Calling it a "punishment" is utterly preposterous.

For an action to be a punishment there would have to be an intent to punish - and of course there isn't.

This is, quite simply, a very rationale response to a potential threat; if this new variant had been discovered elsewhere, presumably South Africa would ban flights from that country, because it's a sensible, low-impact action that helps safeguard South Africans. Indeed, it's such an obvious response that to not take it would invite some serious political and media criticism.

We did the same thing to India, Brazil, SA (first time around), the UK, and of course China. That is why the WHO warns against travel restrictions, or naming diseases by their origins. Fighting infectious diseases is a long game that involves the whole world. If we insist on punishing those who notices new diseases the first, we are surely punishing ourselves.

This is no different to how the world reacted when the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant was discovered and announced by the UK.

Once a new variant it is found somewhere, you can already assume it is everywhere.

It happened the same way with the Delta variant and the initial outbreak in Europe. It was first found a in a few countries a way, and just two or three cases. Next thing you know, it is in your own country.

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be any travel restrictions, but I am say that they generally are quite too late.

The punishment goes both ways.

South Africa is the only affordable English speaking country one can go vacation during the Northern Hemisphere Winter.

You get 400h of sun there in December and January.

Many UK citizens were looking forward to going there.

The "Spanish" flu is still called the Spanish flu to this day, even when clearly wasn't originated in Spain.

> An African Union official told the BBC developed countries were to blame for the emergence of the variant.

> "What is going on right now is inevitable, it's a result of the world's failure to vaccinate in an equitable, urgent and speedy manner. It is as a result of hoarding [of vaccines] by high-income countries of the world, and quite frankly it is unacceptable," said AU vaccine delivery alliance co-chair Ayoade Alakija.

> "These travel bans are based in politics, and not in science. It is wrong... Why are we locking away Africa when this virus is already on three continents?"

True words spoken clearly. The fact my country was unwilling to pass vaccine mandates when there was time but kept hording vaccines and not donating them to poorer countries will go down as a mark of shame.

It has also served as a counter example I like to use now that representative democracy doesn't function as a safeguard against populism - passing strict pandemic laws even though they might be unpopular didn't happen, so why not just let the people vote?

A classical prisoners dilemma problem.

Based on very interesting comment by chii, " whether to or not to report a covid 19 case first" is a game theoretic problem.

Clearly a rational player will avoid punishment , and hence reporting.

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There's literally no decent solution for this.

Long term, the best solution is to make sure that the entire world gets vaccinated evenly. Dense populations first.

Short term = our own people first.

But there's no way to compare them if a different strategy is taken. Not every country will think the same and the country / politicians that implements the long term solution will get severe backlash from their own citizens for every measure that they will take to dampen the virus.

The only mid in between is not force vaccination and give those vaccins that are potentially unused to other countries instead of holding on to them ( except group purchases)

Any other thoughts that are realistic from a politicians POV?

Nope. If China had closed borders in early 2020, we wouldn't be having this discussion today. Same with ZA: close borders, quarantine, be responsible. Oh, and don't play dumb, get your population to vaccinate.

This variant has 32 mutations on the spike protein alone, and people still think we're going to vaccinate our way out of this?

The 'othering' of healthy Western unvaccinated people has been pushed to encourage compliance in populations that are already 80 or 90 +. % vaccinated... Meanwhile South Africa has about 20% vaccination rate, and even that is relatively very high for the continent.

It's abundantly clear that Corona easily travels between countries before being detected, so as long as we're taking two years for a 20% vaccination rate on vaccines that lose a significant amount of effectiveness after a few months, the idea we can vaccinate Corona away is sheer hubris at best.

How far are we from a global system of vaccine delivery that can vaccinate 7 billion people within weeks?

Even if we do that - can we vaccinate all the animals that are spreading the virus? Among others, that's deer, cats, ferrets, hamsters, primates, minks, tree shrews, raccoon dogs, fruit bats, rabbits, etc.

Can we then vaccinate all of those people and animals every six months, and lock them all down? Because that's what's necessary for eradication. Every health professional who tells you otherwise is either ignorant or complicit, far as I can tell.

Isn't it time we start prioritizing the protection of the most vulnerable, not just in our backyard but globally?

And further, can't we prioritize the willing, rather than trying to enforce medical procedures through coercion and threat?

Can't we say at this point that the pharma cunts have acquired enough lucre, and they need to start sharing the health?

Only the EU and US governments have a real chance of forcing these issue, and the conversation around doing so is hopelessly lacking in the most basic common sense or decency right now. It's even contractually suppressed. Media companies and politicians have figured that it's expedient to blame all the failings of health systems on unvaccinated people, and the practical science is almost completely removed from the conversation. We all ought to be angry about that,

A nation with the insecurities of a 14 year old child.

Begs the question - is stupidity the "great filter?"