tv Inside Story Al Jazeera March 18, 2021 2:30pm-3:01pm +03
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last week more than 30 western nations called in egypt to stop its crackdown on dissent. protesters in haiti have stormed several police stations in the capital port au prince. they helped break out officers who were arrested for a suspected coup attempt last month they say they were unjustly detained and later the group set one of the buildings on fire along with several businesses are. part of a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera tanzania is set to swear in its 1st female president after the death of covert 900 skeptic john magaw foully the government says he suffered a heart failure but the opposition has said he was sick and covered 19 catherine sawyer has more from the kenyan capital nairobi. this is devastating news to me kindly and there is shock it all getting about people in mass is indeed the mood of
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transport if they go about their business as they start their day today but it doesn't entirely come as a super crimes president michael flatley went missing in actually late february when people still missing this thing and the reason a lot of confidence there was a lot of unflattering teach in tanzania people are asking where is the president the u.s. secretary of state says all options are on the table to get north korea to abandon its nuclear weapons speaking in the south korean capital seoul antony blinken added china has a critical role to play but lincoln meet senior chinese officials in alaska later on thursday will be the 1st such discussions in the by the administration took office in january and it comes just after the u.s. sanctioned an additional $24.00 chinese and hong kong officials what it says is beijing's crackdown on political freedoms in the territory. more than 2000 people are dying from coded tina every day in brazil where the health system is on the
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brink of collapse a record 90000 new infections were reported on wednesday. and britain is warning of a significant reduction in vaccine supplies by the end of the month the health secretary says the vaccine rollout is still on track but deliveries have been slow due to supply chain issues. in most military has charged the deposed government's u.n. envoy with high treason cure motown was fired a day after speaking at the un general assembly last month where he called for help to remove the army from power the u.n. says $149.00 people have been killed since then understate the more the service is being held for south africa's zulu king goodwill zillah theni was buried in a private ceremony earlier on thursday which was attended by close family members who died last week at the age of 72 to be in the hospital for weeks to treat diabetes. but those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera up inside story statement that's about it.
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several countries in europe have suspended their use of back scene they're worried about possible side effects the ws says it's safe to use new cases how will this affect your of vaccination of all out this is inside story. hello welcome to the program. growing number of european countries are suspending
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the oxford. 900 vaccine that concerns the job may have caused some recipients to develop blood clots but health agencies say there's no evidence such conditions are linked to the vaccine and they insist the benefits of getting the shots far outweigh any potential risk this comes as europe is a rather short on vaccine supplies and struggling to contain any of the factions some countries outside of the continent have also put their vaccinations came on hold that's raising fears about potential effects on people who were already a reluctant to get the shot the european medicines regulator and the world health organization are now investigating the possible side effects. there is no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions they have not come up in the clinical trials and they're not listed as known arse or expected side effects
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with this vaccine in clinical trials both the facts and i think people on the people who are thieves that percy bo have shown small some very small numbers of plot talked about months the number of throw and balika bands overall in the vaccinated people seems not to be higher than that seen in the camera population the rollout of the astra zeneca shots has being going on in the u.k. and belgium while some have brushed of the controversy others have shown reluctance about getting the jump from a i think to myself you know i think there's a there's always going to be some side effects of all medications or medicine so i believe it's in their interests but overall and when you look at the percentage is the percentage a minor compared to how many people about it and how many people that you could you know the negatives so for me it's white lights out white the cons anyway you know i mean sesame often spicy a kid a concern which i think you know is mine and i'll become peace i believe in
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a number of facts if i could choose i would rather have another vaccine because of the different stories you hear in other countries that have stopped using it but because i couldn't choose i came here anyway there have been a few cases but not so many in our country that's why i came to have the astra zeneca vaccine figure out he has in the media all this fuss in the media it makes me dizzy i have faith in science why should we all give our opinion on it i think you have more chance of blood clots with coated than with this astra zeneca vaccine . more than a dozen countries have suspended their years so they astra zeneca vaccine austria was 1st to pause while investigating a death from coagulation disorder. days later demarcus stopped administering the shot after a 60 year old woman died of blood clotting after receiving the job france germany spain and italy say they are awaiting the results of the e.u.
