Omicron is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, but that’s only a vocal exercise. Mentally, and from behavioural reactions to its emergence, the rest of the world has finally found a dangerously convenient, hypocritical and poorly-thought description of the existence of a coronavirus variant. The virus from Africa.
It’s not the first time the rest of the world has found convenience in naming viruses according to geography or even human names. A variant of the Ebola Virus is named Manyinga after a nurse Mayinga N’seka who died during the 1976 Zaire Outbreak. Omicron, Delta, Gamma, Beta and other variants have been deviations.
Taxonomy is only at the periphery of actual effects on people but even when the World Health Organisation (WHO) has adopted a structured means of naming viruses, the actions of the powerful nations of the world, particularly in the case of Omicron, only highlights a pent-up, careless and meanly-strategic reaction.
It’s safe to close shop and borders against countries where viruse cases are recorded, but to make it an obvious selection – Southern African countries initially – is to open to criticism. Yet, these same powerful countries can’t be absolved of the blame – nationalising, and selfishly hoarding vaccines – hence the emergence of Omicron.
The more vaccines are stashed away, the bigger the variants faced. There’s a gulf between the number of people vaccinated in the EU and the most parts of the advanced world in comparison with Africa. Some poor African countries are yet to jab 0.1% of their population. Some nations on the continent, if systems keep being very divisive as they currently are, may never achieve herd immunity. This means more variants may come after Omicron.
The speed with which borders were closed by advanced countries of the world could suggestive of strong Public Health protocols, or just countries trying to be twice shy, but it clearly reeks of the long hands of subtle imperialism.
South African researchers who discovered Omicron are yet to be given the usual widely acknowledged credit for finding a variant of public health concern. Rather, Africa has been labeled, even racially in some quarters, for finding what the world invited and hid.
South Africa has begun to record thousands of cases on a daily basis, as it continues to prove its strong resolve to battle the virus despite the difficulties faced. Vaccines come at the cost of an arm and a leg, as foreign pharmaceuticals charge exorbitant prices for doses. Some African countries have paid through their nose to obtain vaccines and are paying above and beyond what richer and advanced countries are paying.
To further stifle vaccination programmes in Africa, there has been a refusal by companies abroad to give patents and copyright to local companies for production, making the availability of the vaccines totally dependent on what comes in. Omicron may have been exposed by South Africans, but it is the making of the rest of the world.
After the travel ban on seven Southern African countries, the foreign ministry in South Africa said: “Excellent science should be applauded and not punished,” in a response that aptly captured the deviation of the world from what ought to be.
Dr Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, co-chair of the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance also argued and asserted in a piece on the UK Guardian about what Omicron has exposed to Africans.
“The advent of the Omicron variant has given us a glimpse of an alternative future in which, had the Sars-CoV-2 virus been initially identified in Africa in early 2020, the world would have maybe locked Africa away. There would have been no emergency funding for vaccine development, limited global attention, and Africa would have become known as the continent of Covid,” she wrote.
“We may never know the origins of Omicron, but there is now evidence that this variant was circulating in the Netherlands before it was officially identified in South Africa. African scientists’ superior level of pandemic preparedness is what has enabled the world to quickly respond to this new threat. However, the response has entailed the imposition of travel bans – shutting out southern African countries, as well as Nigeria and Egypt, who have now had to pay a heavy price in trade and tourism for identifying this variant in such an expeditious manner.
“Travel bans are an important way to contain the transmission of Covid-19, but in this instance the measure is merely performative, given that the variant is already on several continents. What we’re left with is the assumption that the ban is as discriminatory and racist as Africa’s inequitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. It is a myth to say that vaccine hesitancy in Africa is the cause of low vaccination rates. The U.S., one of the most vaccine-hesitant countries in the world, and with billions of surplus doses, has just under 60% full vaccination coverage, while some countries in Africa have less than 2%, owing to a lack of supply.”
“The emergence of another variant is an inevitable result of the failure of the international system, and a response driven by domestic politics rather than global solidarity on the part of high-income countries. We knew this was where the hoarding, the delays with intellectual property (IP) waivers and the lack of cooperation on sharing technology would leave us. It was always going to end in more dangerous variants. Why do we now feign surprise?”
The Director-General of the World Health Organisation, an Ethiopian, also expressed his displeasure with the moves of the big nations of the world on Omicron, as they blatantly disregarded protocols.
“But I am equally concerned that several member states are introducing blunt, blanket measures that are not evidence-based or effective on their own, and which will only worsen inequities.”
In the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers outside Africa wondered why the continent isn’t going dark and dead. There were predictions that bodies will be picked up on streets but none has happened. Research has been endless as to why Africa has the lowest case incidence and case fatality rates in the world, and locals aren’t dying, despite poor health systems. There are no clearcut pointers as to what Africa is doing or has done to stay safe but if there’s one thing that kept it up and afloat, it’s its humility. Africa acted fast, and it didn’t do so by closing borders to the rest of the world. Rather than point accusing fingers to a continent that has subtly given the world a Public Health masterstroke, the big countries of the world should learn.
Tagging and labeling Omicron an African virus is an exposé of what may have happened if the first incidence of the Coronavirus emerged from Africa. The continent would be locked inside, and many would expect bodies to be carried. Vaccines won’t be produced at the pace they were and the disease will be labeled “Lagos Virus” or “Mombasa Virus” with variants like “Agege”, or “Mushin”.
The political correctness the world chased with Omicron is an extension of its hypocrisy. Actions so far, have been a complete opposite of what they should be and they beg the question: “what’s the world hiding from Africa?”