It would seem that the world is closing the door on the ‘Dark Continent ‘ because of worries about a virus they know little about….
More countries ARE closing out Africa while new cases of the Omicron virus are ALREADY popping up around the world….
The US National Institutes of Health Director see’s early info on the virus showing mild reactions by younger Africans….It does have a big amount of mutations…American health expert’s believe that current vaccine types should be effective against this covid variant and caution people to NOT get too worried which is what the media reports seem to pushing people to do….
WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, called on countries to follow science and international health regulations in order to avoid using travel restrictions.
“Travel restrictions may play a role in slightly reducing the spread of Covid-19 but place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” Moeti said in a statement. “If restrictions are implemented, they should not be unnecessarily invasive or intrusive, and should be scientifically based, according to the International Health Regulations, which is a legally binding instrument of international law recognized by over 190 nations.”…
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Cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in countries on opposite sides of the world Sunday and many governments rushed to close their borders even as scientists cautioned that it’s not clear if the new variant is more alarming than other versions of the virus.
While investigations continue into the Omicron variant, WHO recommends that all countries “take a risk-based and scientific approach and put in place measures which can limit its possible spread.”….
NIH Director Francis Collins said Sunday that it is likely to be two to three weeks before there will be key answers about the new Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus.
Speaking to host Trace Gallagher on “Fox News Sunday,” Collins said there are many unknowns at this point, including the severity of Omicron, how contagious it is and how effective current vaccines and treatments will be against this variant, which has surfaced in Africa in recent days and which, Collins noted, seems to be spreading quickly….
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Gallagher noted that early infections in Africa seemed to be mild, but Collins said it was too early to know if that would prove to be the case….
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President Biden will provide an update on his administration’s response to the new COVID-19 omicron variant on Monday, according to the White House, after Dr. Anthony Fauci said it will take roughly two weeks to gather more information on the new strain.
Biden met with Fauci and members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team on Sunday, two days after the World Health Organization (WHO) held an emergency meeting to discuss the new COVID-19 strain, which it labeled a variant of concern….
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National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said on “Fox News Sunday” that while data on omicron is limited, COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. have thus far been shown to be effective against all other variants of concern, including delta, giving reason to believe they will also protect against the new strain.
“Given that history, we expect that most likely the current vaccines will be sufficient to provide protection. And especially the boosters will give that additional layer of protection because there’s something about the booster that causes your immune system to really expand its capacity against all kinds of different spike proteins, even ones it hasn’t seen before,” said Collins….