Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevance of Cuba’s medical system, its health tourism and related diplomacy in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic for the global response to disease outbreaks. In addition to Cuba being a destination for leisure tourists in the Caribbean, the renowned Cuban medical system attracts thousands of health tourists seeking low-cost but high-quality treatment. This paper demonstrates how Cuba’s unique response to the pandemic, which included sending thousands of medical staff abroad, can inform structural and global issues and contribute to a more sustainable future. Design/methodology/approach The research in this study is primarily drawn from published academic and media sources that address Cuba’s medical system, its health tourism and the government’s response to the recent pandemic. The author, a political scientist and an author of many publications on Cuba, and the PI of a study focused on Cuban tourism, will also draw on her expertise. Findings This paper addresses the Cuban Government’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic and places this response in the context of Cuba’s medical system, its health tourism and related diplomacy. It reveals key lessons from Cuba’s response for other tourist destination states and, more broadly, for the worldwide response to global outbreaks and the management of health systems. The findings will further research in diplomacy and tourism as well as inform policy and practice. Research limitations/implications This paper explores an ongoing topic and thus further research will be required following the pandemic. Practical implications This research note offers important implications for practice including providing accurate, research-based information that challenges misinformation about Cuba’s health system, its medical diplomacy program, health tourism and its response to COVID-19. It offers valuable lessons for public health authorities including the importance of preventative health measures, community medicine and the benefits of working globally to combat outbreaks through the sharing of medical staff and resources. Social implications This research note reveals the health, political and social implications of Cuba’s response in this time of crisis. It shows the benefits of a robust but low-cost community-based medicine program, medical diplomacy and how a state’s response during crisis can moderate the global inequities and injustices such as unequal access to care that often accompany disease outbreaks such as COVID-19. Originality/value This research note is an early analysis of a response by an important tourist destination country to the pandemic. The author anticipates that the information provided to the international community via this open access journal will offer practical implications for the ongoing global efforts to manage this crisis and contribute to the research on tourism, diplomacy, justice and health policy.

This paper explores the role of communications technology in the U.S.-Cuban relationship. It argues that the idea that anti-government dissidents will use the Internet, cell phones, and social media to foment a popular uprising on the island, modelled after the ‘Arab Spring’ is flawed because it fails to take into account the uniqueness of the Cuban situation. The paper then explores how it has become possible for this idea to have gained such traction in certain discourses in the United States. In doing so, the paper considers the history of paternalism and imperial hubris that has dominated U.S. policy toward Cuba, with an emphasis on the relationship during the Castro era. The paper demonstrates that current U.S. policy rests on fallacious assumptions about Cuba, the Cuban state and the relationship between the Cuban state and the Cuban people. The belief in a ‘Cuban Spring’ and in the idea that the United States could engender revolution in Cuba via communications technology is part of this larger narrative.

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