Parenting

WHO labels new COVID-19 strain a 'variant of concern,' as U.S. restricts travel from parts of Africa

By Sophie Mann - JustTheNews

he World Health Organization on Friday labeled the new B.1.1.529 COVID-19 strain a "variant of concern" as stock markets reacted with alarm and some countries closed their borders to travelers coming from South Africa, where the virus was discovered. The W.H.O. noted that the variant, which they are calling "Omicron," has a large number of mutations, "some of which are concerning."

The organization is asking countries to enhance their surveillance and sequencing efforts in order to better understand COVID-19 variants.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday it was too early to determine if the new variant was resistant to current vaccines.

Meanwhile, the chair of the South African Medical Association (SAMA) says the new variant is out of Botswana and that currently there are six cases in the country.

"Six cases are not a lot, and this variant seems to have originated from an HIV positive patient," said Dr. Angelique Coetzee, adding that because there are so few cases right now, "we don't have a clinical picture yet, therefore we cannot tell patients that if you are suffering from the following symptoms please see your doctor."

She noted, however, that while there has been a spike in COVID19 cases in the country – patients have mostly mild symptoms –there is not currently a spike in hospital admissions.

U.S. markets responded Friday to news of the new COVID strain after being closed Thursday for Thanksgiving. It was the worst day for the Dow in more than a year, as the index ended Black Friday more than 900 points down. Other significant U.S. indexes ended the holiday week more than 2% down.

A release from the global organization said that the independent Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus evolution has been convened to assess the seriousness of the South African "variant of concern."

"The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO from South Africa on [Nov. 24, 2021]," read the release. "The epidemiological situation in South Africa has been characterized by three distinct peaks in reported cases, the latest of which was predominantly the delta variant. In recent weeks, infections have increased steeply, coinciding with the detection of B.1.1.529 variant. The first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on [Nov. 9, 2021]."

In response to mounting global pressure, President Joe Biden will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other southern African nations on Monday. Incoming travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi will be barred.

The president was reportedly briefed by health officials on the new variant earlier today. American citizens and lawful permanent residents will be permitted to reenter the U.S. after testing negative prior to traveling. What is “gentle parenting”? It did not take much investigation for me to conclude that it is merely a reJohn Rosemond branding of the same old, same old parenting babble America’s mental health establishment has been grinding out since the late 1960s. As clearly stated on one of their websites, GP is mostly about the supposed need to understand why children feel the way they do: “Unlike permissive parenting, gentle parenting is not based on a lack of discipline for children, which is sometimes misinterpreted. Instead, gentle parenting means understanding a child's feelings at the moment and responding accordingly in a way that is beneficial to the child's emotional well-being.”

Mental health professionals began demonizing punishment some fifty years ago, and sure enough, I discovered that so-called “gentle” parents don’t punish. When a child misbehaves—or, to use the currently popular euphemism, makes “bad choices”—gentle parents talk, explain, and reason (all of which falls on dry ground when the recipient is a child, as people with commonsense don’t need to be told).

But is punishment bad? Not at all. A generation of children who were reliably punished for misbehavior—kids who, like yours truly, were raised in the 1950s and 1960s—enjoyed considerably better mental health than have children raised since. A compelling body of research even finds that children who are occasionally spanked score higher on measures of well-being than children who have never experienced the sound of one hand clapping.

The gentle parenting folks say they believe in boundaries, but they’re being disingenuous. As an example, consider the midwestern psychologist mom who (a) claims to practice and promote GP and (b) is proud of never telling her child, currently a toddler, “no.” She has even told his preschool teachers that she doesn’t want them saying “no” to him. She apparently believes there is something about that particular phonetic phenomenon that causes a child psychic distress. In fact, “no” is the first and most important of all boundaries. A child who learns to accept “no” is on his way to emotional resilience and, therefore, good mental health. What, pray tell, is there to understand about a child’s feelings? Children are self-centered, possess an entitlement mentality, and have no tolerance for frustration. So, when they don’t get what they think they deserve, they emote in various antisocial ways. Why does that require “understanding”? Children do not need people who understand their feelings as much as they need people who insist that they control them and get themselves in tune with reality, which is independent of what they want it to be.

Gentle parenting will sell well, mostly because its post-1960s philosophical predecessors managed to turn something that was once done calmly and straightforwardly into the most stressful thing a woman will do in her entire life. As such, moms (the primary consumers of parenting advice) are desperate for “answers” and convinced, oddly enough, that the answers lie in modifications of the very babble that is causing their stress to begin with.

Parents would do well to come to grips with an immutable truth: When it comes to raising children properly, there is nothing new under the sun.

Family psychologist John Rosemond: johnrosemond.com, parentguru.com.

John Rosemond has worked with families, children, and parents since 1971 in the field of family psychology. In 1971, John earned his masters in psychology from Western Illinois University and was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society.