[imagesource: Dwayne Senior / Bloomberg via Getty Images]

Unfortunately, December’s buzzword is Omicron.

It’s the variant that has shut down global travel and caused panic around the world.

Sorry, when I say shut down global travel I mean shut down travel to and from southern African countries while the rest of the world continues on its merry way.

This is despite the fact that the variant has now been detected right around the world, due in large part to the expertise and diligence of South Africa’s scientific community and its ability to detect new mutations of COVID-19.

Boris Johnson and the UK were first out the blocks. The UK has since talked about lifting the travel ban, as has the US.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said the US is “reviewing its travel ban on South Africa and other African countries daily”.

More from Politico:

[The US] hopes to lift it “within a reasonable amount of time” even as the Omicron variant spreads through the U.S…

“When the ban was put on, it was put to give us time to figure out just what is going on. Now, as you mentioned, as we‘re getting more and more information about cases in our own country and worldwide, we are looking at that very carefully on a daily basis,” Fauci said…

“Thus far, though it’s too early to really make any definitive statements about it, thus far, it does not look like there’s a great degree of severity to it,” Fauci said, tempering the remarks by saying it’s too soon to make determinations about Omicron.

That echoes what most with firsthand experience of patients with the Omicron variant have said.

We will still need a little time before we can talk about the Omicron variant and its effects in definitive terms.

Writing for a paper published on The Lancet, one of the world’s oldest and best-known general medical journals, a number of South African scientists have called on the UK and other countries to reverse their travel bans on southern African countries.

The article, titled ‘The political theatre of the UK’s travel ban on South Africa’, is authored by Marc Mendelson, Francois Venter, Mosa Moshabela, Glenda Gray, Lucille Blumberg, Tulio de Oliveira, and Shabir A Madhi.

Some excerpts from that article:

By their nature, SARS-CoV-2 variants are several steps ahead of the international travel curve. Once community transmission of an airborne virus is occurring, travel restrictions have little effect before travel bans can be imposed a variant identified in country A has most likely already spread to country B and, thereafter, globally…

In November, 2021, South African scientists rapidly and transparently shared the findings of mutation and genomic sequences of the latest SARS-CoV-2 variant. Rather than applaud their generosity and openness, travel bans have had the opposite effect and could be damaging to the health response, economy, and freedom of movement.

This situation puts countries such as South Africa in a difficult position, and potentially threatens future willingness to share information and weakens global solidarity. Once again, South Africa and other southern African countries have been stigmatised and will pay a heavy economic and societal price for sharing information.

For an example of what they mean when they say stigmatised consider some of the international media coverage of the Omicron variant:

This is what racism looks like.

h/t @gaby_arguedas pic.twitter.com/40tmE3ttaR

— Sridhar Venkatapuram MSc MPhil PhD FRSA (Hon)FFPH (@sridhartweet) December 4, 2021

On the left is Germany newspaper @rheinpfalz with a headline “The Virus from Africa is with us.”

On the right is a Spanish newspaper @TribunaAlbacete with a cartoon saying black South Africans are coming to Europe on a boat with Omicron Covid-19 variant.

This is racism in 2021! pic.twitter.com/69cFZrfkW8

— Hopewell Chin’ono (@daddyhope) December 5, 2021

Dress that up however you like. It’s racism.

Back to The Lancet:

We call on the UK and other governments to reverse their damaging travel bans and follow the advice of WHO and the International Health Regulations in keeping international borders open…

Countless families in many countries have once again had their plans dashed by the decisions of politicians who want to be seen to be doing something rather than focusing on what they should be doing—meaningfully supporting global COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Yeah, about those global vaccination efforts.

Here’s a succinct and amusing summary of how vaccine hoarding and an international ‘me first at all costs attitude’ has played out during the course of the pandemic:

Ok this guy just won tiktok #VaccineApartheid pic.twitter.com/ShzYSokat0

— Stephan Heunis (@fmrwhy) December 4, 2021

One of the authors of that article on The Lancet, Tulio de Oliveira, has also been very vocal on Twitter.

This thread is worth a read:

If the world keeps punishing Africa for the discovery of #Omicron and ‘Global Health Scientists’ keep taking the data, who will share early data again? Just saying thanks and keep hoarding of vaccine, antiviral, diagnostics, PPEs, funding, etc – Thread on unfair practices 1/4

— Tulio de Oliveira (@Tuliodna) December 6, 2021

It’s not just southern African scientists who are rubbishing the idea of travel bans.

In total, more than 50 countries have some form of travel restrictions in place to try and curb the spread of the Omicron variant.

Researchers who spoke with Nature say that may prove more of a hindrance than a help:

Scientists in some of the affected countries also say that travel bans risk slowing down urgent research on Omicron, by limiting the arrival of imported lab supplies.

“I’m not that optimistic that the way in which these measures are being rolled out right now will have an impact,” says Karen Grépin, a health economist at the University of Hong Kong, who studies border-control measures.

“It’s too late. The variant is circulating globally,” agrees Kelley Lee, who studies global health at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada.

A special shout-out to Canada for no longer accepting PCR tests from select African countries.

The logical fallacy here is clear:

So Canada won’t accept PCR tests from South Africa and Botswana, yet will believe our scientists when they identify a new variant.

Am I understanding correctly?

— Will Nicholson (@bewilldered) December 5, 2021

Canada will no longer accept PCR tests from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, eSwatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria and Egypt. You must have a test result from a third country, presumablyin transit. Unbelievable!😤 https://t.co/RmlxvHozX0

— Mosa Moshabela (@MoshabelaMosa) December 4, 2021

The World Health Organisation (WHO) published guidance last week that recommended against travel bans to control viral spread:

The advice includes specific recommendations for measures that would be useful, including quarantining new arrivals, and testing travellers for SARS-CoV-2 before and after they make their journeys.

The WHO guidance represents a clear shift in researchers’ understanding of the effectiveness of travel restrictions over the course of the pandemic.

Far easier to panic and punish South Africa and surrounding countries than to come up with a proper, informed response to the spread of the Omicron variant.

Even if international travel restrictions were to be lifted tomorrow the damage is done. Flights and accommodation have been cancelled, and we’re looking at another nail in the coffin for our travel and hospitality industries.

[sources:politico&lancet&nature]