Researchers at Cuba's National Medical Genetics Center: Pioneering Studies on COVID-19.

Three fourths of the 175 staff at Cuba's National Medical Genetics Center (CNGM) are women. And women constitute 90% of the research team working on the Center's largest current project-unlocking the biological secrets of COVID-19 in the Cuban population. They are identifying particularly vulnerable groups and geographies, reviewing therapies applied and long-term sequelae of the disease, and contributing to ongoing vaccine research and trials.

In this kind of situation, health as a public good once again becomes paramount..

Dr Jeanette Vega is well known in global health circles for her work in the areas of health equity, social determinants of health and health systems. She has served as Chile's Vice Minister of Health, and as director of the country's National Health Fund (FONASA). For fi ve years, she was also WHO Director of Equity and Social Determinants of Health.

We are living in the geologic age when human activities have dramatically affected our planet and its environment.

Dr Barry is incoming Board Chair of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) and past President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engi-neering, and Medicine, and serves on the National Academy of Medicine's Board of Global Health. She has received the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal for outstand-ing contributions to women in the fi eld of medicine, and is founder of WomenLift Health, a global initiative to transform global health outcomes by unleashing and elevating talented mid-career women to become global health leaders.

Are increased chronic diseases a potential legacy of Cuba's special period?

Cuba is the only country I know to erect a monument to the egg….and so it should. Located on Havana's Fifth Avenue, the simple sculpture pays homage to the salva vida-literally the life saver of many a Cuban family, particularly in the 1990s.

The curious case of Cuba.

As health professionals in the United States consider how to focus health care and coverage to ensure better, more equitable patient and population health outcomes, the experience of Cuba's National Health System over the last 5 decades may provide useful insights. Although mutual awareness has been limited by long-term political hostilities between the United States and Cuban governments, the history and details of the Cuban health system indicate that their health system merits attention as an example of a national integrated approach resulting in improved health status. More extensive analysis of the principles, practices, and outcomes in Cuba is warranted to inform health system transformation in the United States, despite differences in political-social systems and available resources.