'A warning signal that may have averted many deaths.' In an AP interview, the Botswana virologist who may well have discovered the omicron variant of the coronavirus, expressed pride in how international scientists sounded the alarm to the world.
“Is that how you reward science? By blacklisting countries?” Dr. Sikhulile Moyo, a virologist at the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, said in an interview Thursday night with The Associated Press.
A new coronavirus variant had been discovered, and soon the World Health Organization named it omicron. It has now been identified in 38 countries and counting, including much of Western Europe and the United States. And the U.S. and many other nations have imposed flight restrictions to try to contain the emerging threat.
In fact, he noted that the variant was found to be something entirely new only by comparing it to other viruses online in a public database shared by scientists. “We’re excited that we probably gave a warning signal that may have averted many deaths and many infections,” he said.“It is a big jump in the evolution of the virus and has many more mutations that we expected,” said Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, who taught Moyo when he was earning his Ph.D. in virology from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University.Little is known about the variant, and the world is watching nervously.
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