‘I Have Been Stunned At The Response’: South African Dr. Who Reported Omicron Slams Hysteria

ByHank Berrien

On Monday, the South African doctor who first reported seeing a patient who had the Omicron variant, triggering a panic in world markets, issued an opinion piece in The Daily Mail in which she cautioned, “I have been stunned at the response – and especially from Britain. And let me be clear: nothing I have seen about this new variant warrants the extreme action the UK government has taken in response to it..”

Angelique Coetzee, the chair of the South African Medical Association who has been a general  practitioner for 33 years, started by writing, “I have seen a lot over my medical career. But nothing has prepared me for the extraordinary global reaction that met my announcement this week that I had seen a young man in my surgery who had a case of Covid that turned out to be the Omicron variant.”

Noting that the Omicron variant “had been circulating in southern Africa for some time, having been previously identified in Botswana,” she added, “But given my public-facing role, by announcing its presence in my own patient, I unwittingly brought it to global attention. Quite simply, I have been stunned at the response – and especially from Britain.And let me be clear: nothing I have seen about this new variant warrants the extreme action the UK government has taken in response to it.”

Citing the heavy travel restrictions that Europe has imposed, she opined, “The simple truth is: we don’t know yet anywhere near enough about Omicron to make such judgments or to impose such policies.”