 For more videos and people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic and continues to spread across the world. As of March 17, it had spread to 152 countries with over 173,000 cases and over 7,000 deaths, according to data put out by the World Health Organization. Countries everywhere are imposing lockdowns, isolating people and taking extensive measures to curb the spread of this virus. In this time of an unprecedented global crisis, the need of the hour is global solidarity and coordination. However, the imperialist bloc led by the United States continues to impose and implement debilitating sanctions on countries such as Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. This is only worsening the global health crisis, as these countries are faced with additional challenges in procuring essential medicines and testing equipment. Even as the world is struggling to contain the virus, the United States announced fresh sanctions on Venezuela on Thursday, March 12. The very next day, the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in the country and today the country has as many as 33 cases. These sanctions have already been announced as a war crime under Geneva conventions as they are resulting in collective punishment of the entire population of the country. At this point in time during the COVID-19 pandemic, the embargo against these countries is not only a war crime but also a crime against humanity as defined by the United Nations International Law Commission. Let's first take a closer look at Iran, the third worst hit country in the world after China and Italy. There have been a total of over 14,990 cases in the country and around 853 deaths. The sanctions against Iran prevented the country from accessing drugs, testing kits and medical equipment required to tackle this pandemic in a timely manner. They directly made the crisis much worse than it might have been. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, Iran's healthcare system, which is aimed at providing universal healthcare, had been throttled due to the sanctions. The sanctions have made it impossible for Iran to import materials required for producing drugs and equipment. Even humanitarian agencies have found it difficult to provide relief as banks refuse to allow their services to be used for transferring money even for humanitarian reasons. All of this does not just impact the Iranian government, it directly attacks and hurts the Iranian people. Many of these sanctions had been lifted in 2016 when the Iran nuclear deal came into effect. But in 2018, when the US unilaterally withdrew from it, the Trump administration reimposed all sanctions. According to the medical journal The Lancet, almost 6 million patients with non-communicable diseases have not received the treatment services they needed because of sanctions prior to the nuclear deal. The US has repeatedly claimed that it does not use sanctions to hurt people, which is why it provides exceptions. In August 2019, the US government softened its policy on Venezuela and said humanitarian support can't flow into the country. Although in practice, this hardly happened in case of Iran, even this softening did not take place. Right now, it is China and the WHO which came to Iran's rescue and provided the country with the much needed drugs and testing kits, which could help in containing the virus. Venezuela's health system has been crippled with similar sanctions. Due to the sanctions, neither Venezuela nor Iran can easily buy medical supplies, nor can they easily transport it into their countries, nor can they use them in their largely public sector health systems. In particular, the US government made it clear that any business with the public sector of Iran and Venezuela was forbidden. The health infrastructure that provides for the mass of the populations in both Iran and Venezuela is run by the state, which means it faces disproportionate difficulty in accessing equipment and supplies, including test kits and medicines. The National Survey on Living Conditions, an annual survey of living conditions administered by three Venezuelan universities, reported that from 2017 to 2018, a year which saw the intensification of the sanctions, there was a 31% increase in general mortality. This would imply more than 40,000 deaths. The report claims that more than 300,000 people were estimated to be at risk because of lack of access to medicines or treatment. This includes an estimated 80,000 people with HIV who have not had antiretroviral treatment since 2017, 16,000 people who need dialysis, 16,000 people with cancer, and 4 million people with diabetes and hypertension, many of whom cannot obtain insulin or cardiovascular medicine. Venezuela has also been able to prepare in advance to tackle the virus due to its still strong socialist systems in place. The country has been put on a partial lockdown, even here it is Cuban and Chinese assistance along with WHO that is helping the nation where most of the world has failed. These sanctions are also posing a challenge for countries even apart from the ones under sanctions to deal with COVID-19. A Cuban drug known as the interferon alpha 2b is one of the few drugs known to be effective against the virus right now. The drug has managed to effectively cure more than 1500 patients. The medication increases the natural production of interferon in the human body and strengthens the immune system of patients. The sanctions against Cuba would prevent other countries from purchasing this drug, but now the world is being forced to take help from Cuba in defiance of these sanctions. After the effectiveness of the Cuban drug was known and popularized, Cuba has been flooded with purchase orders for interferon alpha 2b from across the globe. Cuba has also provided almost free healthcare services in over 160 countries across the globe. Cuba sends its doctors overseas to work in rural areas that are in dire need of healthcare. The Cuban government uses part of the salaries paid by the host country for investing in Cuba's education and healthcare systems. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified attacks on this program as part of the USA's long-term policies of cutting all regional support to Cuba and its economy in their attempt to bring down the revolutionary government in the country. The U.S. has demanded its allies in Latin America to cancel the health cooperation agreements with the socialist country. This has led to the expulsion of Cuban medical staff, including doctors, nurses and technicians from several countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, where the right-wing regimes closely aligned with the U.S. are in power. Not only does this hurt the Cuban people, it also hurts those who would have otherwise received free medical care from Cuban healthcare professionals. Despite the U.S. imposed tripling sanctions on these countries, they are still finding ways to work together and assist each other through the current crisis and the many crises they have faced before. They are also aiding the rest of the world in the fight against COVID-19. Cuba and China are not only attending the situation in their countries, but sending medical teams, medicines and doctors to other nations in need. This spirit of internationalism and global solidarity is what is needed to get us through these times.