Ex-FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb was critical of the latest travel restrictions on southern African countries over the omicron virus. He is worried that issuing a travel ban after a country discloses a new variant will do more harm in the long run. Gottlieb is concerned that fewer countries will eventually disclose their findings if countries will get penalized with travel bans.
Gottlieb said that “I would not have done that”. He also said that “If we’re going to be punitive every time a country does the right thing, the subset of countries that do the right thing is going to get smaller and smaller”.
The ex-FDA commissioner believes that the US could’ve just expanded vaccination and testing requirements for travel. This will also cut the number of travelers without being “intrusive and onerous”.
On Monday, the new travel requirements for US travelers took effect. First, a traveler will need to complete his or her vaccine doses. Next, travelers will need to show proof of a negative COVID19 test taken a day before departure. This new testing requirement applies to everyone regardless of vaccination status and nationality.
However, Gottlieb also said that no amount of travel restriction will eliminate the spread of the new variant in the US. Gottlieb said that “You’re not going to completely eliminate it, especially in a big country like ours, an open society where we’re not going to ban travel from US citizens”.
The World Health Organization also said that travel bans “will not prevent the international spread” of the new variant. The WHO added that travel restrictions are “disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data”.
The White House defended its stance on restricting travel from southern African countries. White House COVID19 response team coordinator Jess Zients said on Tuesday that the bans are “a reasonable measure for a reasonable period of time”.
Top US scientist Anthony Fauci said that early indications suggest that the omicron is possibly milder than the delta variant. However, the new variant is “clearly highly transmissible” according to Fauci.
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