Omicron: Israel closing border over new coronavirus variant: LIVE UPDATES

Two cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, first detected in Southern Africa last week, have been confirmed in Canada, provincial health officials said on Sunday.

The cases were reported in two people who recently traveled to Nigeria, the Ontario government said in a statement.

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, issued a five-tweet Twitter thread Sunday blasting Dr. Anthony Fauci as an "unelected technocrat who has distorted science and facts in order to exercise authoritarian control over millions of Americans."

Saying Fauci "lives in a liberal world where his smug 'I REPRESENT science'" attitude is praised, Cruz cited the section of the U.S. Code that both he and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., allege Fauci violated when he testified before a Senate Committee in May that "the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

Cruz went on to quote an Oct. 20 letter from the NIH to Congress explaining how they funded an experiment at the Wuhan lab that tested if “spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model."

Such experimentation qualifies as gain-of-function research and proves that Fauci lied to Congress, Cruz said. He concluded by urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to consider prosecuting Fauci.

During a Sunday interview with CBS' "Face the Nation," Fauci escalated his spat with some lawmakers over the nation’s COVID-19 response by claiming they oppose "science." Fauci has served as the face of the government’s pandemic response, putting him at odds with lawmakers such as Cruz and Paul, who remain critical.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci escalated his spat with some lawmakers over the nation’s COVID-19 response by claiming they oppose "science." 

Fauci has served as the face of the government’s pandemic response, putting him at odds with lawmakers who remain critical of that response. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has frequently sparred with Fauci over various statements and policies the president’s chief medical advisor has made.

Fauci, during an interview with "Face the Nation," dismissed opposition by such lawmakers as "noise," saying they’re "really criticizing science." 

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NBC's Chuck Todd challenged President Biden for how he's handled the coronavirus pandemic, particularly in light of the new omicron variant that has prompted the White House to ban travel from several African countries, beginning Monday.

Todd, host of "Meet the Press," suggested that omicron, from which most cases were discovered in southern Africa, was not just a health problem. It's a political one as well for the current administration, he argued, flashing back to when Biden "prematurely" declared a sort of victory over the virus on July 4.

"Ultimately, this is also a political problem," Todd said Sunday. "Biden ran on taming the pandemic and he prematurely declared independence from the virus back in July."

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A new surge was long anticipated and even a new variant, but the speed with which omicron hit came as a “shock” to South Africa’s health experts.

“We did expect that we may see a new or a different variant gaining momentum in the fourth wave ... but we did not really expect to see a variant with the kind of multiplicity of mutations. And that is capable of becoming highly transmissible and escape or evade immunity at the same time,” said Moshabela, the expert from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. “This was really the shock that we had.”

Although the current cases are concentrated in Pretoria and Johannesburg, tests show that omicron is already in all of South Africa's nine provinces.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins said Sunday that current coronavirus vaccines will "most likely" be effective against the newly-discovered omicron variant, but that it is too soon to tell for sure.

In an interview with "Fox News Sunday," Collins pointed to the unprecedented number of mutations this variant appears to have, making it unpredictable for the time being.

"We do know that this is a variant that has a lot of mutations – like 50 of them, and more than 30 of those in the spike protein, which is the part off the virus that attaches to your human cells if you get infected," Collins said. "That is a new record in terms of the number of mutations. It does make you worry, therefore, that it's a sufficiently different virus, that it might not respond as well to protection from the vaccines. But we don't know that."

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Fauci said he would be “astounded” if the U.S. did not perform an assessment of its response to the pandemic.

“I think what’s going to happen is that you’re going to see that,” Fauci said on “Face the Nation.” “I would be astounded if we did not have a very serious look at what went right, what went wrong from a public health standpoint, from a local standpoint, from a global standpoint.”

“I don’t think the public should imagine this will go through, with 760,000 dying and 40 plus million being infected … and we’re not going to look back at this and tear it apart, examine it, do an autopsy on it and figure it out.”

When asked if he wants a commission to investigate the response, Fauci said he “absolutely” wants one.

Former FDA head Dr. Scott Gottlieb stated that the omicron variant is most likely already in America, even though officials have yet to confirm any cases.

"It's almost definitely here already," Gottlieb said on "Face the Nation." "Just looking at the number of cases coming off planes this weekend, it's almost a certainty that there some cases that have gotten into the United States."

But Gottlieb downplayed any fears that omicron could cause a reset to the way things were at the start of the pandemic.

"We're in a much better place than we were a year ago when B.1.1.7 first arrived or when delta first arrived," Gottlieb argued, revealing that the CDC is sequencing about 100,000 cases a week and will set up a new surveillance system specifically for the omicron.

Fauci admitted that the virus may end up in a permanent endemic phase, much like the influenza virus.

"We certainly are not going to eradicate it," Fauci said on "Meet the Press." "What I do think we'll be able to do is get a level of control that's low enough that doesn't interfere with our function."

"It doesn't have a major impact on society and what we do, but it's not going to go away," he added.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told "Meet the Press" that the new restrictions introduced in the face of the omicron variant are born out of caution based on analysis of mutations on the spike protein of the virus.

"The profile of the mutation strongly suggests it will have transmissibility and might evade immune protection that you would get from a monoclonal antibody or from the convalescent serum after a person has been infected and possibly against even some of the vaccine-induced antibodies," Fauci explained. "It's not necessarily that that's going to happen, but it's a strong indication that we really need to be prepared for that."

The omicron variant has 32 mutations on the spike protein of the virus, far more than the delta or beta variants had. So far, officials only know that the virus transmits more rapidly, but that is enough to cause concern while the effects of the variant remain unknown.

"It's clearly giving the indication it has the capability of transmitting rapidly," Fauci said. "That's what's causing us to be concerned."

Italy was among the latest countries to detect the omicron variant within its borders on Saturday.

An Italian businessman who arrived in Rome on Nov. 11 from Mozambique and then returned to his home near Naples has tested positive for the variant. His family, including two children, have also tested positive.

All five family members have mild symptoms. The variant was confirmed by Sacco hospital in Milan.

The man was vaccinated, according to Italy's National Health Institute.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Indonesia plans to join several other countries, including the U.S., in restricting travel from several African nations, including South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini and Nigeria, Reuters reported, citing an official document on Sunday.

Anyone who has been in the countries in the last two weeks won't be allowed to enter Indonesia's borders because of the new coronavirus variant omicron, which was identified in South Africa on Thursday.

The ban will take effect on Monday.

Israel has approved a measure closing the country to non-citizen arrivals for two weeks due to fear of the spread of the new omicron coronavirus variant.

On Saturday the Israeli cabinet approved a ban on international arrivals of non-citizens for two weeks and imposed mandatory quarantine for Israeli citizens who are arriving.

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