Cuba Barred from U.S. Medical Research Databases
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) last week barred scientists in six “countries of concern” from accessing 21 biomedical databases – a vast network of vital healthcare resources related to an array of conditions from Alzheimer’s to cancer. The ban impacts Cuba, China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea.
The measure stems from a Biden administration rule to prevent access to “sensitive” U.S. data by countries that “pose a significant risk” of using that data “to the detriment of the national security of the United States.”
There’s no credible evidence that Cuba poses a threat to U.S. national security, including within the fields the scientific databases cover.
However, these types of baseless claims leveled by U.S. officials are not new.
In 2002, then Under Secretary of State John Bolton accused Cuba of developing biological weapons just as he was claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Both claims were bogus.
There is evidence, however, connecting the U.S. government to the use of biological weapons against Cuba. In 1962, U.S. officials discussed using biological or chemical agents to sabotage Cuban crops. The 1975 U.S. Senate Church Committee revealed CIA plots to use biological agents to assassinate Fidel Castro. And a report in Newsday presented evidence that operatives linked to anti-Castro terrorists and backed by the CIA introduced African swine fever virus into Cuba in 1971, leading to an outbreak that forced the slaughter of 500,000 pigs.
After Havana-stationed U.S. diplomats and CIA operatives reported a series of health incidents in 2016, then Senator Marco Rubio and other U.S. politicians accused Cuba of “attacks” on U.S. personnel. But since then, multiple investigations by U.S. security and scientific authorities have found no evidence of attacks, much less any evidence linking Cuba – or any other country – to the incidents.
Watch Episode 4 of our documentary series The War on Cuba, where we take a closer look at so-called “Havana Syndrome.”
The U.S. restriction on access to biomedical databases erects yet another barrier to scientific and medical collaboration between the United States and Cuba, which has long been stifled by U.S. sanctions. Scientists from both countries grew closer during the Obama opening only to be wedged apart again during the Trump and Biden administrations. Read our article about the recent history of U.S.-Cuba scientific collaboration HERE.
Also check out our recent INTERVIEW with Dr. Mitchell Valdes-Sosa, the U.S.-born director of the Cuban Center for Neuroscience, who argues that the U.S. is "trying to destroy" Cuban science.