The team that identified the omicron variant was headed by Sikhulile Moyo, the laboratory director at the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership.
The Leabaneng is namedNatasha Moyo.
The scientists from Botswana were shocked when they saw the sequence.
Four international travelers tested positive for the disease after entering the country. The scientists discovered a variant they had never encountered before when the cases were genetically sequenced.
The omicron variant would become known as soon as they told the world about it.
Sikhulile Moyo is the laboratory director at the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership and a research associate with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Moyo is quick to give credit to his entire team, and to scientists in South Africa who are working on the same sequence.
He spoke with NPR about the identification of the new variant, travel bans, what southern Africa needs from the rest of the world and what may come next. The interview has been edited to make it clearer.
When did you first think you might be dealing with a new variant? How long did it take for you to be concerned?
We compared it to other sequences in the country and realized it was an unusual pattern of mutations. The number of changes that it had was astounding.
The Minister of Health was notified on Monday. We searched the databases and realized it was not something we've seen before in Africa. The closest that could be seen was called B. 1.1.207, which was a common lineage in the United Arab Emirates. We were concerned because we got notice that these people were traveling together.
Other groups were also doing the same thing. On Tuesday, they saw that we had deposited some sequences that looked similar to them. We loaded our sequence to the public database on the 23rd.
On the 24th, South Africa reported to the WHO, and on the 26th the WHO convened a meeting and called it a variant of concern.
Travelers who flew in from Europe were the ones who found this variant. The variant was reported in the Netherlands a week before the announcement from Africa. What do you think about the world reacting to the banning of travelers from southern Africa?
We were sad. After two years of the epidemic, I felt that the global health community could be coordinating better.
How do you reward the countries that alert you of a dangerous pathogen? I didn't feel good about my country being put on a red list.
We know what happens. A lot of businesses lost millions of dollars when flights were canceled. Delays on the way were threatening our vaccine supply. A trail of destruction.
It was a roller coaster for us. We felt like we were contributing to the world in a small way. On the other side, we wondered if you reward scientists or scientific progression.
What is the reaction to this?
A number of people are saying to scientists, "look what you've done." You locked out Christmas.
Was the African ban racist?
I think it's an unfair treatment of African countries.
The U.K. was not put on the red list because of the alpha variant. We understand that it's a global village. We enhanced border screening and requirements for entering into the country. We understand that these viruses don't respect our natural borders, so we didn't shut our door.
What do the rest of the world want from Botswana? Is it a vaccine? Is it better for decoding? All of that and more?
We are still struggling to reach our population, as other countries are going into boosters. A large segment of our population needs to bevaccinated. In order to procurevaccines, the government of Botswana reached out to other countries. Sometimes the delays are beyond your ability to pay.
The health-care system has been strengthened in case we enter into a serious time, and has been battered during the Pandemic. The infections have gone up. We have more infections every day than we did the previous day.
We need to make sure that we increase our capacity by 10 times.
How much do you do now?
The kind of resources we have are a tiny drop in the ocean as compared to other countries. The U.K. can sequence more than 500 times the sequence we can generate in a day.
The Pathogen Genomics Initiative and the Africa CDC were formed by African scientists. We use our resources to make sure that countries are trained. The investment in HIV made us where we are. It was easy to come from HIV.
The plan we came up with was very intentional. This is the reason why we were able to catch it. It's not luck. We were able to implement a level of small, random, and representative of the entire country.
The omicron variant could have been developed in a patient who was immune-suppressed. Do you agree? If there is a chance that it could be true, what does that tell us about the failure to diagnose and treat people with illnesses like HIV?
It's a hypothesis. A study in South Africa recognized that an individual with HIV had a number of [COVID]mutations. That is supporting the hypothesis around immune-compromised individuals.
One of the things that has been great about Botswana is that they've been able to take care of the population. Less than 5% of people living with HIV do not know their status, so you are trying to reach the last mile.
If we prioritize in those areas, we can make people less likely to die from diseases by giving them vaccinations.
What do you think about the distribution of vaccines?
You will be shocked by the statistics. Look at the number of people in Guinea. Libya had a rate of 11%. The rate of growth in the country was 2.7%. Less than 10% is the percentage in Kenya. You're talking about a lot of people not beingvaccinated.
In a global village, how do we explain to people in other countries that it's important for an American to have a vaccine? Why does it matter? One story that tells us that it matters is the story of variant and the movement of variant.
What is the story to tell?
A large part of the world is less than 20% vaccine-vaccinated. If we increase the number of vaccinations in those countries, we will reduce the chances of the virus spreading and generating more mutants.
I want to know where you think we will be one year from now.
I think we can win it together if we do our best. If we try and do our own corners and not take care of what's happening in other countries, we'll have another two, three years of this epidemic.
The editor of What We Didn't Expect: Personal Stories About Premature Birth is a journalist by the name of Melody Schreiber.
