Ignoring the Warnings, Part 2

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Omicron, the new Covid-19 variant virus known as B,1.1.529 has arrived just as predicted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Another clear case of politicians and populations ignoring the warnings of science.

On November 26, 2021 as reported in Al Jazerra English, Oksana Pyzik, a teaching fellow at University College London’s School of Pharmacy, said the new variant “shouldn’t come as a surprise” amid warnings from the WHO that global vaccine inequity could lead to the emergence of new strains of the virus.

 “The World Health Organization has been warning us repeatedly … since the beginning of the pandemic that if vaccine inequity continue[s] … that inevitably will lead towards a more fit virus, a potentially vaccine-resistant virus,” Pyzik told Al Jazeera from Geneva.

“So, if we look across the entire African continent, there’s less than 3.5 percent uptake of vaccines at the moment and that has been due to a supply issue,” she added.

And that is due to the wealthiest countries in the world failing to deliver the goods. From Canada’s COVAX hold-back to Israel’s rush to give third booster shots to their entire population (except for Palestinians) vaccine inequity remains one of the biggest problems in getting this global pandemic under control. Politics and science.

Normally the new variant would have been given the next letter in the Greek alphabet as the Xi variant. Political correctness intervened since Xi JInping is the President of China and it is not a good idea to irritate a country that operates with absolute power, hostage diplomacy, and such little regard for human rights. So the WHO picked Omicron.

Omicron, unfortunately, also happens to be the name of a Canadian development, design, and construction company in British Colombia. That could make it the first casualty in Canada of the new variant. The two Michaels, Spavor and Kovrig, know just how you feel.

The way I see it.

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Skid Crease, Caledon

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