Biden’s South Africa journey ban gained’t cease omicron

The Biden Administration Travel ban on eight countries in southern Africa that are unlikely to do much to fend off Omicron as of Monday, a new, fast-spreading variant of Covid-19 that was discovered in the region last week and was its presence confirmed in the US on Wednesday.

Travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi are now banned from entering the United States, and American citizens and permanent residents of these countries must present a negative coronavirus test prior to travel. The first confirmed Omicron case in the US came just three days after the ban was implemented; a reminder of how difficult it is to prevent new variants from crossing the border. Dozens of other countries have taken similar measures to restrict travel from African countries, in addition to quarantine and post-arrival testing requirements for their own returning citizens.

President Joe Biden told reporters Monday that he was operating on very little information in issuing the ban that was intended to buy his administrative time to evaluate how to prepare for the inevitable arrival of Omicron in the US. It now appears that US officials have timed out. Scientists are still investigating whether Omicron is more transmissible or more lethal than current variants. But as part of efforts to stop Omicron, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did strengthened his leadership Encourage all adults in the United States to receive a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

“[W]We know travel restrictions can slow the spread – they can’t prevent it. We will have to face this new threat, ”Biden tweeted on Monday.

At best, the ban would have delayed omicron’s arrival by a week or two. But it didn’t come with strict quarantine and testing requirements for all travelers; Without such measures, the previous travel bans in connection with the coronavirus have only led to delays. These measures were largely absent from the U.S. pandemic response, but are reportedly being considering. Depending on how widespread the new variant has spread in the USA, even the implementation of stricter requirements could do little to stop infections.

“[Bans] have generally proven to be quite ineffective with the more infectious varieties like Delta, and so will likely only slow – not prevent – the spread of omicrons, “said Dr. Chris Beyrer, epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

This latest ban therefore has limited upside potential. It doesn’t just punish South Africa and Botswana for that alert quickly the international community at omicron, but also other countries in the region that are under unequal distribution of vaccines worldwide.

And the ban may be too narrow – and implemented too late – to delay the spread of Omicron in the US. There could be more confirmed cases in the United States. And the Variant spread across Europe At least a few days before it was discovered in South Africa. European travelers were then allowed to enter the USA – and have been since Wednesday.

Travel bans are unlikely to keep Omicron away

Researchers have found that travel bans, if implemented correctly and at the right time, can temporarily slow the spread of Covid-19. But as Wednesday’s confirmed Omicron case shows, they can’t stop him entirely.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last year found that the travel bans imposed by the Trump administration in early 2020 did not come soon enough to prevent the coronavirus from arriving in the US.

Another spring 2020 study in the journal science, noted that travel restrictions in China, imposed immediately after the virus was identified in Wuhan, only slowed its internal spread by about three to five days. The study also states that international travel restrictions helped contain the virus’ worldwide spread by mid-February, but that early detection, hand washing, self-isolation and household quarantine were more effective containment measures.

It now appears that the recent travel ban from southern Africa was not implemented early enough to completely delay omicron’s arrival in the US. How far Omicron has spread in the US remains to be seen. But the ban may have been too tight to really limit the effects of the new variant.

In order for travel bans to be a useful instrument for slowing down the spread of Covid-19, a country must basically do everything in its power: close borders, require tests before a flight, enforce mandatory quarantine on arrival for all travelers (including their own citizens) ) and test again five to seven days later, said Dr. David Hamer, Professor of Global Health at Boston University School of Medicine.

“But if it’s not done very effectively, it’s likely a waste of time,” he added. And against highly transmittable coronavirus variants such as Delta and possibly omicron, it’s even less effective.

At the moment, travel restrictions in the USA are anything but tight. International travelers just have to have a negative Covid-19 test done within three days of their flight if they are fully vaccinated, or within one day if they are not fully vaccinated. (The US is reportedly considering requiring all international travelers regardless of vaccination status to take the test within a day of the trip to curb the spread of Omicron.)

Passengers walk from a Covid-19 test tent at OR Tambo International Airport near Johannesburg, South Africa on Monday. Jerome Delay / AP

In addition, Omicron has already been proven in 23 countries, including some that are not covered by the ban, so travelers from those countries can still spread it. We know now it was in europe before South Africa discovered and reported its existence. And US citizens and permanent residents are still allowed to travel from prohibited countries; Although they will need to be tested on their return to the US, it is possible that they will be in the incubation period if they are tested. If so, your infection wouldn’t show up on a coronavirus test.

The ban therefore leaves a lot of potential for Omicron’s proliferation in the US, if it has not already done so. It is possible that scientists have not yet discovered the variant due to the limited but rapidly expanding CDC Monitoring functions. That could mean the ban was useless from the start. And this insecure protection is associated with high costs for the countries concerned.

The travel ban penalizes the destination countries

South African officials have worked with the Foreign Ministry to reprimand the international community’s rush to ban travel from their country and others in Africa asserting that it was “similar to punishing South Africa for its advanced genome sequencing and ability to identify new variants more quickly”.

There are concerns that the US decision to impose a travel ban on South Africa could have a dissuasive effect on other countries potentially identifying new coronavirus variants. If the world constantly alienates such countries, “it prevents countries from warning others of threats that inevitably end up on their shores,” said Tedros Adhanom, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), in an address to the World Health Assembly on Monday.

“South Africa and Botswana should be thanked for discovering, sequencing and reporting this variant without receiving any punishment,” he added.

However, it is not clear how strong this deterrent effect could be. After the travel ban from southern Africa came into force, the Netherlands still signed up announce this omicron circulated within its limits earlier than previously known. But the countries have not yet banned Dutch travelers.

Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown School of Public Health, has also warned that any benefits of travel bans must be weighed against the type of message they send to the international community:

The signal to the next country is on

When you identify a variant and share it with the global community

You will be punished with a travel ban

I am not for or against travel bans

They can be useful in certain cases

But we should know that it is a weak tool to fight a global pandemic

– Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) November 26, 2021

The ban punishes countries that, through no fault of their own, did not have the means to obtain a comprehensive vaccination. Some, like South Africa, may not have the infrastructure to distribute the vaccines quickly or, in some cases, store them at the required ultra-cold temperatures, forcing them to Reject shipments of additional doses. And like the US and several European countries, they too are struggling to overcome the reluctance to vaccinate.

Have rich countries like the US hoarded vaccines In an effort to vaccinate and provide boosters to large parts of their population. According to the WHO, countries that represent the 20 largest economies in the world have received more than 80 percent of the global vaccine supply. In comparison, less than 1 percent of all vaccines have gone to low-income countries, many of which are in Africa.

Wealthy countries may argue that they have the right to protect their own, but that also requires the rest of the world to be vaccinated. If these inequalities are not addressed, new varieties can continue to emerge in countries where Covid-19 has been allowed to spread without widespread vaccination, potentially undermining the effectiveness of vaccines for everyone.

“We have been saying for a year now that equality of opportunity in vaccines is not just a question of justice or ethics, but also a science,” Beyrer said. “You can’t leave billions of people unprotected and expect no variants to appear.”

Update, December 1st, 2:20 p.m .: This story has been updated to reflect the news that the first case of a variant of Omicron was discovered in the United States.