Sunny Hostin Says the U.S. is 'Not Sharing Our Science' Amid Omicron Variant Surge

With the Omicron variant spreading around the world, Sunny Hostin believes it's high time for the United States to put profits aside and help countries desperately in need of the COVID-19 vaccine. On Monday morning, The View's resident progressive took the U.S. to task for "not sharing our science" with low-income nations that are being ravaged by the virus. "It's less about making money," said Hostin. "It's more about saving lives."

The View's coverage of the surging Omicron variant began with a discussion about President Biden imposing a travel ban on eight southern African countries, a move that Republican congressmen have equated with Trump's ban. In a surprising move, Hostin seemed to side with Republicans when she said she doesn't "know that the travel ban makes sense" or is "that different" from Trump's. "He's banning people from African countries, and we know that this variant is not only in South Africa. And South Africa has some of the world's best scientists and epidemiologists, and that's why they found the variant," she said. "This variant was found in Israel. It was found in Belgium. It was found in other European countries — why aren't there bans from those countries? Why just Africa? And so I think that has to be called out."

Later in the segment, Hostin took a macro view of the Omicron variant crisis. "If you listen to the data from the World Health Organization, as of November 23, 64% of people from high-income countries have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, compared to less than 8% of people from low-income nations. And so there is an inequity when it comes to the dissemination of the vaccine, and that has to stop," she said, "We're not only in a pandemic here in the United States; it's a worldwide pandemic. It's a public, world health crisis, and I'm just surprised that we have these issues even here in this country where there's not only vaccine hesitancy — we are not sharing our science the way we should be sharing our science, and that is shameful."

GOP SLAMS HYPOCRISY OF BIDEN TRAVEL BAN: As America imposes a travel ban for eight southern African countries amid omicron variant concerns, #TheView co-hosts and @janecoaston react to one GOP congresswoman taking issue with Pres. Biden's ban. https://t.co/T6Vdf50vkF pic.twitter.com/Habe7nohuD

— The View (@TheView) November 29, 2021

When Sara Haines asked her to elaborate, Hostin spelled it out for her co-host and viewers at home. "We want to patent our science, and I understand that. Our companies want to make money. Our government has partnered with private industry, I understand that," she said. "But when you have a world health crisis, we have to share our science."

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.