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We cancelled our trip

theelfqueen

By theelfqueen,
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Hannah

Hannah

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We have had to cancel a trip to visit family as well.  Flights were scheduled for Tuesday, but South Africa got red-listed because our scientists spoke up about finding the Omicron variant.  Our economy was just starting to recover so it is a huge blow, and it really seems very unfair that we're being punished for having excellent scientists who were willing to raise the alarm.  

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TravelingChris

TravelingChris

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1 hour ago, Hannah said:

We have had to cancel a trip to visit family as well.  Flights were scheduled for Tuesday, but South Africa got red-listed because our scientists spoke up about finding the Omicron variant.  Our economy was just starting to recover so it is a huge blow, and it really seems very unfair that we're being punished for having excellent scientists who were willing to raise the alarm.  

And considering it was first discovered in the Netherlands in people who hadn't been to SA, I am just appalled by the US policy considering our current President denounced as racist our former President's ban on people travelling from China, that was pretty quickly extended to Italy and then England and then basically the whole world until we started opening up again.  And yes, I think it is super unfair.  Also. extremely troubling as a policy since it encourages other countries to follow China's, Iran's, Russia's, North Korea's, etc examples of lying about existence, or true numbers or anything at all to do with honest reporting of variants, symptoms, virulence, etc.  

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TravelingChris

TravelingChris

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3 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

And I'm so sad. 

I haven't seen DS in nearly 2 years... and I had just started to let myself really get excited and start planning activities in earnest... and now it's not happening. 

And I hate it.

I am so sorry.  A lady who is in the same quarantine book club that was started when we did have a quarantine by two of our local librarians, was saying that her husband is still deployed and he was supposed to be coming home soon but with Omicron, she is thinking she won't see him for Christmas.

 

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vonfirmath

vonfirmath

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53 minutes ago, TravelingChris said:

I am so sorry.  A lady who is in the same quarantine book club that was started when we did have a quarantine by two of our local librarians, was saying that her husband is still deployed and he was supposed to be coming home soon but with Omicron, she is thinking she won't see him for Christmas.

 

My niece is in the military and was supposed to come home (with her new husband) right after Christmas. We just got word all leaves were cancelled. I can't help but think it is due to Omicron.

 

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Pam in CT

Pam in CT

Posted
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re no good deed goes unpunished

2 hours ago, Hannah said:

We have had to cancel a trip to visit family as well.  Flights were scheduled for Tuesday, but South Africa got red-listed because our scientists spoke up about finding the Omicron variant.  Our economy was just starting to recover so it is a huge blow, and it really seems very unfair that we're being punished for having excellent scientists who were willing to raise the alarm.  

Yeah, it does bite, that South African authorities who did the responsible thing and raised loud clarion bells immediately after they found the new variant even before they knew much else... are taking heat for the finding.

The first of what are certain to be many US cases has been confirmed this afternoon.  None of us are done with this until all of us are done with this.

Quote

The United States' first confirmed case of the Omicron coronavirus variant has been identified in California.

In a White House news briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the case was in an individual who traveled from South Africa on November 22 and tested positive for Covid-19 on November 29.

 

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Hannah

Hannah

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11 hours ago, TravelingChris said:

 Also. extremely troubling as a policy since it encourages other countries to follow China's, Iran's, Russia's, North Korea's, etc examples of lying about existence, or true numbers or anything at all to do with honest reporting of variants, symptoms, virulence, etc.  

There has been a huge backlash within the country as well against the scientists, especially from people in the tourism industry who have seen their bookings cancelled over the busiest period.  They blame the scientists for speaking up. 

In and interview with the New Yorker, Tulio de Oliveira, the leader of the Network for Genomic Surveillance , says openly that African scientists will be hesitant to share information going forward given the response.  (as an aside, he also has interesting views on herd immunity)

Edited by Hannah
grammar
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KSera

KSera

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28 minutes ago, Hannah said:

There has been a huge backlash within the country as well against the scientists, especially from people in the tourism industry who have seen their bookings cancelled over the busiest period.  They blame the scientists for speaking up. 

In and interview with the New Yorker, Tulio de Oliveira, the leader of the Network for Genomic Surveillance , says openly that African scientists will be hesitant to share information going forward given the response.  (as an aside, he also has interesting views on herd immunity)

I've been seeing nothing but huge praise for South African among the scientific community. It would have been discovered within a few weeks or so either way I would expect, and traced to travel from South Africa, so they did the world an enormous favor by sounding the alarm early, and I don't think the resulting hardships from doing so would be much different if they had kept quiet. Just a few weeks later. It does really suck, though. I still hope we can switch to a good test and quarantine system instead. That makes more sense and would be much more effective.

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popmom

popmom

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11 hours ago, vonfirmath said:

My niece is in the military and was supposed to come home (with her new husband) right after Christmas. We just got word all leaves were cancelled. I can't help but think it is due to Omicron.

 

Wait…are they overseas? 

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Hannah

Hannah

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47 minutes ago, KSera said:

I've been seeing nothing but huge praise for South African among the scientific community. It would have been discovered within a few weeks or so either way I would expect, and traced to travel from South Africa, so they did the world an enormous favor by sounding the alarm early, and I don't think the resulting hardships from doing so would be much different if they had kept quiet. Just a few weeks later. It does really suck, though. I still hope we can switch to a good test and quarantine system instead. That makes more sense and would be much more effective.

I agree that there is praise from the scientific community, but not necessarily from the community at large, and it is the opinion of the larger community and citizens that will direct future political decisions.  

I'm absolutely with you that we need good testing and quarantine systems.   We might not have had the complete travel bans that we have now that are affecting so many thousands of people who haven't seen their loved ones in years.  

 

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Pam in CT

Pam in CT

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Long NPR program this morning on Omicron this morning with nothing but praise for South African genome specialists and public health authorities, and also making the point that SA was the first to *find* the variant because the are so diligent about *looking* for variants... but that now that it's been uncovered and other countries have found it community-spreading, it's not clear that it originated in South Africa or southern Africa.

 

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