Good explainer about the new variant:
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The people advocating that we should âjust learn to live with covidâ obviously forgot to tell covid.
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Dr. Know warned us about the Omicron variant
MAGA-bred super-COVID could happen, of course. I understand why youâre concerned: One shudders to think what kind of twisted mutations a virus could get up to inside of, say, Marjorie Taylor Greene. But since the U.S. only has 2% of the worldâs unvaccinated people, itâs about 50 times more likely that the next virus to end all viruses will come from overseas.
This means that if weâre serious about depriving the virus of its R&D operation, we shouldnât waste our time beating our heads against the wall over the 90 million Americans whoâve said no to the vaccine. Instead, we should start with more low-hanging fruitâthe roughly 4 billion people around the world who havenât had a chance to say yes to it. Otherwise, when the death-dealing Omicron variant (or whatever) comes to wipe us off the map, weâll have no one to blame but ourselves (and by âourselves,â of course, I mean âeach otherâ).
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a UCSF infectious disease expert believes the variant first identified in South Africa is already here.
donât worry, within a couple of days itâs going to be down to close to zero 
the exact numbers probably also depend on peopleâs behavior ( masking, etc ) but it does make the pharmaceutical makersâ excuses that it would take too long to open manufacturing in those countries seem extra especially hollow now two years in
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Got my Moderna booster today. Just in time to get freaked about this new variant, but still glad to have gotten the booster!
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So presumably, Courtney Dauwalter and Jim Walmsley are now trapped in South Africa?
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Oh pooh
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If theyâre US citizens they may be ok. My brother in law was able to board a plane in South Africa for the US a little less than 2 hours ago.
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The travel ban wonât go into effect until Monday, presumably to give the airlines time to adjustâŚso I heard on CNN
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It appears South Africa is a little ticked, they did the right thing reporting the variant (thank you) and now they believe theyâre being punished.
Mixed feelings here. It appears the variant is already spread around the world so whatâs the point of the ban?
I get that the world is going into panic mode and I would hate to be the one making decisions that have real consequences, especially if those consequences end up meaning countries will keep data to themselves if they believe it will hurt them economically.
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mostly to avoid responsibility for bad outcomes. âwe closed the border, so itâs not our fault itâs here.â
the right behavior would be mandatory quarantine and observation for travellers while keeping the borders open. ive no idea if thatâs even possible under us law though
and it is only for foreign nationals. american citizens can always return ( if they can find a plane. ) the biden administration explicitly affirmed that, but it doesnât seem like the info has gotten around to people
when trump tried to close the border even to citizens, he had to roll that back. the panic he caused with everyone trying to beat the deadline meant the airports were jammed and became a perfect transmission⌠ummm⌠hub
closing borders and stopping flights can have unintended side effects like that 
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Yep . Theyâre all requiring COVID vaccination while talking their viewers into killing themselves.
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Thatâs an important caveat. My brother in law booked a last-minute ticket home from South Africa and fortunately managed to get on a plane today. But the flight that he originally had a ticket for sometime next week got cancelled. Legally being allowed to return to the US doesnât mean much if no airlines are continuing to fly from South Africa to here.
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