UN slams countries wrongly retaliating against Africa for Omicron

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United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres commended today the government and science and health community of South Africa, “for acting early to identify the emergence of a new COVID‑19 variant”.

“Immorally low level of vaccinations available in Africa”

“I am now deeply concerned about the isolation of southern African countries due to new COVID‑19 travel restrictions.  As I and others have long warned, low vaccine rates are a breeding ground for variants.  The people of Africa cannot be blamed for the immorally low level of vaccinations available in Africa — and they should not be penalized for identifying and sharing crucial science and health information with the world,” said the UN Secretary-General.

“I appeal to all Governments to consider repeated testing for travelers, together with other appropriate and truly effective measures, with the objective of avoiding the risk of transmission so as to allow for travel and economic engagement,” Mr. Guterres added.

Dozens of medical professionals have told FPM.news they do not believe that travel restrictions are effective and that this political move was led by Donald Trump in early 2020 causing American allies and their allies to follow suit. But as Dr. Peter Hotez, a dean at Baylor College of Medicine, said on Sunday, “travel bans have not been very effective” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Southern Africa Should Not be Penalized for Sharing Crucial Information on New COVID-19 Variant.

UN secretary General Deeply Concerned about New Travel Restrictions, then (in this 2012 photo) UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres in 2012, at a Press Conference in Geneva, and now UN Secretary-General Guterres, says Southern Africa Should Not be Penalized for Sharing Crucial Information on New COVID-19 Variant.  U.S. Mission Photo by Eric Bridiers. Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine

The UN secretary General at a global conference is seeking a Universal Pandemic Treaty that prevents Vaccine Hording which has destroyed fair distribution of vaccines.

“No country can vaccinate its way out of the pandemic alone. The longer vaccine inequity persists, the more opportunity this virus has to spread and evolve in ways we cannot predict nor prevent. We are all in this together,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization.

“Omicron demonstrates just why the world needs a new accord on pandemics: our current system disincentives countries from alerting others to threats that will inevitably land on their shores”, said the WHO Director General.

World Health Organization Director General, Dr. Tedros on 5 February File Photo courtesy WHO. World Health Organization Director General, Dr. Tedros on 5 February 2021. Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine

Joe Phaahla, Health Minister of South Africa is demanding the isolation of south African nations cease immediately.

“We find these travel bans discriminatory in light of the fact that the same travel bans have not been imposed on other countries where this variant has been found,” Joe Phaahla told the World Health Organization in a speech.

Biostatisticians are not convinced that African nations spawned the new variant “but if that is the case the shame is on the rich nations hording Vaccines to such an extent that millions have expired and gone to the trash” instead of African arms.

“We do not know that Africa is even the source of this variant. I have seen strange data emerging for around six weeks in Europe and in regions of the United States. The Omicron mutations are not too different from the Mu variant and I strongly suggest that there are at least a dozen countries that have a strong measure of this new variant in their recent case counts. Bullying the southern African nations is beyond unfair, it is reprehensible, because if the suggestion is that these nations are responsible for the new variant occurring, countries like America, Canada, and Britain which have horded, then trashed millions of expired COVID-19 vaccine jabs, are to blame. Those jabs should have gone into African arms before they expired,” suggested Dr. Fred Harris of the Civil Society Partners against COVID-19.