THE US PUGWASH GROUP

Scientific Cooperation and the US Embargo of Cuba

Following up the Pugwash workshop on medical research held in Havana, Cuba in February 2001, and publication of a Pugwash Issue Brief (June 2001) on the effects of the embargo for patients in both Cuba and the United States who suffer from sickle cell anemia, several members of US Pugwash participated in a symposium sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on the benefits of greater exchanges of people, information and research between the US and Cuba. The AAAS symposium was held on 18 June 2001 in Washington, DC and included representatives from the Smithsonian Institution, the American Chemical Society, and a wide variety of NGOs. The US Pugwash members attending were Kenneth Bridges, M.D. (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston), Elliott Schiffmann (National Institutes of Health), and Jeffrey Boutwell (Pugwash Conferences), all of whom later that afternoon visited several Senate and House offices on Capitol Hill to discuss the prospects for relaxing the US embargo to allow greater scientific and academic cooperation between the US and Cuba. One outcome of the visit was an initiative taken by Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass) to circulate the Pugwash Issue Brief to the other 434 members of the House of Representatives, with the Dear Colleague letter reprinted below. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn) later did the same to all members of the US Senate.

The following letter was accompanied by the Pugwash Issue Brief on Cuba and distributed to all members of the US House of Representatives.

Dear Colleague,
I would like to bring to your attention the June 2001 Issue Brief produced by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, the 1995 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. This newsletter explores the effects of the U.S. embargo on US-Cuban medical cooperation. I especially encourage you to read the article by Dr. Kenneth R. Bridges, Director of the Joint Center for Sickle Cell and Thalassemic Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

As you know, drugs and medical devices developed by Cuba are not available to Americans. This includes vaccines for heart disease, cancer, hepatitis-B and meningitis-B, although for the latter a special protocol is being negotiated because the drug is so needed and desired by the U.S. medical and pharmaceutical community. Common areas of research requiring clinical trials, such as sickle cell disease, are also denied from engaging in joint clinical trials. Cuba has also developed fetal monitoring equipment that is being used in Canada, the United Kingdom and twenty other countries, but not the United States.

While only lifting the embargo will make these drugs, medical devices and opportunities for joint research truly available for all Americans, H.R. 2138, the Bridges to the Cuban People Act of 2001, takes important steps forward. For example, it would allow the import into the United States of Cuban-originated medical devices and medicines that are not commercially available in the U.S. already.

I encourage you to read the articles in the attached newsletter, and I encourage you to contact the offices of Representatives Jose Serrano and Jim Leach to become a cosponsor of H.R. 2138.

Sincerely,
James P. McGovern
Member of Congress

[EDITOR'S NOTE: On July 25, 2001, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment by a vote of 240 to 186 (supported by 67 Republicans) that would greatly ease restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba. Then, on December 18, the US Senate moved a step closer to easing the embargo by voting 61 (including 21 Republicans) to 33 to defeat the Torricelli amendment that would have made more difficult the private financing of food and medical supplies to Cuba.]

52nd Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs

Planning continues for the 52nd Pugwash Conference, to be held on the campus of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) from 9-14 August 2002. The co-chairs of US Pugwash, Lynn Eden (Stanford University) and Steven Miller (Harvard University), are working with a conference advisory committee that includes Ruth Adams, Marvin Goldberger, John Holdren, and Herb York, as well as several faculty and administrators from UCSD, among them Richard Attiyeh (Vice Chancellor for Research), Stephan Haggard (School of International Relations/Pacific Studies), Patrick Ledden (Provost, Muir College), Susan Shirk (East Asian studies), and Mark Thiemens (Dean, Physical Sciences). The 52nd Conference is also a Pugwash quinquennial conference which will see the installation of a new Secretary General, President, and Council. For more information, visit the Pugwash website at www.pugwash.org.