The President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, questioned whether economic and media power factors use the appearance of new variants of the Coronavirus “to increase their profits and manipulate public opinion” for the benefit of capitalism.
Explaining that “every time a new variant appears the (stock) markets fall”, he expressed concern at the apparent manipulation of commodity prices reflected in the fall to $56 a barrel of oil, once the first case of the Omicrom variant was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Sometimes I wonder, is it that they are using some of the variants (of the Coronavirus) to alarm the world more than necessary?”, He inquired during his speech at the XX Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), held at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana.
He noted that scientific research indicates that the Omicron variant “appears to be more contagious, but not more lethal” than previously discovered mutations.
Referring to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the dignitary affirmed that the timely decisions adopted by the ALBA-TCP were successful by “standing together for solidarity”.