As news of omicron intensified over last weekend, Adams’s advisers reportedly considered shelving the trip on the logic that the new variant was identified in Africa. The US banned travel to and from Botswana (where the variant was first spotted), South Africa (whose scientists transparently alerted the world about the variant), and six other southern African countries that have not reported an omicron case as of today.
But Adams proceeds with the trip because of a rather simple reason: while omicron has been spotted in Europe, and has probably entered the US, it has not been reported in Ghana or elsewhere outside southern Africa. America’s restriction on southern Africa is part of the criticized knee-jerk reaction to news of the variant, and until scientists advise otherwise, these bans should not be applied to other regions in the continent.
And so instead of generating poor optics, the second Black person elected as New York mayor invoked America’s first Black president’s first Ghana trip in 2009. “The people of Ghana, just like Obama when he ran for president, they’re waiting for me to go,” Adams said.
