This is my attempt at gleaning as much info from some various news sources and dumping into an eas(ier) way to digest the info quickly. I tend to do this as a deep dive while arguing with people on social media (I'm a recovering asshole) and I decided to make my efforts more productive by creating a paper trail (on the blockchain!) of what I found out.
Quick look at the "Front Page" of Covid-19 coverage. Omicron is taking over the narrative.
Lets start with the Bloomberg article:
Next I tackled the Reuters Video:
"The World Health Organization is deploying a surge team to South Africa's Gauteng province, epicenter of the new Omicron coronavirus variant outbreak, to help with surveillance and contact tracing, WHO's Regional Emergency Director for Africa, Salam Gueye, said."
*The video was edited with an abrupt start and end so I wondered if there is more context to this video. The fact that Reuters Chairman and Pfizer's Director are the same person I'm sure, is unrelated. Thankfully, The Sun played the stream of the entire event I was hoping if there was any gained context
Stream starts at 3:17 with WHO's Regional Emergency Director for Africa, Dr. Salam Gueye speaking.
He speaks for about 3 minutes and after that more people start talking. I am just here for his full context but I will listen briefly to what the other people had to say.
I did my best to type out what he said in English in good faith. If anyone has corrections, please feel free to let me know.
"...Thankfully the speed and transparency by Botswana and South Africa in detecting and alerting the world to the new variant has been (for us) an important issue and it has given to the world an early start in mounting an effective response. We must seize this window of opportunity, act swiftly to ramp up measure(s) to track, detect, control, spread of (the) Omicron variant. At WHO We are urging countries to increase genome sequencing, ensure that laboratories have sufficient equipment and staff to accelerate (all of this?) and the screening of port of entry to enhance so that cases are detected early and appropriate clinical care provided"
This is where the previous video joins in:
"We are also working closely with countries to step up response to this new variant. In South Africa, where WHO has already a team working on genome sequencing, we are deploying a surge team in Gauteng province to support surveillance and contact tracing. As other (intervention subsides infection prevention and treatment measure?).
In Botswana, we are providing technical assistance to boost the production and distribution of medical oxygen. The organization is also mobilizing 12 million dollars to support critical response activities in countries across the region for the next 3 months.
Turning to Covid-19 vaccination, it has almost been a year since the world's first Covid 19 shot was given. Yet, Africa has made little inroads in the part to providing vaccination protection. So far, only 102 million Africans in Africa (or 7.5% of the continent population) is fully vaccinated. More than 80% of the population have not received even a single dose. This is a dangerously wide gap."
(This is where Reuters video ends and I was able to find the rest of what he says through the stream by The Sun).
"However, in the past 3 months there have been a welcome increase in vaccine supplies. Countries must do their upmost to ensure the widest possible vaccine coverage, identify and quickly address any obstacle.
Challenges in operational planning, funding, vaccine delivery service as well, as communication and as community engagement have hindered the effort to widen vaccination in some African countries. To address these bottlenecks the WHO and (?) organization have carried out field mission in countries to help refine and reinforce the vaccine (?) strategies. Mass vaccination campaign are not new development in Africa. We have been doing it for over 50 years now however the Covid 19 vaccine drive is unprecedented and presents many challenges. I thank you once again for joining us and I look forward to the discussion."
Then Professor Anne von Gottberg, Clinical Microbiologist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa spoke. Key points that she said:
- In the month of November 70-75% of Covid sequenced in South African and Botswana was the Omicron Variant
- Reinfection is seemingly higher with Omicron compared to other variants but "hopefully (a vaccine) provides them with from severe disease, hospitalizations, and death".
- Her general message was that she encouraged as many people getting vaccinated as possible.
Next we take a look at the BBC article:
They quoted Anne von Gottberg seemingly from the same video.
Interesting to note: They said the variant had been identified for a month. So this isn't that new it has had a month to spread and its already identified in most countries.
The Wall Street Journal article was behind a paywall so... no promotion for them here.
Now it's time to play a game of "what are the statistics of the countries mentioned"
South Africa cases and deaths:
Botswana cases and deaths:
I hope this collection of information is informative and provides some sort of value to you reading it!