There is a meme making the rounds that bears consideration:

Sent by a discussion list moderator, they preface the meme by stating "If you're seeing the 'variant started in SA' take, push back on it. It's based in racism."

The statement from Graeme Codrington (I looked him at at TomorrowToday, he's an expert (their words) speaker on the subject of the "Future of Work" and "disruptive change.")

Once again the world's media is reporting: "South Africa has a new Covid variant" as if the variant started here and is infecting us all.

CAN I SAY THIS GAIN, MORE LOUDLY FOR THE IDIOT JOURNALISTS AT THE BACK: South Africa has one of the most sophisticated and advanced infectious diseases infrastructure on the planet. Some of the world's leading epidemiologists work in South Africa. We've had to develop these capabilities to deal with TB and AIDS and other diseases ravaging our continent.

It is no surprise that our medical system is the first in the world to identify new Covid variants. It is no surprise that we led the world in clinical trials of vaccines.

What IS a surprise is how lazy journalists write headlines: "New Covid variant in South Africa." No, this new Covid variant has been found in New Zealand, England, Brazil, France, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and other places. South African scientists isolated, sequenced and understood it first. Report THAT face, but don't start all. . .

The screenshot was blocked at that point. This guy is a Futurist who was sharing his opinion. One takeaway from this, (beyond the racism point made by the moderator who shared this somewhere), is that banning travel is probably already too late, especially if this has popped up all around the world. The fact that it was identified in South Africa may be moot. The fact that it may not have originated there (time will tell) means the safety New World nations might feel by banning travel from a third-world continent is ill-advised.