From the article (bold added):

Sanctions are restrictions on trade, finance and travel that are technically supposed to be used to punish certain actors — governments, corporations or individuals — only when they are convicted by a body, usually the United Nations, of committing a crime. But over the past few decades, the United States has increasingly issued its own so-called sanctions outside of any legal process as a tool to punish or retaliate against almost 40 countries representing a third of the global population.

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While the United States calls these ad hoc actions “sanctions,” they are more accurately described as unilateral coercive measures — state actions that violate human rights and multiple international laws. These unilateral coercive measures create an economic blockade that prevents targeted countries from, for example, having access to their assets that are abroad, conducting financial transactions or transporting goods.

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Economic blockades prevent countries from purchasing basic necessities such as food, medicines and equipment, creating scarcity and driving up prices. This leads to preventable suffering and deaths that are less visible than when bombs are dropped but are just as deadly. For example, the Center for Economic Policy and Research found that these U.S. “sanctions” contributed to the deaths of 40,000 Venezuelans between 2017 and 2018. Unilateral coercive measures have more recently prevented Venezuela from paying for cancer treatment for patients who were sent abroad to receive specialized care, leaving hundreds of patients stranded.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States’ unilateral coercive measures have blocked the purchase of medical equipment such as ventilators, medications and even vaccinations through the World Health Organization’s COVAX program designed to make vaccines more available globally. This is why the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres wrote to the leaders of G-20 countries in March 2020, stating, “I am encouraging the waiving of sanctions imposed on countries to ensure access to food, essential health supplies, and COVID-19 medical support. This is the time for solidarity not exclusion.”

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As nations around the world responded to the COVID-19 crisis by sharing medical supplies and personnel to combat the pandemic, the Trump administration issued more unilateral coercive measures. This forced impacted countries to find ways around the economic blockade. Some countries bypassed U.S.-dominated financial institutions by trading in currencies other than the dollar or using alternative platforms. Some — such as Mexico, which used its navy to deliver medical supplies and other necessities to Cuba — have openly defied the U.S. blockade. (good for Mexico!)

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It appears that is more important to the United States government to spend money on protecting the interests and profits of its transnational corporations than it is to roll back the economic blockades to protect public health. So far, the Biden administration has only removed a few of the hundreds of new unilateral coercive measures imposed by President Trump.