Why South Africa Sounded the Alarm Over Omicron

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The Wall Street Journal

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4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2021

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

On Friday, the World Health Organization labeled a new variant of the coronavirus, called Omicron, as a variant of concern. WSJ's Gabriele Steinhauser explains how scientists in South Africa noticed it so quickly, and what's known about Omicron so far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Last week, there was a development in the fight against the coronavirus.
0:09.5	A new variant was identified, called Omacron.
0:15.0	Early studies show it could be even more contagious than Delta.
0:19.0	Health officials in several European countries, Hong Kong, Israel, and Australia, all confirmed
0:24.7	cases of Omacron.
0:26.5	Scientists about the new COVID strain tainted the markets on Friday with the Dow plunging
0:30.6	more than 900 points.
0:32.2	The US will join multiple nations in restricting travel from South Africa where this new variant
0:37.2	was first identified.
0:38.2	Businesses fear the variant could mean more restrictions, lockdowns, throwing another
0:41.7	wrench into the global economic recovery.
0:45.2	Scientists around the world are now racing to understand the Omacron variant.
0:49.7	Will vaccines work against it?
0:51.6	How contagious is it?
0:53.2	And how deadly?
0:54.6	And what will it mean for the future of the pandemic?
1:00.2	Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.
1:04.2	I'm Ryan Kuditzen.
1:05.7	It's Monday, November 29th.
1:13.1	Coming up on the show, the newest variant that's got the world on edge and the story of
1:18.5	how it was identified so quickly.
1:35.2	Earlier this month, South Africa was recovering from a big wave of COVID.
	...

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