Piers Morgan: “Omicron is Not a ‘South African variant’, it’s a Variant Spotted & Reported by Brilliant South African Scientists”
English broadcaster and journalist Piers Morgan says the new variant of COVID-19 called B1.1.512 or Omicron is not a South African variant and could have been spotted anywhere.
Morgan shared a post on social media on Saturday following the emergence of the new variant of the Coronavirus in South Africa.
South Africa complained on Saturday that it is being “punished” for detecting Omicron which the World Health Organization has termed a “variant of concern” and is more transmissible than the dominant Delta strain.
The International Relations Department (Dirco) said the decision by a number of countries around the world to ban flights from southern Africa following the discovery of the variant “is akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker.”
This was echoed by Morgan in a tweet.
“Omicron is not a ‘South African variant’, it’s a variant that was spotted & reported by brilliant South African scientists so fast the world has a chance to get on top of it. Could have originated anywhere.”
Dirco pointed out that new variants had been discovered in other parts of the world.
