“Finding goats”: South Africa denounces “unjustified” travel bans | Coronavirus pandemic News

“Unjustified”, “draconian” and “counterproductive” – these are just a few words used by the South African Health Minister when he criticized countries around the world who decided to reduce travel from the country and its neighbors in an attempt to sustain expansion. a new variant of coronavirus.

Tension – The World Health Organization (WHO) called it a “variant of concern” on Friday, after a letter from the Greek alphabet was also named Omicron, which has been blamed for the rise of new infections in South Africa.

Omicron has also been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel.

“We believe some of the reactions have been unjustified,” Health Minister Joe Phaahla told reporters, accusing the leaders of “finding goats to deal with the problem around the world”.

‘Incorrect view’

Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United States joined forces with the United Kingdom on Friday to reduce flights to southern Africa.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, proposed a complete suspension of flights to the region, until the new variant said it had a “clear understanding of the risk”.

However, the WHO on Friday called for no restrictions on travel at this stage. The United Nations Health Agency warned that it may take several weeks to find out if the newly discovered mutations make the virus more virulent or transmissible.

Phaala said the bans were a “wrong approach”: it is misguided and goes against WHO rules and advice.

The cuts have caused waves in South Africa’s tourism industry, which is desperately seeking revenue from visitors in the rich northern hemisphere.

At Johannesburg International Airport, there was frustration on Friday morning as dozens of people tried to return to the UK.

“It’s bullshit, unjustified, sudden and not good for South African tourism,” said one traveler of the ban.

Phaala, meanwhile, compared daily infections in South Africa and several European countries, saying it was ironic that “some of the countries now reacting in this draconian way” have more than 50,000 infection rates a day.

It contrasts with South Africa, which reported nearly 3,000 cases a day on Friday, compared to 300 cases a day about two weeks ago.

“This kind of reaction is knee-jerk and panic,” he said, noting that such responses could lead the country to shy away from reporting new findings.

“It’s a very opposite reaction, because what it says is that if you have the ability to do genomic sequencing and you have a high level of efficiency … those abilities need to be pushed underground,” Phaahla said. He argued that making people aware of his findings would “feel like a danger”.

‘Vaccine apartheid’

Tulio de Oliveira, the chief virologist who announced the discovery of the variant, condemned the “radical decision” to suspend flights out of the region.

“Sometimes they are punished for being transparent and doing things very quickly,” he said at the same press conference.

He said he did not believe travel bans were effective, citing the US, the first country to impose a travel ban on China at the start of the pandemic, but ended up with the highest number of infections.

“So scientifically [does] it doesn’t make much sense. Often people make decisions based on emotions, not rationality, ”he said.

Scientists have also said that attention should be paid to getting more people vaccinated in places where they have struggled to get enough shots.

“That’s why we talked about the risk of vaccine apartheid. This virus can evolve if it is not properly vaccinated. It is unfortunate that this is needed to make the account known, ”Richard Lessells, a South African-based infectious disease expert who is detecting the variants, told Reuters.