Dr. Gama Bandawe. Photo credit: Malawi University of Science and Technology. Used with permission. In August 2021, Dr. Gama Bandawe, a Malawian scientist, warned of the likelihood of a coronavirus variant that could result from huge numbers of people not accessing coronavirus vaccines. I just want to go on record to say that the large numbers of unvaccinated people in many parts of Africa make it extremely likely that there's going to be a deadly variant that will emerge from the continent that will cause lots of further drama across the globe. Thank you — Gama Bandawe 🇲🇼 (@GamaBee) July 31, 2021 Bandawe's prediction came to pass four months later. On Nov. 25, South African health minister Joe Phaahla announced the detection of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in the country’s Gauteng province, which is more transmissible than past variants, although Dr. Bandawe explains that scientists still don't know how lethal it is once someone is infected. In this interview, Dr. Bandawe explains the science behind viral mutations and the naming of viruses, comments on the futility of government policy actions, and describes Malawi's capacity to detect variants, including Omicron. Dr. Gama Bandawe. Image used with his permission. Dr. Gama Bandawe is a medical virologist and head of the Department of Biological Sciences in the Academy of Medical Sciences at the Malawi University of Science and Technology, where he is a senior lecturer. He holds a Ph.D. in medical virology, from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He is currently doing basic research into COVID-19 in Malawi, and sits on the Diagnostics Subcommittee of the Presidential COVID-19 Taskforce as well as the Malawi Genomic Sequencing Committee. On Dec. 5, 2021, Global Voices caught up with Dr. Gama Bandawe at the Malawi University of Science and Technology and asked him to explain to non-specialist audiences the science behind the warning he gave in his Aug. 1 tweet. We were curious if the “deadly variant” he warned the world about was the same as the Omicron variant. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Gama Bandawe (GB): So at the time, I was quite frustrated that while there were some scientists and collaborators of mine that were interested and were actually taking action on the issue of vaccine inequality, there was still a kind of reluctance by many to pay attention to the issue and locally as well, people didn't really seem to see the urgency of the situation. It's really simple. The virus mutates when it infects someone. So each new infection is a chance for the virus to pick up new mutations and become a new variant. The more infections there are, the more likely it is that a variant will emerge and the less vaccination there is, the more infections you will get. Also, when an unvaccinated person is infected, there is more virus and for longer, so chances are just higher that these new variants will emerge. Now when you actually take a closer look, you will see that the virus has picked up pieces of genetic material found in viruses that cause the common cold (another coronavirus) and even HIV probably because it was in someone who was infected by these viruses at the same time. The virus is basically being given free range to explore new combinations, mix and match with other viruses and just evolve further. So yes, Omicron is definitely the type of thing I was warning about, although I want to be clear that it may not even be the main one because we don't know where it emerged. It may not even have emerged in Africa for all we know. Dr. Bandawe's tweet received 133 retweets, 16 quote tweets, and 316 likes. However, this did not reveal the kind of reaction he received from fellow scientists or policymakers. GV: Was there any interest in doing something practical about the problem? GB: It was very interesting the reaction I got. A few people I know and interact with retweeted it initially and it was only when someone retweeted in the wake of the discovery of Omicron that it really got any traction. So it was nice to be vindicated in some ways but there's a lot more I see coming which isn't great. I think the issue might be a little tricky for some global scientific leaders to handle to be honest because when discussing this issue many seem to feel that the real interesting story is figuring out what the immune reaction to the virus is all about rather than the emergence of variants. I think both issues are equally important because they play such an important role in the future of vaccination. Perhaps I'm a little biased because my background has been so much in looking at viral diversity. But to answer your question, yes, there are so many efforts people are putting together to tackle this issue, even here in Malawi.