A representative of South Africa called President Joe Biden's travel ban 'unfair' and urged the United States to share more of its vaccine supply as the Omicron variant of COVID spreads around the world.
'We feel that the travel ban is very unfair,' Xolisa Mabhongo, the deputy permanent representative of South Africa to the United Nations told CNN's New Day Tuesday morning. 'South African science should be commended for discovering this new variant and sharing the information with the world.'
The United States travel ban went into affect on Monday. Biden argued the ban would buy scientists time to learn more about Omicron, which the World Health Organization said is highly transmissible and a 'variant of concern.'
The president also argued the best protection against Omicron is being fully vaccinated, getting the booster shot and wearing a face mask. The CDC has expanded booster guidelines to include all adult Americans.
But Stephane Bancel, chief executive at vaccine maker Moderna, warned it will take months to develop an Omicron-specific booster, possibly to summer 2022.
Xolisa Mabhongo, the deputy permanent representative of South Africa to the United Nations, called President Joe Biden's travel ban 'unfair'
And Mabhongo stressed the importance of vaccine equity in all countries in order to 'see the end of COVID.'
'As long as the world operates on this trajectory on vaccine inequality, we will not see the end of COVID,' he said. 'We think it is not wise to continue in this route, we think vaccines should be shared by all countries.'
'At this moment, less than 10% of the African population as a whole has been vaccinated, but we know that in other countries the rate is over 80%. So, this is indeed very unfair, and we have been urging countries to reverse it,' he said.
The Biden administration argues the United States is one of the biggest distributors of COVID vaccines, pointing out the U.S. has shipped over 275 million doses of vaccines to 110 countries around the world.
That number includes 93.9 million for Africa alone, and 13.3 million to the countries restricted by the travel ban - Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
But Mabhongo argued more is needed.
'We do need more vaccines for sure, that is not a question. We need more vaccines in South Africa, in southern African and in the rest of the African continent,' he said.
Meanwhile, scientists say it will take two weeks to truly work out how effective jabs are against Omicron, which has twice as many mutations on its spike protein as Delta.
The strain is expected to make current vaccines significantly weaker at preventing infections, but it's less clear how it will impact hospitalizations and deaths.
Biden said at a White House press conference Monday: 'We do not yet believe that additional measures will be needed' to combat Omicron.
'But so that we are prepared if needed, my team is already working with officials at Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson to develop contingency plans for vaccines or boosters if needed.'
Moderna alongside other vaccine
