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I'm not sure I get this assumption. Few other countries were "pissed off" when borders were closed to them. I still cannot travel recreationally to Japan from t
by tibbon 5y ago
I'm not sure I get this assumption. Few other countries were "pissed off" when borders were closed to them. I still cannot travel recreationally to Japan from the US, and that's fine.
- jjeaff 5y agoI assume if you deal in any kind of tourism/business travel or travel adjacent business, you wouldn't be too happy about closing the borders.
- tpmx 5y agohttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/26/covid-omicron-variant-south-africa-health-minister-calls-travel-bans-unjustified.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/26/covid-omicron-variant-south-... South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla said that new travel restrictions amid concerns over a heavily mutated Covid variant are “unjustified.” He slammed other nations for “wanting to put blame” and ascribe the variant to South Africa rather than working collaboratively to address the situation as guided by the WHO.
- evgen 5y agoAnd https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59453842 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59453842 where ‘[SA president] Cyril Ramaphosa said he was "deeply disappointed" by the action, which he described as unjustified, and called for the bans to be urgently lifted.’ Your country has a very low vaccination rate and you are ground zero for a new variant, but feel the need to be “deeply disappointed” that others trying to slow the spread slightly may impact your tourism industry…
- tpmx 5y agoAlso note that the low vaccination rate in SA is not due to a lack of vaccine availability. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-south-africa-delays-covid-vaccine-deliveries-inoculations-slow-2021-11-24/ https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-south-africa-...
- lkbm 5y agoGround Zero was Botswana[0]. South Africa is the country leading the research and monitoring because they have an exceptionally strong epidemiological community and facilities. (And, yes, a very low vaccination rate.) [0] https://www.dw.com/en/covid-what-we-know-about-the-omicron-variant/a-59948143 https://www.dw.com/en/covid-what-we-know-about-the-omicron-v...
- jsnell 5y agoSo, the thing with Botswana is actually interesting, because those first cases were found in foreign diplomats who were visiting for a short time. Such a short time, that they probably could not have picked up the infection in the country, but had imported it: https://africatimes.com/2021/11/28/botswana-says-covid-variant-found-in-visiting-diplomats-but-from-where/ https://africatimes.com/2021/11/28/botswana-says-covid-varia... So the ground zero is somewhere else, and we just don't know yet.
- ajmurmann 5y agoSince this was first detected in Botswana, we don't know where ground zero is. What we do know is that countries with good detection systems get punished and that such travel plans always have come way after the cat is out of the bag anyways.
- tpmx 5y agoBotswana got hit by both the EU and the US travel restrictions as well.
- 9935c101ab17a66 5y agoWell, South Africa have publicly stated they’re pissed and feel like they are being punished, so it’s not really baseless.