12.1.2021 | Forbes
By Steve Brozak
Today, the Covid-19 pandemic will have raged for two years and we are still confronting surprises. That the Omicron variant arose and spread weeks before it was identified should not come as a surprise. It is of course disappointing and raises the question, what other surprises are out there that we don’t know about?
What is a surprise, though it’s been widely reported to the public and well-known by scientists, is the surprise shown by world leaders that variants like Omicron can happen. They still seem shocked that a complex and capable variant can arise. What is also a surprise is that nations are reacting by shutting borders and imposing travel bans that will not stop the virus but will likely prove calamitous to the world’s economies. The White House has announced that Omicron has been detected in California and given past experience it is almost certainly widespread by this time. We should know better.
What is also surprising, is that Omicron’s discovery was first announced by a research laboratory in South Africa, only after being present in at least nineteen other countries. But what should be especially surprising is that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did NOT identify Omicron first, given the importance of a global monitoring approach.
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