Several countries across the globe have restarted imposing international travel restrictions and measures to guard against Omicron, a new variant of the COVID-19. However, Twitter influencers and Redditors are of the opinion that travel ban may actually harm many industries, especially the travel and tourism industry, according to the Social Media Analytics Platform of GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s Social Media Analytics Platform identifies and tracks the emerging trends, pain areas, new fields of innovation among discussions of Twitter influencers and Redditors.
Smitarani Tripathy, Influencer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “’Omicron’ emerged as a new trend in social media conversations, which surged to gather about 10,000 mentions in the last week of November. ‘Travel restrictions’ and ‘Vaccines’ were popped up as the top discussed keywords among the conversations around Omicron, following many governments’ decisions to reintroduce pandemic travel restrictions. Most of the influencers have expressed their concern that air travel ban on few countries may not arrest the spread of mutations, rather disrupt the trade as it must have already reached other parts of the globe. Influencers also opine that close surveillance of travelers and vaccination is important instead of a blanket ban on travel.”
Below are a few most popular tweets captured by GlobalData’s Social Media Analytics Platform:
Marc Mendelson, Professor of Infectious Diseases at University of Cape Town:
“’tis the nature of the beast☹️ Omicron already disseminated globally & no doubt like beta & delta, will populate most countries. Travel bans won’t stop that & are literally breaking economies. South Africa is losing R225m PER DAY from lost tourism revenue 😱.”
Christian Althaus, Head of Interfaculty Platform for Data and Computational Science (INPUT) at University of Bern
“Fully agree with @richardneher If it turns out that Omicron already spreads in many European countries, travel restrictions to RSA and other African countries should be lifted. Close surveillance of travelers remains important, however.”
Isaac Bogoch, Infectious Diseases Consultant and General Internist at the Toronto General Hospital
“To clarify – we still need to approach Omicron with a healthy respect given the many unknowns, however focused travel restrictions to southern Africa are not likely to be an effective strategy given the growing case detection from beyond the region including some with no link.”
Faheem Yonus, Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at UM Upper Chesapeake Health:
“Implement these 3 steps and never impose a COVID travel ban again…
- PCR 48 h prior (detects Omicron variant)
- Proof of vaccination needed (reduces risk of infection)
- Require KN95 masks on flight (minimizes risk of transmission)
Don’t react like it’s 2020”
Carlos del Rio, Executive Associate Dean for Emory at Grady; co-Director of Emory CFAR.
“Agree with your suggestions but don’t agree with the travel ban as implemented by the Administration. It’s useless. We need testing pre and post flights and a clear plan for quarentene of those returning from countries where Omicron identified now just 8 African countries.”
Lawrence Gostin, University Professor at Georgetown University Law Center
“On #WorldAidsDay2021 nations are locking out southern Africa due to #Omicron. We must #FollowtheScience. Rather than harmful bans:
- * WHO scientific recs
- * IHR Reform Governing Travel
- * Or adopt a WHO Int’l Code of Conduct
- * Compensation for states affected by bans”
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