Trevor Noah thinks U.S. travel restrictions with Africa are ‘total bulls***’

On Monday, “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah voiced his displeasure over recently implemented travel restrictions for several southern African countries due to the discovery of the Covid-19 omicron variant. And he pointed out that scientists still don’t know where the variant originated.

“As a South African,” Noah said, “I think this travel ban is total bulls***.”

Noah cited that the variant has been identified all over the world.

“It's everywhere from Hong Kong, to Israel to Spain, so why aren't you banning travel from all of those countries too?” Noah asked. “Only the African countries what is the difference between the African country -- oh!”

The omicron variant was first discovered by South African scientists and Noah worries the travel restrictions will impact future scientific discoveries.

He said, “You do realize that other countries are paying attention and they realize if they are going to get punished for telling the world about new variants, they're going to stop telling the world whenever their scientists discover new variants.”

Video Transcript

TREVOR NOAH: As a South African who does not have the variant I think this travel ban is total bull [BLEEP] I really do.

KYLIE MAR: On Monday, the "Daily Show's" Trevor Noah voiced his displeasure over recently implemented travel restrictions for several southern African countries due to the discovery of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. And he pointed out that scientists still don't know where the variant originated.

TREVOR NOAH: It's everywhere from Hong Kong to Israel to Spain, so why aren't you banning travel from all of those countries too, huh? Only the African countries? What's the difference between the African countries-- oh.

KYLIE MAR: The Omicron variant was first discovered by South African scientists, and Noah worries that travel restrictions will impact future scientific discoveries.

TREVOR NOAH: You do realize that other countries are paying attention and they realize that if they're going to get punished for telling the world about new variants, they're going to stop telling the world whenever their scientists discover new variants.

KYLIE MAR: And to further support Noah's argument, he brought on vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez who has been very critical of travel bans because he believes they hurt much more than they help.

DR. PETER HOTEZ: They're saying, oh my god, but it's in multiple European countries and in Australia, in Canada, maybe the United States. And I say, well yeah, that's been true of every variant we've had. By the time we identify a new variant, it's almost always all over the world.