- Countries across the world are taking dramatic steps
to contain the spread of the new COVID-19 strain, Omicron.
- The prohibition of travel is not informed by science,
nor will it be effective
in preventing the spread of this variant.
- These travel bans are Band-Aids,
they don't really help very much.
What you really have to do is ramp-up vaccination.
- Many countries have closed their borders
to several southern African countries
where the variant was first reported.
- South Africa and Botswana should be thanked for detecting,
sequencing, and reporting this variant, not penalized.
- But the travel bans work. - Travel bans can work
if an infectious disease is not highly infectious.
- Several countries have announced that they would ban
or require quarantines for flights or travelers
coming from countries in southern Africa --
a similar approach that was taken at the beginning
of the pandemic, when many public health experts
said the moves slow the spread of the virus.
- The virus was first reported by South Africa,
there's no guarantee that it emerged there.
Uh, it's likely emerged in -- in some other country.
We don't know if it emerged in that region,
but it was identified in South Africa first.
- But now they argue it's too late to stop Omicron.
- If you're a country like Israel,
where you have sort of one major airport, uh,
and you're a relatively small country, uh,
and you can sort of reliably restrict all travel;
if you're an island like New Zealand, et cetera,
where they restricted all travel,
uh, initially, and -- and so forth -- so --
so that -- that's a different scenario.
- For countries with larger borders
or considered travel hubs,
imposing travel restrictions may not be as effective.
- The ban doesn't cover many many and most countries
where, uh, the virus has already been identified
and where the travel, um,
is more extensive between those countries and the US.
There's more travel between the UK and Belgium
and other parts of Europe,
uh, than southern Africa, than Eswatini and Botswana.
- Experts agree that access to vaccines around the world
would help fight the emergence of new variants,
yet Doctor Omer says the US and the European Union's
promise to donate millions of vaccines has been underwhelming.
- The effectiveness of the domestic program
depends on how good the international response is.
- Doctor Omer says vaccine donations
are just part of a solution.
He adds that transferring mRNA technology to other countries
would speed the vaccination effort --
something Moderna and Pfizer refuse to share,
citing intellectual property.