Multiple nations imposed travel restrictions on countries throughout Africa after South African officials announced that they had detected a new variant of COVID-19.
The omicron variant was discovered in South Africa. We don't know where it came from.
It has been found in countries such as Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease specialist in the US, has said that there is a chance that it is already here.
The public at large frame this as a purely South African problem because they were the first to detect it, and because of what experts say is a public health research system. The travel restrictions were quickly pointed out by officials throughout the region.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement that the latest travel ban was akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and ability to detect new variant quicker. Excellent science should not be punished.
Sorry for being smarter than you.
The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization, Dr. Michael Ryan, urged against knee-jerk reactions from world governments in the statement.
He said in the statement that they have seen in the past that everyone is closing borders and restricting travel. We need to remain open and focused.
The omicron variant is still in its early days and there is still a lot more research to be done. There are some indications that it might be better than other versions of COVID. The doctor who first spotted omicron said that patients with the variant have experienced mild symptoms.
The global reaction to the variant's announcement feels rushed and rife with bigotry towards Africans. It could lead to greater hesitancy for nations that spot new infectious diseases in the future to report their findings.
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