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Raghib Ali, an epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge in England, says travel bans don’t actually solve the problem, they just delay it. Better testing is a much more effective measure.
We need a balanced and proportionate response. This means no travel ban, but testing and quarantine for people coming from countries where the omicron is in circulation,” says Ali.
Travel bans can have another negative knock-on effect: hacking south africa One of the scientific materials needed to do genomic surveillance to study the impact of Omicron in real-world environments. Tulio de Oliveira, bioinformatics expert at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa told nature: “By next week, if nothing changes, we will run out of sequencing reagents.”
The bigger fear is that the lesson other countries will learn from the treatment of South African countries is that if you spot a new variant, it’s best to keep it to yourself.
“They see others being penalized for detecting a new variable, and this may prevent them from sharing the data we need. It’s not a theoretical possibility, it’s very real,” says Ali.
The Omicron won’t be the last option to worry about. When the next one hits, we need countries to share what they know as soon as possible. Blanket travel bans jeopardize this openness.
“Imposing travel bans targeting Africa is an attack on global solidarity,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said last week.
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