Abuja — South African scientists are some of the best in the world at the genetic sequencing of viruses. They demonstrated this expertise last week when they alerted the global community to a new Covid-19 variant B.1.1.529 - called Omicron - which the World Health Organization rapidly classified a 'variant of concern", thanks to the immediate data sharing by African scientists.
International responses to this feat of scientific discovery is shocking but unsurprising. Travelers from eight southern African countries - South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Malawi) - suddenly were banned suddenly from traveling to the European Union, United Kingdom, United States of America, Israel, and a mounting list of others. Indonesia added Nigeria to its travel ban list.
Hasty Omicron travel bans seem to assume that Africans - rather than nationals of the countries imposing bans - are the primary threat.
Paradoxically, returning nationals or permanent residents of those countries are not routinely barred - as though only other travelers could be Omicron transmitters.
The banning of African travelers is a myopic reaction, which is not based on sound scientific evidence and will not stop the spread of the virus. Where the Omicron variant emerged is not known and may never be. What we do know is that the diligence and expertise of southern African scientists led to its early identification and that their immediate sharing of the data has given all countries the soonest possible start on controlling it.
All this is more evidence of the Covid-19 inequity perpetrated by wealthier nations since 2020. A brief history of that record is instructive.
In 2020, there was widespread hoarding of Covid-19 personal protective equipment. Richer nations used their financial muscle to outbid poorer nations from buying personal protective equipment for their health workers.
In both 2020 and 2021, Covid-19 vaccine distribution was restricted. The United Kingdom and Canada reserved enough vaccine doses to vaccinate between three and five times their number of citizen respectively. Such hoarding by many countries led to wastage. More than million doses were discarded in Canada - doses that could have vaccinated more South Africans, reducing the chances of new variants emerging.
Pharmaceutical companies continue to refuse to share with low- and middle-income countries the formula for manufacturing Covid vaccines. They oppose intellectual property waivers that would allow vaccine production to be decentralized.
Early this year, the European Union, through its 'Green Pass', as well as the United Kingdom, refused to accept evidence of Covid-19 vaccines administered in low- and middle-income countries. How is it plausible that these countries would refuse to recognise the same vaccines that they themselves donated to poorer nations? That policy has contributed to suspicion about the safety of the vaccines and to the rise of vaccine hesitancy in the global south.
Countries with much higher Covid case loads are banning South African travelers.
Another layer of inequity is that South African travelers are being banned by countries with significantly higher numbers of Covid-19 cases. Last week, for example, South Africa was reporting an average of less than 10 new cases per 100,000 population daily. In contrast, the UK, European Union, and U.S. were reporting more than 60, 50, and 20 cases per 100,000 people respectively. If Omicron is more transmissible, there may be higher numbers of cases than reported across Europe, due to less vigilant sequencing of Covid patients' viruses.
Aviation traffic data further illustrates the ineffectiveness of selective travel bans. Every day, more than 100,000 flights move from one country to another. FlightRadar24 shows a complicated maze of aircraft traffic in the sky every second. According to the U.S. T he U.S. Centers for Disease Control notes that, " In the fight against infectious diseases, no nation can stand alone." Within 36 hours, someone from a remote rural area can carry Covid to any major world city.
It is increasingly clear that aircraft with Omicron-infected passengers took off and landed in different countries before the genomic sequencing by southern African scientists. But flights from the European Union and UK been not banned. United States citizens and others can travel back and forth, carrying variants with them.
The science on how to avoid an infinite pandemic is clear.
The hasty ban on travel from African countries is no solution. Virus mutations and new variants can be expected to arise more frequently where fewer people are vaccinated. To slow the process, vaccine inequity and vaccine hesitancy both must be addressed - in every country.
First: doses of vaccines should be widely available and accessible across high- and low-income countries. This requires vaccine production in low-income countries.
Second: scientists need to work with trusted community leaders to disseminate information in a way that responds to local fears, needs and context.
Third: the encouragement of non-pharmaceutical measures to prevent infection remains necessary. The pandemic's duration has led to fatigue with basic public health measures such as masks and avoiding crowds, but they must be maintained.
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Forth: effective testing of international travelers, quarantine, treatment, and tracing of contacts must remain a mainstay of infectious disease control.
A pandemic is global. It cannot end in some areas without ending everywhere. The discovery of the Omicron variant is a wake-up call for renewed global solidarity. Unless the world works together to tackle vaccine inequity, apathy, and hesitancy, Omicron will be another example in an unending list of variants and an infinite pandemic.
Dr. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor is the Senior Vice President for Africa at Human Health Education and Research Foundation. He is a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University and an Innovation Fellow at PandemicTech. You can follow him on Twitter @ekemma. Dr. Adaeze Oreh is a Consultant Family Physician, Country Director of Planning, Research and Statistics for Nigeria's National Blood Service Commission and Senior Health Policy Advisor with Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health. She is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians, the Aspen Institute, Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Royal Society of Public Health.
