14.12.2021

The Omicron Variant of COVID 19 and the failure of global solidarity

Rev. Pastor Pieter Grove, Moderator of the Cape Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA); © Photo: Martina Pauly / UEM

Late November 2021, a laboratory in South Africa discovered a new variant of the COVID 19 virus. The South African health authorities promptly reported it to the WHO. This new variant was named Omicron. The reporting coincided with the discovery that the new strain was prevalent in other countries apart from South Africa and Botswana viz. Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic.

The South African authorities were greatly disturbed when the medical effort and the transparency in reporting were summarily rewarded with travel bans by the UK, US and some European and African countries.

At this point in time, the omicron variant has been observed in many more developed countries including the Netherlands and the USA. The same ban was, however, not applied to those countries, raising the question why South Africa and the SADEC countries were being discriminated against. This development shows that the knee-jerk reaction of western governments has indeed been arbitrary and discriminatory.

The medical and scientific community knows that viruses multiply and mutate when the resistance against it is inadequate. Western nations have been hoarding the vaccines that protect against the virus in a truly disturbing and short-sighted way. Low-income countries globally but mostly in Africa have received only 0,6 % of the world vaccines. We currently have a toxic mix of low vaccine coverage and very low testing, a recipe for breeding and amplifying new variants.

The COVID 19 pandemic and its latest evolution and the global reaction illustrates the mindset of so many developed countries: go into isolation and exclude the less fortunate. SA has been supported tremendously during the Apartheid years by solidarity movements all over the globe which recognized that this very inequitable global system is the direct outcome of centuries of pillaging and conquest. The pandemic shows that this exclusionary system is very much alive.

The UEM is a modest but very important part of our global witness and solidarity. We strive, plan, envision and implement together. It is for such times that Christian mutuality must assert itself. Our numbers are immaterial to the task.

Therefore, we ask for the prayers and solidarity of our sisters and brothers, that the world will recognise our interdependence, and that assistance is rooted in justice and not in charity.

Rev. Pieter Grove, Cape Town, South Africa