"An Island on a Continent"

By Marc Vandepitte | 06/08/2021 | Latin American and Caribbean.

It is curious that precisely the three American countries that suffer harsh economic sanctions by the United States are having much better results than the others in their fight against Covid19. One thing is certain: the pandemic has exposed the crisis of the neoliberal and capitalist model.

Real number of deaths from Covid19.

As it happened in Europe, the coronavirus crisis has hit the American continent hard. Its ratio of deaths from Covid19 per number of inhabitants is six times higher than in the rest of the world. However, there are three countries that stand out from the rest for their good response to the pandemic: Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, located far above the rest of the American nations.

To find out the number of deaths from Covid19 we do not use the figures issued by national authorities, which sometimes underestimate the real number. Instead we have used a large study conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) at the University of Washington.

This report calculates the total number of deaths from Covid19 by comparing the expected number of deaths based on pre-pandemic trends with the actual total number of deaths from the pandemic. This excess mortality is corrected by eliminating deaths that can be indirectly attributed to the pandemic (delay of urgent interventions due to lack of ICU beds) or deaths that avoided by the pandemic (for example, fewer traffic deaths due to reduced mobility).

In this way we obtain the number of deaths caused directly by Covid-19. In America, the differences between countries are notable. The graph shown leaves little room for the imagination.

There are at least three reasons why Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela perform so well: their swift and decisive response, a well-organized health system, and the mobilization of the population.

Quick and decisive response.

The response from many countries has been either very lax or late. Both the former US president and the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, downplayed the severity of the pandemic by calling it a «flu» or joking about it. Both leaders even opposed preventive measures such as masks. In recent months, Chile has relaxed security measures too early, so the country is experiencing a fourth wave.

The reason for taking these shaky actions has been to guarantee the privileges of the economic elite. In order to ensure benefits, security measures such as the closure of establishments, social distance and the mandatory use of masks have been the minimum possible. This has been the case, for example, in Guatemala, but also in Brazil and the United States.

A very different situation has been experienced in Nicaragua. This country has focused on caring for the population and not on the benefits of the economic elite. Already at the end of January, when most Western countries were still ruling out the probability of a pandemic, Nicaragua prepared wards to receive covid patients in about 20 hospitals; launched sanitary controls at the points of entry into the country and established mandatory quarantine. It also started a program to combat misinformation circulating on social media.

Nine days after being identified by the first cases in Cuba, the authorities decreed the closure of the country. The same happened in Venezuela.

A well-organized healthcare system.

In most American countries, including the US, forty years of liberal rule have been a disaster for health systems. Most of the population cannot afford medical care, which has also deteriorated sharply. These inadequate and inaccessible health services are a major cause of the high number of deaths from covid on the continent.

This panorama contrasts widely with the situation in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, countries that dedicate a good part of their budget to public health, which is free or very cheap. In all three countries, preventive medicine is an essential part of health. In times of pandemic this feature is crucial.

Population mobilization.

A pandemic is a monster with many heads, and defeating it requires the support of the population. Quarantine and other security measures only work if people are willing to respect them.

Cuba has a solid social fabric well lubricated thanks to the contingency plans for hurricanes and that combines all the forces of the community: teams of family doctors-nurses, schools, work centers, committeeneighborhood s and mass organizations. This network has been in full mobilization during the coronavirus crisis.

Both Venezuela and Nicaragua have deployed thousands of brigades to fight the pandemic locally in a decentralized way. In this way it has been possible to reach the entire population.

Since the beginning of the crisis, the three countries launched awareness campaigns through social networks and traditional media to adequately inform the population and warn them of the false news that circulated in relation to Covid19.

Bankruptcy of the neoliberal and capitalist model.

Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua opt for a socialist model, for which they must face strong economic sanctions by the United States. Despite the harshness of these sanctions, their health results are far superior to those of the rest of the continent.

The pandemic has exposed the crisis of the neoliberal and capitalist model, a model that places more importance on economic benefits than on people. Forty years of austerity policies have eroded healthcare and, furthermore, the model is unable to mobilize the population when necessary. The time has come to overcome this model.