cyril ramaphosa. i'm joined by dr amesh adalja, who is a senior scholar at thejohns hopkins university center for health security. thank you very much indeed for joining us. i wonder if i could pick up directly on cyril ramaphosa's point that the prohibition, these restrictions are not informed by science, he says. a lot afield would feel that they are, because we know that ——we know so little about this particular variant. i agree with the _ particular variant. i agree with the south _ particular variant. i agree with the south african - with the south african president that i do not think these bans are justified. president that i do not think these bans arejustified. even if there are important questions to answer about the new variant we know a lot about covid—i9, we know how it transmits, have treatments and tests and vaccines, have a lot of different tools at our disposal now in november 2021 but we did not have early on in the pandemic so i do not think that we should be going back to these blu

that is cyril ramaphosa.h adalja, a senior scholar at thejohns hopkins university center for health security, for his view on the value of travel bans or restrictions. i agree with the south african president that i do not think these bans are justified. even if there are important questions to answer about this new variant, we know a lot about covid—19. we know how it transmits. we have treatments, we have tests, we have vaccines. we have a lot of different tools at our disposal now, in november 2021, that we did not have early on in this pandemic, so i do not think that we should be going back to these blunt tools that penalise countries like south africa, which has been really diligent and transparent in alerting the world to this new threat and also will damage that country's economy. i think we have better tools to do this but unfortunately, this type of knee—jerk reaction is very common among politicians and i think it is unfortunate. that's interesting because when you say we know how to deal with thes

we will leave the president, cyril ramaphosa, - our metro layers.a, there. dealing with the issues of omicron. he is very concerned about this new variant and he was very statesman—like, not much politics in there with some important bits of information. the province referred to as having seen the cases were virtually all the cases of omicron is in north—west south africa, which borders botswana. actually one of the nearest cities to that province is gaborone, the capital of botswana. places like conway and the nearest cities are bloemfontein. it has spread to all the provinces, one of the most significant things is that they have gone from 500 cases every day on average in the previous week to 1600 in the current week. that is more than triple the number of new infections and that is why people are warning that this could be, it is an advisory, but it could be, it is an advisory, but it could be a much more infectious variant, will be a doctor is treating patients to say the actual infection is milder and were heard from claire bennett earlier, an

amy: south african president cyril ramaphosa speaking on sunday. we go now to cape town, south africa, where we are joined by fatima hassan, the founder and director of health justice initiative. welcome to democracy now! could you respond to, first, what has been discovered in south africa, the transparency and speed with which south africa revealed what is happening to the world, and then respond to the travel bans. >> thanks, amy. good to be on the show. [indiscernible] able to detect -- with transparency to global cooperation in terms of sharing the silence. -- science. there was noa cloud of secrecy around the variant. that is largely because we have really good genomics available. [indiscernible] what we saw in response is what you referred to in your introductory remarks, an uneven travel ban. it is really uneven. in our view, it is quite racist. that is why have the president, after coming out saying these countries should basically lift the ban and offer global cerebellar -- solidarity, where we can address [indiscernible] vaccine and equi

it's 7am in singapore, and one in the morning in south africa, where president cyril ramaphosa has slammedecision by some countries including the us, europe and parts of asia to ban flights from southern african countries following confirmation of the presence of the new omicron variant of covid—19. mr ramaphosa called the moves unjustified. he said — increased vaccination was the best way to tackle the new variant. these restrictions are completely unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our southern african sister countries. the prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant. the only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the effected countries and undermine their ability to respond to and recover from the pandemic. the emergence of the omicron variant should be a wake—up call to the world that vaccine inequality cannot be allowed to continue. meanwhile, britain is to convene an urgent meeting of g7 health ministers on monday to discuss developments relating

bans now in effect for south africa and other southern african nations, south african president cyril ramaphosa disagreeing with these moves. >> the prohibition of covid is not informed by science. no. will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant with doctor fauci says it's about the final time. never completely would get the virus to coming prevent it from coming into the country. >> no way that's going to happen. but what would you can do as you can delay it enough to get us better prepared on the kron is the first variance since delta that the who is labeled a quote variant of concern. now with cases reported in germany, italy, israel but swann and hong kong doctors and pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to stem the variant mobilized hundreds of people here in the u.s. and around world. we started that. >> on on thanksgiving day. we should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks. president joe biden returning to washington from his thanksgiving holiday had what would be his mccrone briefing as his first order of bu

