This is not the news any of us wanted to hear: South African scientists have identified a new variant of COVID described as the "worst ever", and it's been detected in several countries around the world. How serious is the threat, what do we know about it - and how much is this down to richer countries refusing to provide vaccines to the Global South?We're joined by Fatima Hassan live from South Africa, Miriam Brett - director of research and advocacy at Commonwealth, and Prof. Susan Michie and Dr. Helen Salisbury from Independent SAGE.Please subscribe - and help us take on the right wing media here: https://patreon.com/owenjones84Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-owen-jones-podcast. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.