White House press secretary Jen Psaki was forced to defend President Biden’s eight-country southern Africa travel restrictions Thursday when an African journalist suggested they were “racist” because the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has now been confirmed in 57 countries.
Simon Ateba of Today News Africa raised the point during the daily White House briefing — interrupting Psaki’s attempt to call on Brazilian journalist Raquel Krähenbühl.
“Can we let Raquel? Simon, Simon, Simon, Simon, I’m trying to answer your question and then I’m gonna go to Raquel,” Psaki said as Ateba interrupted.
“Simon, we’re evaluating every single day,” she added. “We don’t want these to be permanent measures. And, and it is something that the president is getting updates from his COVID team every single day on.”
Ateba has repeatedly interrupted Psaki and briefing guests, including Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, to protest the travel restrictions that took effect Nov. 29 amid fear that the Omicron variant may be more contagious than prior strains.
Ateba, who was born in Cameroon in central Africa before later living in Nigeria, tacked on a follow-up question after Psaki replied to his interruption Thursday.
“The Omicron variant is now in 57 countries,” he said. “The WHO issued a statement today and said that Africa has 46 percent of the nearly 1,000 cases globally. But 70 — almost 70 countries in the world have imposed travel ban[s] on only black African nation[s]. And the US is among the countries that have imposed sanctions on only eight African nation[s] when the variant is in 57 countries.
“Why don’t you just lift it or impose caution on all the countries that have it? What would you say to those who believe that is a racist ban that target[s] only African and black African nations?”
“Simon, I would convey to you that is absolutely not the intention. That is not our policy,” Psaki replied.
“This was a recommendation of the health and medical experts because there were a large number of cases in South Africa. And they made a decision early on, out of an abundance of caution and to protect the American people, to slow the spread of the variant. This is not meant to be permanent. It’s not meant to be a punishment. And we’re evaluating every single day decisions on whether to — when to lift these restrictions.”
The Omicron variant was discovered last month by South African scientists and quickly spread around the world. It has been detected in at least 21 US states.
Although lab-confirmed cases of the variant outside Africa are now more numerous, South Africa and some nearby countries are experiencing a COVID-19 case surge that may be associated with the variant.
Ateba last week asked Fauci to explain why the administration restricted travel to the US by foreign citizens who recently visited southern Africa when only two of the eight countries impacted had confirmed Omicron cases.
“There are zero cases of COVID — of Omicron in Zimbabwe, in Namibia, in Lesotho, in Mozambique,” Ateba said. “What justifies imposing a travel ban on countries that have zero cases of the Omicron variant?”
“You know, that’s a very good question and important question, and we did struggle with that,” Fauci answered. “But we wanted to see if we could buy time temporarily, so I do hope that this gets sorted out and lifted before it has any significant impact on your country.”
Pfizer said Wednesday that preliminary research indicates that a third dose of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine works against the Omicron variant — dampening two weeks of speculation that the mutant might elude vaccines.
Pfzier said that three doses gives people the same approximate level of protection as two doses did against the original COVID-19 strain. Two doses of the company’s vaccine were about 95 percent effective against transmission of the original strain.
The Biden administration last month ended a long-running ban on travel from early COVID-19 hotspots including Europe and adopted a policy where foreign citizens who enter the US by plane must be vaccinated and also get tested for the virus.
Last week, the president unveiled a COVID-19 “winter plan” which requires all US-bound travelers to receive a negative test within 24 hours of their flight — regardless of citizenship or vaccination status.