Yes, vaccine inequality is "a key reason for the emergence of the new omicron variant," but vaccine hesitancy shares part of the blame, too. And this report ignores the possibility that the Omicron variant originated in another country and was merely first detected in South Africa. It's entirely possible that the biological origin of this variant lies in a country where hesitancy to take the shot has stalled vaccine uptake despite widespread availability. I expect we'll see more reports like the Dutch study that came out earlier this week, showing the presence of the Omicron variant within a country before the initial reports from South Africa.
Vaccine inequality is a major problem, but so is vaccine hesitancy.
tags: covid vaccines omicronvariant
posted by matt in Wednesday, December 1, 2021