AFROPHOBIA? OR A GENUINE CALL TO CURB SPREAD OF COVID 19: A Peep at European & Western Reaction to South Africa’s Discovery of the Omicron Variant
By Sonny Mncedisi Dube Afrophobia - is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards black people or people of African Descent around the world. [http://www.red-network.eu/?i=red-network.en.thesaurus.1] Abstract Covid 19 has since its emergence early in the year 2020 caused a scare, straining the global health system beyond what it can handle with over 2 million global infections and over 5 million deaths to date. Lockdowns, masks, social distancing, sanitizers, vaccines all constitute a gamut of routine health efforts aimed at curbing the spread of covid 19, all which we have come to embrace as a norm in our daily lives. Covid 19 was first detected in China early in 2020, travel bans and lockdowns gradually ensued as ways to curb its spread. In the same manner, South Africa like China has been ostracized for the discovery of the new Covid 19 variant. The difference is that whilst China’s discovery of the first covid 19 virus was shrouded in sec