What's next for Cuba? And this issue's contents

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.12.2.0167
• Pages: 167-175
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Al Campbell

IJCS Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/ijcs/

EDITORIAL

WHAT’S NEXT FOR CUBA? AND THIS

ISSUE’S CONTENTS

Al Campbell

As this editorial is being written at the beginning of September 2020, the biggest

question on the minds of everyone in Cuba, as in every other place on the planet,

is: what comes next from this pandemic?

The rate of infection from COVID-19 is currently increasing rapidly in the

countries around the world that initially were the least infected. It is also

rebounding in the ones in the First and Third World that had had high infection

rates last spring, and had brought those down. While one cannot be sure yet,

these are strong indications that the world may be at the beginning of the feared

‘second wave’. In Cuba (particularly Havana), while still relatively low com-

pared to hard- or even moderately-hit countries around the world, the rate of

infection has reached new levels for the Island.

As for all countries in the world, there are two distinct types of major prob-

lems from COVID-19 for Cuba. Most immediate are, of course, the direct

health problems. Also potentially devastating are the economic problems that

come from the measures needed to address the existing or potential health cri-

sis. These include in the first place the economic effects from the measures that

Cuba needs to take. But beyond that, the Island suffers directly from some of

the necessary trade and travel measures taken by the country’s trading partners,

and especially from the economic contractions being suffered by them as they

also grapple with the pandemic.

Although significantly less so than up to a month before the writing of this

editorial, Cuba continues to have an excellent performance in regards to the

direct health effects of the pandemic. As of August 11 it had 3,093 confirmed

cases of, and 88 deaths from, COVID-19. To get some feel for what those num-

bers signify, they should be multiplied by 29.3 (the ratio of the US to Cuban

populations at the end of 2019) for a population-corrected comparison to the

United States. That would give 90,625 and 2,578, respectively, if Cuba had the