Joe Biden has announced a new travel ban to eight African countries citing fear of a newly discovered variant of the Coronavirus. Politico. The restrictions will begin on Monday and will not include US citizens. The countries affected include South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini (Swaziland), Mozambique and Malawi. The new variant has been named Omicron and it is feared to be more infectious than the Delta variant, which currently accounts for 99% of all cases. Biden urged vaccinations even though the new variant is reported to be vaccine resistant. Fears of the new variant caused major economic effects, with stock markets taking a major hit.
My Comment:
I won't spend too much time talking about the new variant, Omicron, as I covered that yesterday. In short, I find the panic about the new virus to be overstated to say the least, with my only fear from it being original antigenic sin. The Omicron variant is more contagious and vaccine resistant but I haven't heard a thing about it being more lethal or even as lethal as the Delta variant. Indeed, I suspect that like most viruses, Omicron will be less deadly that previous strains as that is usually how viruses evolve.
This post will instead mostly be about Joe Biden. First of all, he is a massive hypocrite here. To the point where it is actually disgusting. Regardless of the prudence of this measure, Biden joined the chorus of Democratic voices that blasted President Trump for making a similar decision against China. Well, if Trump was racist for doing that to China isn't Biden twice as bad for doing it to Africa? Aren't blacks higher in the progressive stack than Chinese (not that all South Africans are black, many are White or Indian)?
Was it the right call? I honestly don't think it matters either way. The fact is that the variant has already spread to other countries. That means the cat is out of the bag, if the virus really is that contagious than it is almost certainly here already. Even if it isn't the travel ban will probably just delay things.
And it's not like there is any certainty on this variant of the virus. It could be that slowing it down is the exact wrong thing to do. It's not like when Trump did his ban, back then there was a hope that we would be able to contain the virus entirely. That's not what is happening now, at worst this new variant will replace Delta as the dominant strain. If the virus is less lethal that could very well be a good thing. I will say that the information isn't there so slowing the virus down a bit buy putting in a travel ban might be a good step, but I do think there is potential for blowback here. It's a tough call.
What isn't a tough call is the idea that vaccination is going to be the way to deal with the Omicron variant. Biden sounds like a fool here. We don't know much about Omicron but the reason everyone is panicking about it is because the vaccines aren't effective against it. Given that my main criticism against the current "vaccinate at all costs" strategy is that the current vaccines are based on the original strain and not Delta, that seems to be a fools errand at best. Unless we come up with a new and better vaccine or update the old ones, vaccination won't stop Omicron any better than it did Delta, and that includes boosters.
Again though, the whole issue may be moot. Omicron might be the next big thing or it could be a joke. It could evade the vaccine or it could fail to compete with Delta and just be another forgotten variant (remember Beta? Remember Mu? No, of course not). It's too early to tell.
But what I do know is that Biden and the media are not doing anyone any favors by inciting a panic. The stock markets took a major hit today and it's pretty much their faults. People wanted good news and the doomsaying is not helping things. Like I said, Omicron might be a positive if it takes over, but Biden is going full apocalypses with his statements and it's not helping a damn thing.
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