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regulators investigation before resuming their vaccinations sweden and lot of the became the latest to announce a pause on tuesday and outside europe indonesia and democratic republic of congo have stopped their all out while thailand has just resumed the use of the vaccine after temporary pause. let's bring in our guests in barcelona geoffrey lazarus had of the health systems the research group at barcelona institute for global health in robert i was deliberate he had of the biotechnology lab the robot medical school and professor of medical biotechnology at mohammed the 5th university biotechnology society in reading in the u.k. simon clarke an associate professor in cell a backhoe biology of the university of reading welcome to all jeffrey now we're
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waiting to hear from the european medicines agency about the findings of this particular case but they seem to be indicating that they might be in favor of resuming the vaccinations particular when they say that the overall numbers of the. cases related to the from will in balik. events that we had so far do not seem to be a concern. that's right it will be a sleepless night for many but we are right now expecting the european medicines agency to report that there is not a greater number of cases among those who've been vaccinated with the astra zeneca vaccine then we would expect in the general population. in iraq 0 vaccination campaign has been. going on normally over the last few weeks has been fine criticised by the international community as doing well but people
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are now pretty much concerned particularly november is and has been using astra zeneca vaccine well actually in morocco i think thank you for the question has risen we have almost like 5000000 people that's got jobs from the astra zeneca and so far we have 4 people would descend the cation but i think it's a really amazing amazing that we have are having this discussion right now and having this discussion from european countries we thought that science is coming from europe but i think right now i think it's more politics than science because i don't see any scientific person around the word can say that that is an effect or an indication that this kind of reaction that we're having and trumbull says it's caused by the us president come back seeing simon i think. the dean is talking about this disconnect between what is political and what is scientific given the fact that we have 17000000 people who have taken so far the vaccine and
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you have 40 cases somehow 40 cases of blood clots when you look at the percentage itself. is it does it make what is sense to talk about in a causal link when you know who really really is a causal link based entirely on the numbers or at least the from what we've been told by european regulators i do wonder whether they have their eye on other factors but if they are then they need to be very honest and very open about this because at the moment all i really doing is frightening people and there is evidence of some vaccine hesitancy now even in the u.k. when really it's not based on any at the numbers or any real correlation as fast as we can as far as we can see. jeffrey who do you think should
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be leading the fight against kobe advantage because from the start we have always been having this problem between the scientific community and the political establishment and we do understand why politicians around the world particularly in europe are pretty much concerned or they would like to be shown as taking the lead in saying no when it is. no but from now or worse how do you see things i'm forging in europe in particular it has to be the scientific community and there's a reason we have a european medicines agency and to date they've been saying that there is no evidence to stop use of the asters and that seems to now they're conducting an investigation under ankara new political pressure but we are where we are there is an increased perception of risk among the population as was just mentioned and i'm hoping that tomorrow and it will confirm what they have been saying all along that this low number of cases is not linked that there is no cause and that it between
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the astra zeneca. and blood clots and if that's the case will be able to resume the vaccination campaigns but it will be quite challenging now with some of the public in the population losing some of their confidence in the vaccines bill for the greasing their competence in the process as the new brushed aside the concerns are purely political in morocco how does it go now you've been given the vaccine to. hundreds of thousands of people particularly astra zeneca. and to be doing the follow up and just seem to be confident there's no concern they have no concern you're not concerned at all well actually read it in record there right away actually i think it's amazing that someone would stop using the a drug or a vaccine to harmonize the politics in europe when they see the statement from the french presidency actually i'm reading. how does sinitta and i think i think i'm
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not talking about your opinion more because in morocco we did the right way the right way we have the scientific committee meets in and we discuss how many cases we have and we thought that's rooted for 4 cases in a row or over 6000000 people that were actually vaccinated with astra zeneca i think the benefits is there i think i'm to agree with that with with a friend with my colleague actually how can we manage now the damage done actually to to the confidence or to the trust of the population i think it's what's happening in france is a really a misery i think 1st and in germany or so actually when you have in germany actually 7 cases over 1700000 people what's in it to i think for a lot if it was a german company do think that they would have stopped the vaccination i don't think so i don't write so i read i'm really angry about that i think it's really amazing how this kind of this decision simon we're talking about the e.u. which in normal landscape should be leading in the fight in the vaccination
