Cuba and COVID-19

Despite severe economic difficulties (having been suffering from tightening US sanctions even before the pandemic wiped out tourist earnings), Cuba’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be more effective than any other in the region: the country’s death rate from the virus is the lowest in the Americas, apart from some small islands with populations of less than 200,000. This seminar will seek to explain this ‘positive deviance’, by identifying features of the public health system before the crisis, and responses by government, public health authorities, scientists and the population, that made it possible.

Speakers:

Professor Pedro Más Bermejo is a Physician with more than 25 years’ experience in the disciplines of hygiene, epidemiology, microbiology and nutrition. He is, amongst other prominent positions, leader of Cuba’s national technical group on COVID-19 and National Director of Epidemiology, Ministry of Public Health.

Dr Emily Morris is a development economist, based at the UCL Institute of the Americas. She has previously worked at the Economist Intelligence Unit, School of Oriental and African Studies, Inter-American Development Bank and London Metropolitan University. She has published, presented and consulted widely on Cuban economic performance and policy, the subject of her doctoral thesis. She is currently engaged in multidisciplinary UK-Cuban research collaboration as coordinator of the ‘UCL-Cuba Research Network’.

Links:

Professor Pedro Más Bermejo - biographical note

Dr Emily Morris - academic profile