Despite the economic war by the U.S. against Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran (not to mention other countries), the three nations are doing the best they can to combat the spread of COVID-19 and some of those efforts seem to equal or better what the U.S. is doing to fight the virus.

If the intent of the bi-partisan effort in the U.S. is to show that socialism doesn't work, the intentions of President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to proclaim Guido president of Venezuela does not seem to be successful. Guido was celebrated with a standing ovation at Trump's State of the Union address in January, which was just as repulsive as Trump's presentation of the Medal of Freedom during the same speech, to the nation's leading hate-monger on AM radio, Rush Limbaugh. The Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, will never recover from that scandalous act.

The stream of bad news about the three nations in the major U.S. media is unending, but they are fighting the pandemic as best they can, considering that all three have been the targets of withering sanctions and embargoes for many years and, in the case of Cuba, for more than a half-century. Sanctions against Venezuela began under the administration of President Barack Obama, as the U.S. right attempted to portray that South American nation as a threat to U.S. national security. Trump has strengthened the sanctions against Venezuela and Iran and, just this month promised to increase sanctions against the South American nation, although most objective observers cannot see how restrictions can be made any tighter to choke off an avowed socialist system.

The Nicholas Maduro government, as of this week, has suspended rent payments and moved to protect wages, as the cases of coronavirus rose to 77. The virus may not have reached the depths into the population in Venezuela as it has in the U.S. and Europe and in parts of Asia, but the government there is making every effort to isolate the disease by way of practicing social distancing and other measures. In Iran, Kathy Kelly, of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, noted this week that one person dies every 10 minutes, as medics are forced to treat the sick without even the protection of face masks. Such are the results of the U.S.'s illegal sanctions and embargoes, which have stopped the shipment of medicine and medical equipment and food, all of which are supposed to be allowed during a time of legal (UN) sanctions, which these are not.

Considering the serious danger to Cuba and Venezuela, as well as to the world, Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for the reduction or suspension of the sanctions. To judge the deadly sanctions in the light of recent history, consider that a study of the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimated that the sanctions of 2017-2018 caused the deaths of 40,000 Venezuelans. U.S. administrations have tried to bring these countries to their knees mainly to prove that socialism doesn't work and principally because, if socialist countries were shown to be successful in providing for their citizens, it would cast a shadow over capitalism as an economic system. Somehow, the propaganda has convinced the American people that capitalism is necessary for democracy or that capitalism means democracy. Socialist nations or nations that have some form of socialism and capitalism combined have shown that this is not true.

Cuba is a special case. From the immediate aftermath of the revolution of 1959, Cuba has been under sanction and embargo of virtually everything, mostly by the U.S., the island nation being only 90 miles from Key West, Florida, and, therefore, a possible negative influence on U.S. hegemony over the entire Western Hemisphere, something it has arrogated to itself since the Monroe Doctrine.

With all of their problems, the three nations in question seem to have the support of their people, more than enough that they can survive the attacks by U.S. bipartisan administration after administration. The sanctions and embargoes against the three has been war by any other name. In war, people die, and just because U.S. citizens have not died in these economic invasions does not mean that they have not been wars.

Cuba has come to the assistance of many other countries, as it has during this COVID-19 pandemic. Its medical personnel have in the past few days arrived in Italy to assist in that country's fight against the pandemic. In that, it has joined with China and Russia to provide much needed medical supplies and medical personnel, as the death toll in Italy has risen to 6,000, among 64,000 confirmed cases. The island nation has sent medical teams Nicaragua, Jamaica, Grenada, and Suriname to fight the pandemic. Last week, Cuba allowed a British cruise ship, the MS Braemar, to dock in Mariel, a port just west of Havana, with more than 1,000 crew and passengers aboard. After five people had tested positive for the COVID-19, the ship was stranded in the Caribbean for days, having requested permission to dock in several small countries and the U.S. but were refused.

The ship came into the Cuban port as the cruise ship owner, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, arranged for flights out of Cuba for most of passengers, some of whom were too sick to travel. Cuba took in those who were sick and were treating them in their own hospitals. Reportedly, one person on board held up a sign that read, “I love you, Cuba,” as the ship docked. Cuba itself, has reported 35 confirmed cases of the disease, but they are watching more than 37,000 Cubans across the island who have exhibited symptoms like those of COVID-19, according to the Miami Herald.

A drug that has shown some success as part of the treatment of viruses such as COVID-19 has been developed and used by Cuba and Cuban medical personnel in other countries, according to some sources, but there has been little, if any, reporting of this in U.S. mainstream media. According to Newsweek magazine, “The drug, called Interferon Alpha-2B Recombinant (IFNrec), is jointly developed by scientists from Cuba and China, where the coronavirus COVID-19 disease outbreak first emerged late last year. Already active in China since January, the Cuban Medical Brigades began deploying to dozens of nations, providing personnel and products such as its new anti-viral drug to battle the disease that has exceeded 400,000 confirmed cases across the globe. As of Tuesday, over 100,000 people have recovered from the infection and more than 18,000 have died.”

The magazine reported further that Cuba first used “advanced interferon techniques” to treat dengue fever in the 1980s, and found it useful in treating HIV, Hepatitis B and C, human papillomavirus, and some other diseases. In a Yale University blog, Helen Yaffe of the University of Glasgow, called the treatment a “wonder drug” against the new coronavirus, according to Newsweek. It has been noted that the drug is part of an array of treatments for victims of the virus, but it appears to be effective.

Why hasn't the U.S. discussed using the drug developed by Cuba and China? Likely, it's because U.S. pharmaceutical companies would not hold the patent, if one is possible, because it would be asking a small, communist-controlled nation for help, and because the current occupant of the White House is not competent to come up with new ideas about fighting the virus (or anything else), and because everything Trump does he does with an eye toward either reelection or making a profit somewhere, somehow. He is not capable of understanding that this virus is a common enemy of humanity and that every measure should be taken to halt its spread around the globe. He even has a hard time recognizing the meaning of humanity and what it means to say “we're in this together.” Trump is for Trump. Blinded by GOP ideology and his own personal xenophobia and greed, he is not about to change.