After 18 months of corporal punishment in Miami during Covid 19 isolation (gaining 4 kg in weight and a bloated belly and intellectual decay), I decided to travel despite restrictions. Being a physician working with Native populations, I am careful to be tested every week before I do home visits on Native people.
My first trip after the self imposed isolation was France
Not far from my hotel in the Left Bank there was a pharmacy where you could go and stand in line and get tested for Covid 19 before your next trip. It was an unfriendly almost bordering rude and a chore.. the price was the usual 25 euros.
The bright side was that the walk included a view of the fountain of San Michel and after the results were ready, one could eat at a small Lebanese traiteur and it was a pleasure .
The other place I have had an Antigen test (for covid 19) was at Quiberon, once again at a pharmacy.
I do know many of the workers in the pharmacy, but the service was nothing that special, but pleasant and professional and the nurse (male) who did the nasal swab was pretending to a knight in full armour thrusting his lance deep into my nose.
In Marrakech, one takes the taxi to a place where one can get a PCR done as the Moroccan government require that you have a PCR to leave the country. 400 moroccan dirhams, 40 euros was the charge. Cold and semi efficient and the walk back to the Jem al fina was pleasant.
For the ease of obtaining a test, whether a PCR or an antigen test, nothing can beat the Miami Dade county testing centre in 107 SW Ave, Kendall Park, As I go there often, the workers have become friendly. I always say thanks to them and tell them they should be grateful to the Democratic Mayor of Miami Dade, Daniela Levine.
But none of these places come anywhere near the International Clinic at La Pradera in the outskirts of Havana, Cuba. Courteous and attentive service, very efficient and polite and the charge is in the usual range, 26 dollars for an antigen test
It made me realize that in Cuba everything is possible and the best thing about Cuba (especially in medical care) is the genuine warmth of the people engaged in it. When you are a poor country, strangled by the giant of the North with Blockade (I cant even access travel web sites from Havana, blocked by the Giant), who has choked the money line that the relatives want to send down to their old country, and to see the genuine warmth of the medical professionals and the circumstances of treatment, one feels proud of a country. Remember, Miami where Cuban emigres and their descendants dominate the medical scene, is considered to the hotspot in all of America to be the capital of Fraud!
I was treated very well, something you do not get in a Pharmacy in France or a doctors office in Miami or fee for service lab in Marrakech. The nurses and the administrators were soft spoken, kind and understood the need for a proper document for travel.
Visiting La Pradera Clinic to get my antigen test for Covid 19 was truly a pleasure. I was able to pay for the test with my USA issued credit card! Gracias..
