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In reality, journey bans don’t remedy the issue—they simply postpone it, says Raghib Ali, an epidemiologist on the College of Cambridge, UK. Higher testing is a much more efficient measure. “We want a balanced and proportional response. Meaning no journey bans, however testing and quarantine for folks coming from international locations the place omicron is circulating,” says Ali. The journey bans might have one other damaging knock-on impact: slicing South Africa off from the scientific provides it must do the genomic surveillance that would elucidate the impression of omicron in real-world settings. Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician on the College of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, advised Nature: “By subsequent week, if nothing adjustments, we’ll run out of sequencing reagents.” The larger concern is that the therapy of southern African international locations will lead different international locations to conclude that when you detect a brand new variant, it’s greatest to maintain it to your self. “They see others getting penalized for recognizing a brand new variant, and which may put them off sharing the info we want. That’s not a theoretical risk; it’s very actual,” says Ali. Omicron gained’t be the final variant of concern. When the following one hits, we want international locations to share what they know as quickly as potential. Blanket journey bans put that openness in peril. “Putting in journey bans that concentrate on Africa assaults world solidarity,” stated Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, in an announcement final week.
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