Stick to the script: owe that duty of care to your population, so the legal experts in government tell you.
Self-interest pays, if in small amounts. These rigid, formulaic assumptions have done wonders to harm and deter any
spirit of cooperation regarding dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
History’s record of humanity’s response to plagues, pandemics and disease is one of isolation, marginalisation, and
exclusion. The infected shall be kept away and sealed off from the healthy and wealthy. This, inevitably, results in
partiality, prejudice and distinctions. Omicron, having been pumped with the prestige of a potential COVID super
variant, has given dozens of countries grounds to stop travel, halt movement and stem flights. As always, these measures
have been applied unevenly and hypocritically.
First reported by South Africa, the country now has the distinction of being, along with a range of other Southern
African countries, pariahs in terms of international travel. Little wonder that individuals such as the Chair of the
South African Medical Association, Dr. Angelique Coetzee are alarmed at what was essentially a replay of the initial
global response to COVID-19.
In Coetzee’s judgment, Omicron, while seemingly harder to detect, does not deserve a ladle full of fear. “Looking at the mildness of the
symptoms that we are seeing, currently there is no reason for panicking, as we don’t see severely ill patients.” The
prevailing “clinical complaint is severe fatigue for one or two days, with the headache and body aches and pains.” She
also noted instances of a scratchy throat and dry coughing.
South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla similarly reported that his country’s “clinicians have not witnessed severe illness. Part of it may be because the majority of those who
are positive are young people.”
Vaccine manufacturers such as Moderna have been quick off the mark in sowing seeds of mild panic, claiming that existing COVID-19 vaccines will be less effective against Omicron. According to the company’s chief executive,
Stéphane Bancel, the number of Omicron mutations on the spike protein – the part of the virus famed for infecting human
cells – and the speed of transmissibility, suggested an imminent “material drop” in effectiveness.
This less than responsible prediction, in the absence of cold hard trials and laboratory results, was marvellous for
speculators and someone was obviously making a packet on the sliding of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slipped 652 points (1.9%) on November 30. The S 500 and the Nasdaq also fell 1.9% and 1.6% respectively.
The World Health Organisation has never been partial to the idea of a travel ban in the face of disease. But it finds
itself in a difficult position. Closing the borders can inflict harm; but not encouraging closures might result in
retrospective condemnation from governments who fear their populace and chances of survival at the ballot box. The
stance taken towards Omicron is that the haste on the part of many countries in sealing Southern African countries off
has been irrational and disproportionate.
In a statement from WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, concern was expressed that countries such as Botswana and South
Africa “are now penalized by others for doing the right thing.” Nation states should “take rational, proportional
risk-reduction measures, in keeping with International Health Regulations.”
Suggestions included passenger screenings prior to and after travel, or the use of quarantine for international
travellers. “Blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread of Omicron, and they place a heavy burden on
lives and livelihoods.”
The Director-General also made the pertinent point that the Delta variant remained pre-eminently dangerous. With the
tools already available to combat that mutation, using them effectively would invariably also “prevent transmission and
save lives from Omicron.”
These are also views held by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who has also suggested a testing regime for travellers rather than a
shutting of the door. “With a virus that is truly borderless, travel restrictions that isolate any one country or region
are not only deeply unfair and punitive – they are ineffective.”
On a cooperative and collaborative level, the travel ban on South Africa has also had a discernible effect. As Maria Van
Kerhove, the WHO’s lead on COVID-19 remarked, South African researchers, despite being keen to share data, samples and information, find themselves facing obstacles
in actually having samples “shipped out of the country”.
As with other pandemics, gross inequality shadows, imposes and manifests in every phase of the response. “We are living
through a cycle of panic and neglect,” laments Tedros. Be it the imposition of national quarantines, international closures, restrictions on access to diagnostic
equipment, protective equipment, vaccines, the moneyed shall find their way to the top, if only because they were there
to begin with. Those without bountiful lucre, few resources other than ambition and little else other than hope, will be
squashed, or at the very least find themselves isolated and delayed.
In the whirlwind that is viral change and adjustment, the WHO has uttered some statements of sense. But these are not
going to find a home in countries which have invested billions in pandemic infrastructure and restrictions. Vaccine
mandates are being retained in some countries with high vaccination rates, which tends to make more than a mild mockery
of the vaccination program itself.
The talk of boosters means that those who have not satisfied the next round of regulatory safety will be barred from bar
and border; from restaurant and recreation facility. It is also a reminder that wealthier, high-income states will
prioritise their own populations, leaving such collective efforts to immunise the globe, such as COVAX, behind. Doing
this will only serve to delay the vaccination of poorer countries and encourage the next roaring mutation to stumble
onto the world stage. There are many other potential Omicrons in the pipeline.
In the meantime, countries such as South Africa may well rue their candour in disclosing a variant it was so quick to
identify and sequence. There is little to suggest that Omicron actually originated there but such details will never get
in the way of irrational impulse and shoddy judgments.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
Email: bkampmark@gmail.com