Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, joined Cheddar to discuss the nations joining a travel ban against several African nations after South Africa discovered the appearance of the Omicron variant of COVID- 19 had currently reported worrying health experts. Adalja also added his own voice to the World Health Organization’s objection to the travel ban at the time. “Basically, when you get a travel ban, you’re wasting a lot of resources in implementing the travel ban, you give people a false sense of security when the virus is probably already out of the travel ban area, and then you punish countries like the south Africa. “He noted that South Africa should be praised for its transparency and not punished with restrictions, an act which he believes will create a deterrent effect on other nations that freely exchange data.
