, optimism or desire.
Let us keep an open book so that, later on, we can fill it with hands that squeeze, in this Island where joy lives on guard.
From Auditor to Temporary Police Officer
Young People in Front of COVID-19:
From Auditor to Temporary Police Officer
On the Isle of Youth, Young Communist League members were trained by the Ministry of the Interior to take voluntary responsibility for supporting control measures in shops where food, toilets and other products are sold
By Roberto Díaz Martorell
corresponsales@juventudrebelde.cu
April 14, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Indira Guevara and her colleagues control the distance at a point of sale in Nueva Gerona. Author: Roberto Díaz Martorell Published: 14/04/2020 | 10:49 am
NUEVO GERONA, Isle of Youth. – The COVID-19 not only changed the perception of the reality of the people who live in the world, but also transformed the work routines for many, such as the young Indira Guevara, auditor of the Municipal Comptroller’s Office, who today collaborates with the National Revolutionary Police to control the distance in the queues where food is sold.
There are 33 young militants of the Young Communist Union (UJC) who were trained by the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) to take on the voluntary responsibility of supporting control measures in commercial establishments where food, toilets and other products are sold.
“We were called together by those of us who do not have children or elderly people at home and we were assigned this task in the People’s Councils where we live, so that we do not move from one neighborhood to another and avoid the movement of people that could facilitate the spread of the virus.
“I was assigned to Abel Santamaría, a community that today reports six positive cases to COVID-19 and therefore extreme measures of quarantine and reinforced isolation are adopted, so I consider my work more important.
“They told us how we should proceed with the population to help avoid crowding in the queues, both in the stores in CUC and in the markets and points of sale of other food or supplies. Without hesitation, I accepted. This will allow the police to devote most of their personnel to areas with limited movement.
“We all agreed because the situation we are experiencing today is very complex and it is the duty of the young people to assume responsibility, as revolutionaries and Cuban citizens.
“It is true that sometimes we are afraid because it is something new and it is not a game: that pandemic has taken many lives in the world. Already here, on the Isle of Youth, one person has died, and many still do not understand the magnitude of the risks they take on the streets.
“At first it was funny, but it is true that the police vest they gave us gives us some authority, because when they see us so young people may think that we are not prepared and they may continue to be disobedient.
“So far I haven’t had any unpleasant encounters. We address people with respect and education so that they keep their distance from each other, so that they do not despair. We ask them please and that opens the dialogue to a better understanding.
“However, no matter how hard we try, they distance themselves and the next minute they are together again. People should be more aware of how dangerous this pandemic is and once and for all assume with responsibility and discipline the measures, which are all for the good of all,” reflected Indira Guevara.
This booster troop works on a voluntary basis from the time shops open until they close. Everyone is guaranteed water, a snack, lunch, and they rotate on occasions to rest. There is always a Minint officer with them, to advise and solve any situation that may arise.
According to Yander Zayas, first secretary of the Municipal Committee of the UJC in Isla de la Juventud, the group chosen comes from sectors such as Energy and Mines, Computers and Communications, Education, Sports or are students of the territory. This youth participation in the tasks of prevention against COVID-19 is part of the country’s strategy to guarantee the continuity of services to the population and ensure the future and health of all.
Banish Indiscipline, Mobilize Consciousness
Banish Indiscipline, Mobilize Consciousness
Putting indiscipline at bay is not only necessary, but imperative. Let us integrate that team called consciousness, which demands shame and good judgement.
By Madeleine Sautié | madeleine@granma.cu
August 3, 2020
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Image by Bansky
There was a day when Havana, still in the early stages of the pandemic’s de-escalation, awoke to the happy news that no new positive cases were being reported. Spirits, then, shot up, since the expected zero marked the result of a country’s enormous effort, say, among many workers, that of its doctors, in the first place.
Today, the faces are not the same, and concern is growing at the same time as the numbers and the courage to give so much. Unforgivable are the failures which, due to irresponsibility and disbelief, have modified the results we’ve achieved. Example: insolent disregard for a health system and the management of the Cuban state, applauded for the efficiency of its task, even by those who insist on seeing the erasures in an increasingly admirable health scenario.
Then comes the “must do”, the “have to take action”, as if banishing disobedience was only the business of a few. It is no secret that the legal provisions and police authorities have – as they have done from day one – a great weight in the fulfillment of the guidelines.
However, it is unthinkable that the solution lies only in the application of fines or in ensuring that the law enforcement officers are where every [act of] indiscipline is. It is enough to look out on the balcony, or to walk through our streets, to see, in a perfectly peaceful environment, where the police do not have to be, two or three people talking, one almost on top of the other, without nasobucos! -Will there really be a policeman for each of these cases?
There are two sides to this. On the first side, there are those who protect themselves and their family, compañeros and neighbors through good hygiene practices and distance, those who contribute to the dissipation of the virus; those who reverence with discipline the vigilance of the health personnel and value the happiness of living in Cuba, when the world suffers daily from overwhelming scenes.
The others, the ones who barely inform themselves, the irreverent ones who are aware of their own danger and that of the others; the ones who allow themselves to be spoken to from upstairs, and without nasobucos; the ones who know how to be attended to if the virus knocks on their door; the ones who are more bored than anyone else, who need to attend the party that another sorry person prepares.
Putting indiscipline at bay is not only necessary, but imperative. Let’s join that team called conscience, which calls for [both] shame and sanity.