The World Health Organization was urging nations not to impose travel bans on south African nations after the outbreak of a new COVID variant, the omicron variant. Other countries, including the U.S., have banned travelers from that area, which WHO claims is not a science-based reaction. In the case of COVID, who cares what WHO wants?

Keeping people traveling from an infected area out of the country is a pretty good way to prevent or at least slow the spread.

Unfortunately, it may be too late to contain the spread. New cases are popping up in other parts of the world, including a couple of cases in Canada, traced to people who recently traveled to Nigeria. Other cases have been found in Britain, Hong Kong and Australia.

Scientists are still trying to study the new variant to determine how easily it spreads and how virulent it is. It could be no more serious than the delta variant, but until we know more about it, caution is certainly the keyword.

Yes, travel bans may inhibit the economy of the infected region in Africa, but slowing the spread of this latest variant trumps those concerns.