OMICRON VARIANT: SOUTH AFRICA TRAVEL BAN AND THE POLITICS OF CORONAVIRUS.

ICHEOKU says nearly two years after, the debate is still raging on as to where the original coronavirus contagion came from. So far, the world has refused to reach a conclusion and/or  acknowledge that Wuha China incubated the coronavirus. According to the world, the evidence is still too fluidly and very much inconclusive to categorically say where the coronavirus originated. But the same cautionary approach which China benefitted from is not being extended to other countries with regard to the various mutants of the coronavirus aka its variants. 

The latest being the Omicron variant which the same world has already rushed to point their accusing finger at South Africa as its place of origin without any affirmative evidence in support. But as it has turned out, the Omicron variant was in the Netherlands long before it was discovered in South Africa, thus begging the question, the chicken or the egg, which one came first? ICHEOKU says if the Omicron was in the Netherlands first, why then was South Africa designated as its origin or is the world trying so desperately to give the proverbial dog a bad name in order to hang it. 

First, they were disappointed that the coronavirus did not take as much toll in Africa as they have gleefully anticipated and hoped for. To their chagrin, Africa not only survived the contagion but fared far much too better than the so called developed "first" world countries, with their leader America being the worst hit by the scourge. As it ended up, the whole Africa did not lose even 10% of what America lost and this fact must be making them so mad that they are gearing up for their vengeance. Now they are now imposing travel ban on countries in Africa which they are continuously extending and will soon impact every country in Africa. Why?

There is something fishy about the coronavirus pandemic which has not been told or publicly made known. What is the world really hiding about the actual truth behind the contagion or is there a hidden agenda in play which is yet to completely unfold. Africa, which the world will not provide food to eat and help starve off famine or clean water to drink, nor even help to tackle its other myriad of life challenging problems which have continuously been claiming millions of lives in Africa, is the epicenter of attention over the coronavirus. The world theories have ranged from the devastation which the coronavirus will cause in Africa, to the need for getting Africa enough coronavirus vaccines, and now Omicron deadly variant of the coronavirus came from Africa requiring travel ban when Omicron was first discovered in Europe. 

The generated hysteria is coming despite the fact that Omicron has not killed anyone just yet or in large numbers; nor does it manifest more debilitating symptoms than its mother coronavirus or other variants which have so far showed up. Yet, they are already banning travels from South Africa and other African countries when the same world condemned then President Donald John Trump for initially placing travel ban on China at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. ICHEOKU recalls vividly how many world leaders, including the World Health Organization, that condemned the president's action, insisting that countries cannot close off itself from the coronavirus and that the best approach for tackling the virus is to join hands together and fight it as a team of one. 

So, what changed now with the case of South Africa and the Omicron variant, a variant which did not even originate from South Africa or is it a case of different peoples and different measures, treatments and approaches? Was it because China was "too big to fail" and that the world cannot do without its manufacture and products that necessitated its protection from isolation? If South Africa was not Africa or was as effective in the world as China or any other premier country in the world, would there have been a travel ban on it? But it is the politics of the world and it is dispensed according to the strength and indispensability of countries, the reason a South Africa which did not gift the world with the Omicron variant is now being unnecessarily punished with isolation through a travel ban. 

It is a well known fact that simply isolating a country does not necessarily contain whatever might be inside it from escaping its shores and borders. As America rudely found out with the ravaging penetration of the coronavirus despite all the effort it made to close itself off and protect itself from the rest of the world, the coronavirus still penetrated it. It wrecked untoward havoc in huge loss of human lives and is still raging on with more than one thousand Americans still dying every day from the scourge. So, what then is the use of isolating South Africa despite the futility of such effort; a matter made worse because the country is being punished for what it did not do. South Africa did not give the world the Omicron variant, rather Netherland did; and if any country should or must be punished with isolation, it should be Netherland and not South Africa. Lift the travel ban and do it now!