africa, including the united states, britain, japan, and qatar, angering south africa's president, cyril ramaphosarestrictions are completely unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our southern africa sister countries. the prohibition of travel is not informed by science nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant.- spread of this variant. travel bans have — spread of this variant. travel bans have proven _ spread of this variant. travel bans have proven largely - bans have proven largely ineffective in the past and infectious disease experts say this kind of approach also carries risks.— carries risks. which could include other _ carries risks. which could include other countries i include other countries discovering new variants been reticent to report them because they worry that they won't be praised for finding this new variant, they will be for it. and i think it sends the wrong message that this is the way you deal with covid—i9. message that this is the way you deal with covid-19. some countries _ you deal with covid-19. some countries have _ yo

thomas, back a few months ago, cyril ramaphosa was one of a number of african leaders who were sayings, "look, you need to help us get vaccine to our part of the world, if only for your own self—interest because if you don't do it, the virus is going to have enough time to mutate". this looks tonight like it could be kind of evidence of exactly what we've been warned about. absolutely. and i'm sure other western nations were aware, and so was germany, of the need to help the third world in this regard. but they had so much trouble at home with the vaccination and the enemies to vaccination. and germany had a fight on their hands to get the society to agree themselves to be vaccinated in sufficient numbers to stave off any further infections. and so, we have a double crisis here — we have a crisis of confidence that vaccination at home is the way out of the problem and we have the vaccination not sufficiently available in third world countries. i think it overwhelms the policymakers right in a rather sad and dramatic fashion. thank you both very much. well, on wednesday, in another exa

borisjohnson has spoken to south african president cyril ramaphosa.o work together and the challenges posed globally by the new variant. we can speak now to south africa's tourism minister, lindiwe sisulu. thank you very much for speaking to us. this is obviously a tough day for south africa. it’s us. this is obviously a tough day for south africa.— us. this is obviously a tough day for south africa. it's my pleasure to be here _ for south africa. it's my pleasure to be here and _ for south africa. it's my pleasure to be here and it— for south africa. it's my pleasure to be here and it is— for south africa. it's my pleasure to be here and it is a _ for south africa. it's my pleasure to be here and it is a tough - for south africa. it's my pleasure to be here and it is a tough day l for south africa. it's my pleasure i to be here and it is a tough day and a very disappointing day for us because we have been here before and we thought we had worked our way out of the red list but unfortunately we find ourselves back in again. do you understand — find ou

the president of south africa, cyril ramaphosa has hit out at countries, including the uk, who have placedy in the wake of the emergency of the omicron variant. in an address to the south african nation, mr ramaphosa ruled out imposing further restrictions for now and encouraged south africans to get their vaccines. speaking in the last hour, he demanded that the global community relaxed travel restrictions on south africa. these restrictions are completely unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our southern african sister countries. the prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant. the only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to and also to recover from the pandemic. we call upon these countries that have imposed travel bans on our country and our other southern african sister countries to immediately and urgently reverse their decisions and lift the bands they have imposed before any further d

so things like the programme led by cyril ramaphosa in south africa to decarbonise their power systemotally contingent on governments sticking to their pledges. but i feel something very strongly. i think a tipping point has been reached in people's attitude, and those leaders, 122 leaders, more than had ever come to any political event in this country before, those leaders have been galvanised and propelled by their electorates and the social power of people demanding change. and i think actually in a very short space of time, it is going to be an acceptable to start a new coal—fired power station around the world. just in a matter of a few years, because of the global, political and social pressure, and you can see the way societies are able to effect that kind of change. and so i fully accept, i really fully and humbly accept, i really fully and humbly accept, that this is not the full solution, never could have been. but i think that alok and his team, the whole un negotiating team, have delivered just about as much as we could have hoped. getting language about coal into the conc

. >> alcindor: south african president cyril ramaphosa criticized the rush to impose travel bans. >> we need to resist unjustified as well as unscientific travel restrictions that only serve to further disadvantage developing economies. >> alcindor: many public health leaders have also pushed back on the bans. dr. andy slavitt, president biden's former senior advisor on covid-19, took to twitter, saying: “a far better response would be the mass shipment of hundreds of millions of vaccines to the area.” the omicron variant has now been confirmed in more than a dozen countries, across several continents. europe, the middle east, asia and the pacific have all reported that the variant has hit their shores. and over the weekend, two cases were confirmed in canada. that's the first time the variant has been recorded in north america. the makers of two highly effective vaccines, pfizer and moderna, are already pivoting their efforts to address the omicron variant. dr. paul burton is moderna's chief medical officer: >> we'll know from laboratory tests in the next couple of weeks just how ef