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Sikhulile Moyo is a laboratory director at the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership and a research fellow at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. It was he who led the team that identified a new variant of the coronavirus – Omikron. The undoubted success of this discovery, however, was overshadowed by the violent response from most governments of the world, which immediately placed Botswana on the red list of travel destinations. The scientist does not hide his regret: – Is this rewarding scientists for scientific progress?
- Sikhulile Moyo and his team were the first to discover a new variant of the coronavirus – Omikron
- Panic ensued when the national health ministry alerted us and the information about the mutation circulated in the media around the world.
- Botswana has been red-listed in many countries, and freight has been disrupted
- According to Moyo, this should not be the reaction to a scientific discovery, especially in a region with low vaccination rates.
- More information can be found on the TvoiLokony home page
“Scientists, fools, look what you’ve done”
In an interview with NPR, Sikhulile Moyo said that the decision to restrict Botswana had disappointed him greatly. «We were sad. On the one hand, we felt that we contributed little to the development of the world, and on the other – is this rewarding scientists or scientific progress? It seemed to me that after two years of a pandemic, as a global health community, we react and coordinate such issues better ”, he said.
For the researcher, the most painful consequences were the consequences of his country being on the red lists of other countries. “Flights have been canceled, goods have not arrived in the country, many companies have lost millions. Even our vaccine shipments were at risk due to shipping delays. A lot of people have said: scientists, fools, look what you’ve done. You have ruined Christmas ».
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The disappointment of the African scientist was all the greater because such behavior was unprecedented. «When the Alpha variant was detected in the UK, no one banned the countrybecause we all know it’s a global village. Of course, we improved border controls, country entry requirements, including quarantine and testing. But we have never closed our doors because we understand that viruses do not respect our natural limits, ”he explained.
The rest of the article under the video.
Dramatically low vaccination rate in Africa
Moyo also drew attention to the need to address the needs of countries with low vaccination rates, such as Botswana. While most countries are already giving booster doses, they are still trying to reach out to citizens who haven’t even taken the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
And there are still many of these. In Botswana alone, the primary immunization cycle is behind 42,6 percent. of the population, but in neighboring Zambia it is only 4,9 percent. Across Africa, countries where the vaccination rate is less than 5%. there is much more.
The dramatic situation is in Cameroon (2,4%), Nigeria (2%), Niger (1,9%), Mali (1,7%), South Sudan (1,6%), Tanzania (1,5 , 1,5%), Burkina Faso (1,1%), Guinea-Bissau (0,5%) and Chad (0,1%), and the worst is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the rate is «How do you explain in a global village that it matters to an ordinary US citizen if someone from Ethiopia or Guinea is vaccinated? Why does it matter? Because we are a connected world »argues the researcher from Botswana. Sikhulile Moyo’s interview also sheds light on the backstage of the Omicron discovery. When he and his colleagues studied one of the samples and compared it with the sequences circulating in the country at that time, he realized that they were dealing with something completely new. “The number of mutations [the virus] had was simply unbelievable,” he said, adding that after searching databases, he realized that such a strain had never been seen in Africa before. The closest to him was the variant B.1.1.207, detected in Nigeria in August 2020, which was common, inter alia, in the United Arab Emirates. The Omikron variant discovered in Botswana is the fifth – after the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants – that the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified as “worrying”. variant of concern). It is the fastest spreading SARS-CoV-2 strain. Within a month, it covered almost all countries of the world. As of Tuesday, December 14, WHO had recorded submissions from 77 countries, however, as the secretary general of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus admitted, it is likely already present everywhere, but has not yet been discovered during sample sequencing. The country with the highest number of Omicron infections is the United Kingdom – 4 people have been detected here. 120 cases. In London itself, this variant dominated the Delta, which was already widespread there on a large scale. The new strain is also increasing the range in South Africa (1 infections) and the USA (247). Omikron has also reached Poland. So far, the health ministry has informed about two cases of infections. The first was found in a 30-year-old citizen of Lesotho who came to our country for the UN Digital Summit in Katowice, the second in a 3-year-old girl from Warsaw. Previous reports show that in most cases the course of infection caused by the new variant is mild. The most common symptoms of Omikron infection are: runny nose, cough, fatigue, weakness, slightly elevated body temperature, headache, muscle pain. There are also unusual symptoms such as night sweats and rash in children. The new strain of coronavirus is most often diagnosed in young people who are not burdened with comorbidities, including those who are vaccinated. However, as experts emphasize, these are only observations, conclusions not supported by research, because we still have too little data on infections. As for the immunity of Omikron to vaccines, the results of the first studies in this area were presented only for the Pfizer / BioNTech preparation. This analysis was carried out by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest insurer, in collaboration with the South African Council for Medical Research, and covered COVID-19 cases registered between November 15 and December 7. The Pfizer vaccine showed slightly less protection against the severe course of infection with this mutation than before Delta, but it still remains high at around 70%. (after two doses). In the case of the Delta variant, it was 93 percent. When it comes to protection against the infection itself, it was 33 percent. (compared to 80% in the Delta context). In turn, British data shows that after a booster dose, the Pfizer vaccine is in 70-75 percent. effective against symptomatic COVID-19 infection caused by the Omikron variant. Protect yourself against coronavirus infection. Keep your distance, disinfect your hands, cover your mouth and nose. You can buy a set of FFP2 filtering masks at an attractive price at medonetmarket.pl The editorial board recommends: The content of the medTvoiLokony website is intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and their doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website. Do you need a medical consultation or an e-prescription? Go to halodoctor.pl where you can get online help – quickly, safely and without leaving home. Behind the scenes of the discovery of Omicron
What do we know about Omikron?