By Henry Parker — Sep 13, 2024

Socialism for Public Health NOW: Cuba’s History is Our Future

Campesino Milicias by Servando Cabrera Moreno (1961). Retrieved from: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba.

During the second U.S. election of the COVID-19 pandemic, it should be clear that we can not rely on capitalism to fight pandemics. In the fight against polio, Cuba has shown that no matter what, the best way to fight pandemics is a system built for human need.

Written by Henry Parker

From polio to COVID-19, every country on Earth has had to face diseases that claimed millions of lives. Polio has re-emerged in Palestine for the first time in 25 years, likely due to the genocide preventing vaccines from being properly distributed. All this while the world is still battling the COVID pandemic that continues to cause mass disablement and preventable death. So what is the best economic system for fighting these diseases? According to the United States’s founding myths, human flourishing, including health, is best served by capitalism and the right to private property. But socialist Cuba’s experience battling polio begs the question about the importance of capitalism and private property for public health. The history of polio in Cuba gives us some context behind how the Cuban people continue to embarrass even the wealthiest country on Earth when fighting against the COVID pandemic. Ever since its revolutionary inception, the Republic of Cuba has fought diseases that had previously been allowed to ravage the island. One of the first diseases the Cuban government successfully eradicated was polio.

A soldier and nurse from the United States handing a package of polio vaccines to two Cuban soldiers. — This photo from after the Cuban Revolution shows the Red Cross and the U.S. Navy at Guantanamo Bay in March 1961 donating 160 doses of vaccine for Cuban children. With friends like these... Photo Credit: National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Polio is a disease caused by the Poliovirus, first discovered in 1789 in Britain. Ever since its discovery, people have known that polio can cause fever, vomiting, and permanent paralysis, especially in the legs. The progress made by the people of Cuba to combat this horrific disease was an incredible achievement for the human race. Polio was first detected in Cuba on the Isle of Youth (formerly the Isle of Pines) in 1898. Just 11 years later, in 1909, Polio was reported as an epidemic in the former province Las Villas. The epidemics intensified year after year, bringing death and debility to the Cuban people, especially children. In 1946, 14% of Cuban children above 10 were infected with the disease. On average, 1 in 200 of those infected would become irreversibly paralyzed and, of those paralyzed, 5-10% would have died when their breathing muscles became unusable.

In Cuban history, one of the first priorities of the socialist government was to address disease. After the Cuban Revolution’s victory in 1959, this focus on infectious disease led directly to improved data collection. Cuba recorded its last Polio epidemic in 1961. From 1932 to 1961, a total of 3939 cases of Polio were recorded, with 30% of the cases in children under age 4. In 1962, only three years after securing their victory, Cuba launched a country-wide vaccination program focused on vaccinating as many Cubans as possible against Polio. The target was to immunize 90% of each age group. The campaign was effective almost immediately: although from January to May of that year, 46 cases and 7 deaths were reported, since then, no more deaths from Polio have been reported in Cuba.

A small child is holding an adult's hand while walking. The child's right leg has been visibly deformed by polio infection. — A child with damage to her right leg caused by a polio infection. Photo Credit: CDC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The polio vaccination program was a massive success, achieving and exceeding its goals in almost every age group. Beyond the goal to eradicate polio in Cuba, the success of the campaign shows us what socialism can do for public health. In 1994, Cuba was awarded the Certification of Eradication of Polio by the Pan American Health Organization. PAHO’s assistant director Dr. Mirta Roses said, “Its concept, its ideology, its instruments, its methodology shook the world[...]Cuba transformed the probable into the possible” (Beldarraín 6). This is an enormous enemy of the revolution scourged from the island. Dr. Más Lago, an expert in polio who heads a laboratory specializing in virological surveillance, predicts that, had Polio been allowed to spread uninterrupted, it would have caused 1200 cases of paralysis between 1962 and 1970. The Cuban people’s fight against polio proves how a socialist country can use its resources for human needs instead of funding the lavish lives of slave owners and the exploiting classes. The victory proves that even a tiny socialist country like Cuba can eradicate disease at least as well as any capitalist country.

Cuba’s prior successful experiences with vaccination campaigns like the polio campaign helped it to develop and administer its own COVID vaccine in 2020-2021. In fact, it performed better than the United States, the wealthiest country in the world. Despite its vast wealth of resources, the capitalist system of the U.S. was unable to do better than Cuba, a tiny nation that has received nothing but hostility from the U.S. and its vassal states.

A woman is being given an injection in a room full of chairs and waiting people. — Cuba started administering its Soberana 2 vaccine to healthcare workers in April 2021 and the public in August 2021 after successful international trials. Photo Credit: Cubadebate, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Since 1948, the GDP of core capitalist countries like the U.S. has increased by trillions of dollars. If these resources were being hoarded for the good of the public, most people would expect the U.S. to have no problem dealing with COVID. But the U.S. is not run for human need, so trillions of dollars went to already-wealthy billionaires at the beginning of the pandemic. This is part of the cause of the abysmal response to COVID. Despite having a GDP over forty times greater than Cuba’s, the U.S.’s vaccination rate against COVID is still lower. 81% of the U.S.’s population has been vaccinated at least once against COVID, with 70% having received one updated vaccine. In the case of Cuba, over 90% of people have been vaccinated. All this is in spite of the ongoing U.S.-imposed embargo which causes such severe shortages of metal in Cuba that they could not obtain syringes at the beginning of 2021. The U.N. General Assembly has voted to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba every year since 1992, with only the U.S. and Israel voting to keep it in place in 2023.

Cuba’s achievements become even more impressive when looking at vaccination rates against COVID among children and adolescents and the international support Cuba provides. Over 97% of Cuban children aged 2-18 have been vaccinated against COVID, helping fight one of the biggest vectors of disease spread: children. In the U.S,, only 14.9% of children aged 2 months to 17 years have been vaccinated against COVID. Cuba has also aided other countries in fighting this pandemic by exporting millions of vaccines to Vietnam and Venezuela.

Recall the incredulity presented by Dr. Mirta Roses, assistant director of PAHO, when she describes the Cuban victory over polio. The idea that socialist countries would perform worse in a pandemic than capitalist ones is one of the myths used to justify empire. Cuba shows us that instead of bringing economic ruin by protecting public health, the health of the public is one of a nation’s greatest resources. Dr. Roses is certainly aware that Cuba is under constant pressure by the global imperial hegemon, yet Cuba still managed to wipe out polio and provide vaccine coverage against COVID to an overwhelming majority of its population. It is not that the U.S can not afford to fight COVID. It is not that doing so is impossible. It was never about lack of resources. Cuba has shown that even a tiny nation can wipe out diseases.

If it’s not the resources, size, or power of the country, why is the U.S. struggling? Cuba shows us clearly that the U.S. ruling class prioritizes their wealth over working class safety. The U.S.’s tragic response to COVID is no accident. Biden has not been incompetent in the handling of the COVID pandemic, he consciously maintains the status quo. As the man himself said to his donors, “Nothing would fundamentally change.” No matter who is elected, we can not rely on capitalism to fight pandemics. Cuba has shown that no matter how much wealth you have, the best way to fight pandemics is a system built for human need.

Socialism for Public Health NOW: Cuba’s History is Our Future

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Further Reading and Notes

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