South Africa's leading infectious diseases expert has appealed to the world's billionaires for financial support for Africa after a coronaviruses variant with a concerning number of mutations emerged in the country.
The director of South Africa's Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation said on Thursday that the new variant, which is responsible for most of the new COVID-19 cases in the country, was really worrisome.
de Oliveira asked billionaires in the world to support Africa financially to "control and extinguish variant." He named several billionaires, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. He asked the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and others to help finance the fight.
"We will protect the world by protecting the poor and powerless," de Oliveira said. Without financial support, the poor and deprived population can't be locked up.
South Africa was praised for its quick response in detecting the variant and sounding the alarm.
Most existing vaccines and drugs are not effective against B. 1.1.529 because it has a lot of mutations in the part of the virus that attach to cells.
Adrian Puren, the acting executive director at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said in a statement Thursday that experts were "working overtime" to understand the new variant and its implications.
