South Africa accuses UK and others of 'knee-jerk' reaction to new variant

[Celerity]

Travel restrictions on southern African states imposed by countries after discovery of B.1.1.529 already harming economy

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/26/south-africa-b11529-covid-variant-vaccination



South Africa has angrily condemned travel restrictions imposed by countries including Britain as “knee-jerk and draconian” as it scrambled to assess the potential for the new Covid-19 variant to unleash a deadly fourth wave.

In a heated press conference on Friday, the health minister, Joe Phaahla, said his country had acted transparently by alerting the world to the B.1.1.529 variant, which was detected by its scientists earlier this week.

But others had responded by imposing restrictions on flights to and from the southern African region that were completely unjustified, he said. The UK had announced its decision to impose a temporary ban without consulting the South African authorities, he added.

“The reaction of countries to impose travel bans are completely against the norms and standards as guided by the World Health Organization,” said Phaahla. “The same countries that are enacting this kind of knee-jerk, draconian reaction are battling their own waves.”

snip

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Travel bans prevent nothing; they only buy time, which doesn't matter if other governments do

nothing but drag their feet during that time.

[LisaL]

3. South Africa is a low vaxxed country.

Two planes that just showed up in Europe had 10 % of passengers infected (and presumably many more got infected while flying so will test positive soon enough). How does that happen? Aren't passengers screened before boarding?

[Ace Rothstein]

6. Fake test results? Poor tests?

You also have the issue of having to test within 3 days of the flight which is pretty dumb IMO. Should be 1 day.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. All the passengers were South African?

[LisaL]

10. Two flights from South Africa landed in Netherlands.

10% of passengers tested positive for covid.

"At least 61 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed after two planes from South Africa carrying over 600 passengers landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport Friday, the Washington Post and New York Post report."

https://theweek.com/coronavirus/1007500/planes-from-south-africa-carrying-covid-positive-passengers-land-in-amsterdam

[DFW]

2. I'm sure that if South Africa would develop an effective vaccine against the new mutation

And then, if they would manufacture enough doses to inoculate their population, and administer them to all their citizens, plus the citizens of countries with direct air connections to their country, there would be no knee-jerk reactions like the ones they are objecting to.

I read that the KLM crews on the two flights to Schipol where ten per cent of the arriving passengers tested positive for Covid had problems with passenger not wearing masks during the flights. There might not be any "anti-asshole" drops one can put into the drinking water in planes, but I would make a careful check of the passengers on board before leaving the gate, and I would have no problem with dragging any of them off that refuse to wear a mask. For that matter, I would also forbid alcohol on airplane flights, but I realize I'd have a lot easier time with that than some others.

[LisaL]

4. They can't even vaccinate a decent number of their citizens with existing vaccines.

Developing a new one kind of seems out of reach.

[DFW]

12. I know

I wasn’t suggesting that RSA was remotely capable of doing what I mentioned. I know they are not.

[48656c6c6f20]

5. By the time a new stain is recognized

It's too late. The world is so much smaller than it was in 1918 and travel from counties could take months. Bans? I don't know if it has a real impact, mostly delays the inevitable. Increased monitoring and social, mask requirements? Hell yeah.

[Pas-de-Calais]

7. Knee jerk my 65 yr old backside!!!

[pinkstarburst]

8. They need to clean up their own

attitude problems with regards to covid and disease transmission before whining that the rest of the world is treating them unfairly.

They have a huge supply of vaccine stock on hand, enough for 5 months of vaccinations at the current rate, and yet only 23% of their people are vaccinated. In the US, 58% of people are currently vaccinated. So while we have issues with people refusing the vaccine, too, South Africa's rate of vaccination is just abysmal.

Then there is the fact of the planes that landed in the Netherlands where 10% people tested positive for covid (and you can bet quite a few have the new variant) and flight crews reported that despite it being airline policy, many onboard refused to wear masks at all.

South Africa has some work to do on educating its population on the necessity of masks and vaccines. That should be their focus, not whining that they are being targeted unfairly.

[lame54]

11. Meanwhile, their citizens are not vaccinated...

Though they have plenty of vaccine

[Scrivener7]

13. South Africa is around 30% vaccinated. There should have ALWAYS been a travel ban on them.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. As a sidenote, recall that the Beta variant was first detected in South Africa

and although it was eventually and quickly overwhelmed by Delta, it was and still is a concerning variant due to how it mutated and its higher resistance to vaccines - https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02177-3 and https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/21/what-is-the-beta-variant-heres-what-we-know-so-far.html


https://gvn.org/covid-19/beta-b-1-351/

So yes SA, the restrictions needed to happen.