Crippling Lockdowns Futile vs Less Severe Omicron Variant

On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was told about a cluster of what appeared to be pneumonia cases in a Chinese city called Wuhan. Over the next few weeks and months first cities, then countries, and finally the entire planet shut down, The Economist reported.

Photo Insert: Halloween, coronavirus lockdown version.

Humanity has learned a lot about the coronavirus in the past two years. Masks, social distancing, and, most of all, vaccines have proved effective in curbing its spread. Yet one lesson has not sunk in: long-lasting travel restrictions are mostly futile.

The virus has settled in countries big and small but even the much-touted Omicron variant of the virus apparently mutated and lacked the virulence of earlier variants.

In November, when South Africa announced the discovery of a fast-spreading new variant, Omicron, many countries’ first response was to slap entry bans or onerous hotel-quarantine requirements on travelers from southern Africa.

Some, such as Japan and Israel, closed their borders to all foreigners. The presence of the variant in Xian also forced China to order a lockdown on the 13 million residents of the city.

Others that were in the process of reopening, such as Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand, quickly changed their minds. Obstacles to travel were re-erected even within Europe’s supposedly borderless Schengen area.

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