In a hard-hitting editorial published in the authoritative medical journal, Lancet, on Saturday 4 December a group of eminent South African scientists have warned that the travel bans slapped on South Africa after reporting the Omicron variant was not only unwarranted but a threat to global solidarity and could have dire consequences for the sharing of information in future.
The editorial was written by Prof Marc Mendelson, Professor of Infectious Diseases and Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases & HIV Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital, Prof Francois Venter, the head of Ezintsha at Wits University, Prof Mosa Moshabela from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the President of the South African Medical Research Council, Prof Glenda Gray, Deputy Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Prof Lucille Blumberg, bioinformatician and director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and…