In reaction to a Friday announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO) that there is a new coronavirus “variant of concern,” known as “omicron,” the Biden administration has made an announcement of its own. As Peter Aitken reported for Fox News, the U.S. will restrict travel from eight African countries starting on Monday.
According to Aitken:
The United States will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday over concerns of a “heavily mutated” COVID-19 variant, senior administration officials said.
The Biden administration will follow advice from Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and restrict travel from several African nations following the identification of variant B.1.1.529, which appears to be highly contagious among young people.
The World Health Organization (WHO) identified the variant as a “variant of concern” that officials first noted in South Africa.
The variant, which was first identified in South Africa, has also been identified in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
Other countries will put into place travel restrictions as well.
A pinned tweet from the Who notes that a technical advising group met on Friday to advise that omicron be designated as a “variant of concern.”
It’s worth reminding that when then President Donald Trump restricted travel from China in response to the Wuhan coronavirus, Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and then candidate Joe Biden regarded the move as racist and xenophobic, with Biden claiming Trump had “a record of… hysterical xenophobia.” Speaker Pelosi later changed her tune, as did Biden.
Once Biden took office, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki did a particularly poor job of spinning the president’s claims. The Biden administration also reinstated travel bans.
