A World Health Organization spokeswoman condemned travel bans announced for South Africa in response to the new Omicron variant. They also emphasized that there isn’t enough data to know if the variant poses a major public health threat.
Kate Bolduan spoke to Dr. Margaret Harris on CNN Monday morning and began by referring to the WHO’s warning that the Omicron variant of Covid has a “very high” risk of global spread. This comes after the U.S. enacted plans for restricting travel to Africa in light of Omicron outbreaks in multiple countries.
Harris began by explaining that the WHO’s assessment actually refers to the broader possibility of a Covid outbreak, “so it sounds a bit more frightening than it really is.” In terms of how much concern there should be about Omicron, Harris acknowledged the coronavirus’ ongoing mutation, but she repeatedly made the point that “we don’t have nearly enough answers” about how much damage it can do.
We don’t have enough information about whether it’s more transmissible, whether it’s going to cause more severe disease, and critically, is it able to escape the effects of the vaccine? So does it have what we call ‘immune escape,’ the ability to evade the immunity we create by having vaccines.
As America’s travel bans go into effect, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been warning that the Omicron variant
Harris continued her conversation with Bolduan by praising South Africa for quickly releasing the Omicron data they’ve collected so far. This led Bolduan to note that South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has called the travel bans “unjustified” and damaging to the country’s national economy.
Asked if she agrees with Ramaphosa’s premise that South Africa is being “punished” for being upfront about Omicron, Harris argued that “South Africa should get a gold medal for the quality of its science and the quality of its transparency.” She also warned that the international stigma against South Africa could make other countries less inclined to be honest with the world about other problems that might arise in the future.
We have not seen nearly enough of that: transparency particularly. Indeed, to then make South Africa feel that doing all the right things leads to a very bad outcome is not good, not just bad for South Africa, it’s bad for the world.
Watch above, via CNN.