Representatives of the International Action Center, December 12th Movement, Veterans for Peace, Nodutdol, Casa de las Americas, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, and additional organizations will hold a press conference Wednesday, March 11 to discuss the impact of U.S. sanctions on global health care and the battle against the Coronavirus, and the March 13-15 Days of Action.
U.S. sanctions particularly target health care, depriving millions of people of access to medicine and medical supplies. According to reports by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Korea Peace Now, sanctions are responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people in Venezuela over two years, and 4,000 people in North Korea in 2018, primarily due to lack of access to medicine. In Zimbabwe, Western sanctions handicapped the countries response to Cholera outbreaks and last year’s devastation from Cyclone Idai. As the Coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, the impact of U.S. sanctions on access to healthcare threatens to thwart attempts to contain the disease. U.S. sanctions have severely hampered Iran’s efforts to respond to the Coronavirus and accelerated it’s spread by limiting access to medical supplies, test kits and information about the virus.