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We are healthcare professionals, providers and advocates who request your assistance to fight two of the top pernicious threats to the health of Americans: diabetes and lung cancer. We are asking you to correct an issue of United States Foreign Policy that harms the health of Americans who have these diseases.

According to the American Diabetes Association, there were over 154,000 diabetes-related amputations that took place in the United States last year. This is a 75% increase in just a decade. Worse yet, 80% of those suffering an amputation suffer death within 5 years. 18% die within just 90 days of an amputation. There is a medication which has been in use successfully for more than 25 years and in 20 countries, called Heberprot-P.  It closes and heals diabetic ulcers, and prevents amputations. This treatment can eliminate the need for tens of thousands of amputations each year. Scores of American medical scientists have studied it, and the literature on its effectiveness is ample.

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The second matter is lung cancer. Even with the advances being made in the area of immunotherapy, there is no cure here or anywhere. When domestically available therapies fail to control the cancer, we must not allow politics to deny American cancer patients access to proven therapies that could extend their lives. There is a novel immunotherapy that extends lives by years, even at the level of Stage 4 cancer. It is called Cimavax, and its efficacy has been proven in clinical trials in New York State’s Roswell Park Cancer Center. We must add this weapon to your Cancer Moonshot Initiative, and make it available to all Americans, not just the handful who benefitted from its results in the trial at Roswell Park.

Mr. President: the first step toward our acquiring these therapies for the American people is for you to remove the Republic of Cuba from the “List of State Sponsors of Terrorism.” In Cuba and only in Cuba have these treatment modalities been developed, and we need to secure our ability to buy them. We ask you to continue on the path you embarked on with Mr. Obama, to bring helpful, lifesaving medical products to our shores.

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Our concern as health professionals and advocates is for our patients, not politics. But with one stroke of the political pen, Mr. Trump acted against the health and welfare of many, many Americans when he put Cuba on that list.

We urge you to use your executive authority to reverse this callous and counterproductive policy which is in effect a boomerang against our fellow Americans. 

We urge you to act swiftly to lift the failed and indiscriminate economic sanctions that were imposed by the prior administration, and fulfill your pledge to end such measures that exacerbate hardship for innocent civilians in our country. 

Presidential discretion in these matters is crucial to be able to protect the health of the American people from ending up as collateral damage from U.S. foreign policy. We strongly urge you to prevent any such usurpation of your authority, by veto if necessary, to bills such as H.R. 314, the FORCE Act.

Thank you for your consideration.