Key Points
- The omicron variant is currently in 46 countries and expected in the U.S..
- Biden has restricted travel from some African countries and suggests indoor masking.
- The founder of the omicron variant says symptoms are mild and there’s no reason to panic.
The omicron variant is here. Does it matter? That depends on who you ask.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul thinks the variant is a serious threat. Despite having any reason for concern, Hochul has declared a state of emergency, putting a halt on all elective surgeries in anticipation of a massive COVID patient surge.
President Biden has restricted travel to eight African countries: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. He’s also calling for masking indoors. “Sooner or later we are going to see cases of this new variant…Please wear your mask when you’re indoors, in public settings around other people.”
Some pretty extreme reactions, there. Ignoring for a moment that Biden attacked Trump’s travel bans as a “disgrace,” “xenophobic” and an example of “fear-mongering,” let’s instead focus on the fact that the doctor that discovered the omicron variant says it’s nothing to worry about.
“The hype that’s been created currently out there in the media and worldwide doesn’t correlate with the clinical picture,” says Dr. Angelique Coetzee, National Chair of the South African Medical Association and discoverer of the new variant. “And it doesn’t warrant to just cut us off from any traveling, and bans South Africa as if we are the villains in the whole process — should not be like that.”
“There’s no reason for panicking, as we don’t see severely ill patients.”
Huh. That may be important for more people to know. At this moment, CNN’s front page has more than 10 Omicron news stories; MSNBC has 3, including one accusing Republicans of peddling Omicron conspiracy theories; ABC News has a few headlines on the variant, as well.
None of these articles feature Dr. Coetzee or her team’s findings on the “mild” variant. There are articles on booster shots; a list of countries where the variant has been found; and there’s plenty of web page real estate for the latest brain droppings from Anthony Fauci.
But nothing from the founders of the omicron variant.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is saying, “Omicron has an unprecedented number of spike mutations, some of which are concerning for their potential impact on the trajectory of the pandemic,” the WHO said.
“The overall global risk …is assessed as very high.”
I thought this was the administration of “follow the science.” It seems more like the administration of ignoring the scientists.
