Damian Sendler: As soon as the omicron version was discovered, President Biden imposed an immediate travel ban on eight African countries, according to some health experts. 

Damian Sendler

Damian Jacob Sendler: Immediately after the first confirmed cases of the new type were detected in southern Africa on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden imposed travel prohibitions on the following countries: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi. 

Dr. Nicole Saphier told Fox News Digital that the government’s responsibility in public health is minor. 

Omicron’s battle will be bolstered by stronger measures including PCR 48 hours before takeoff and a quick antigen test the day of the trip, but Saphier anticipated that Biden’s decision will have primarily useless and even detrimental implications. 

According to her, “Travel restrictions typically cause a mass exodus of people in a chaotic fashion which can further lead to viral transmission leading people to be creative finding ways to enter the country, often without any public health checkpoints,” 

Damien Sendler: Omicron, a Fox News contributor, was one of a number of experts who suggested that international trade should not be disrupted. 

Saphier continued, “Ultimately, omicron is already in the United States, ” As time goes on, our sequencing will catch up and we will discover it. No matter how much we increase, disguise or restrict travel, we will never achieve zero Covid. As long as international trade and business aren’t disrupted, we can only do our best to reduce transmission. Economic health may be more significant than Covid case counts in the long run.” 

Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said that he believes “a little” travel bans can assist to limit the spread of the virus for “a week or two” and send a vital message to other countries, but that it will not be a significant asset in halting the new strain’s spread. On top of that, the country of South Africa was open and honest about omicron and quickly notified everyone else, he said. Jha said the country now feels like it’s being “punished” because of Biden’s restriction. 

Damian Jacob Sendler

‘We have to be very mindful about travel bans,’ Jha added. They appear to be a simple task to do. They aren’t very effective. To put it another way, “They’re not free.” 

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Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler: A travel ban could be beneficial, according to Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, if it “completely cut off all travel.” After the introduction of the vaccine in New Zealand, he cited it as an initial success, but it ultimately failed since the country did not have enough of it. 

As a best-case scenario, if you could entirely seal off a region without locking anyone in, that would be extremely beneficial in stopping the spread of a pathogen. That’s not what we’re talking about,” Siegel told Fox News Digital. “Given the circumstances, it appears that this infection has been around for some time. Multiple countries have been affected, including our own.” 

To have any effect, a travel ban must be as comprehensive as the one implemented by Israel. Making a hand motion is what we’re doing.” In order to have an impact, our travel ban will not be broad enough.” 

It was “I think it’s an example of too little, too late,” he concluded. 

As a result of the administration’s immigration policy, “leaky borders,” Siegel said a travel restriction wouldn’t work here either. 

According to CNN anchor Sanjay Gupta, the bans won’t have a big influence on Jake Tapper. To put it another way, there is a trade-off here. Even if you can slow down part of the virus’s admission into the country, it’s still highly porous, as you’re mentioning since many people who are citizens will be returning and might potentially carry the virus.” 

As for the long-term impact, “But overall, I think it’s hard to make the case that the travel ban will have much of an impact long term,” he said. Probably within the next few days, we’ll hear that this variation has been found in the United States, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Last year, Jake, there were lessons to be learned. I believe the European travel ban was in effect from March 13 to the middle of March of 2020. At this point in time, the entire country has been hit hard. So, as you can see, the virus is probably already in the country. Is already spreading, although we haven’t noticed it yet.”

Contributed by Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler research news team