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campaign which doesn't seem to be the case now if you look at the situation the way it is particularly comes to the astra zeneca vaccine so far it's been established scientific live that no one was hospitalized or became seriously ill due to covert 19 after receiving the the 1st. job was in this enough on its own for the political elite in europe to say you know what we see the concerns there but we have to go on. well that's the out entirely reasonable thing to say even even if where there was a small effect of blood clotting you would have to weigh that against the positive effect that the vaccine has on protecting people from covert 90 very few things are without any risk at all taking paracetamol represents
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a risk that getting onto an airplane represents a risk for deep vein thrombosis but people still do it because they judge the benefits of those things to outweigh the risks so even when there are no risks and we certainly don't know that to be the case with this vaccine covert 98 then people still make rational decisions to proceed with them so that should have been taken into consideration what hope will be jeffrey where does it leave us to as a nick of the company itself has been battered from day one by all sorts of challenges as problems you remember the beginning when it was many countries are commanded not to administer the vaccine for people who are older than 65 and then they reversed that decision now you have the suspension what does it leave the company the short term future of the astra zeneca vaccine is clearly in jeopardy but hopefully that will change tomorrow and you know if and i think it will be an
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egg clears the vaccine for use the hope that i'll you know european union member states will accept except that and then the companies in good shape again because the asters a nigga axion is an important tool we have him in fortunately the well has other vaccines with pfizer in mind and. now johnson and johnson and others russia and china and the astra zeneca that seem to specifically develop so that it could be used at a low cost you know all around the world so it's an extremely important thanks ian and me. now companies are in a tough spot the european medicines agency has made it clear that we do nothing and cause ality as the new member of the scientific committee decides what how to move forward in morocco which kind of medicine to acquire in the near future given this debate about astra zeneca you have been using sign a farmer and us resident for some time is this something which is going to put more
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pressure on you guys to look of for other alternatives like johnson and johnson or more donor for example. well we've heard from iraq i mean the quest for a really clear we just authorize actually to get the strategy cover from korea through the kovacs initiative from the world health organization and i think really it gets our share of that down there think reorder that actually to have some sputnik vaccine aster in the receiver utilization i think it's tough to get just an adjustment because the american has all the orders and they will keep it for them until the end of their campaign for mathematics a nation i think from iraq and i have to come back to talk about after the the benefits because we see that we are allowing chemotherapy actually and everybody knows the can without the maybe is killing more people than deterrence are and to keep it as a therapy for people because the benefits is there and here we have 70000000 people
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in the north actually that were vaccinated without trial senator and after that we have 40 people that were actually shortened maybe maybe it's a really we have to put this way because there is no clear indication billington between what would be sad stop it i think it's not good for europe it's not good for our right because now we have to go through all our idea to explain why we keep using that simon it's been baffling to some people that while in a country like where where where as it comes from morocco the vaccination campaign has been doing very well in europe it's been sluggish for disaster according to other people you've been having the delivery shortfalls by astra zeneca under the gas the back to go against the background of all these problems the european union does not seem to be having some sense of clarity about how to tackle that's a nation campaign is creating more problems for science for doctors. yes they they just don't seem to have got themselves organized in a way that many other countries including the u.k.
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have and that is it a great shape because of course if it is made up of advanced nations who. for the most part would be perfectly able to cope with something like this and not only ordering the vaccination but making sure that it was administered to their populations so really this is a lack of organization not only in terms of ordering them you know far enough in advance but also for distributing them or making sure they get it. and this is not the only challenge the us resident has been grappling with reports from the what's university in johannesburg says there are vaccine is less effective against the south african variant it was found to be less than 60 percent effective at preventing mild to moderate infection the earlier trial was carried out on more than 2000 participants but this by the setback wider data show the vaccine can
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still prevent severe illness and deaths from covert 19 south africa holt of the years of us 2 as an acoa in february jeffrey it's all about now perceptions it's all about the confidence in us reza nikka do you see them now and massive pressure to manufacture a 3rd dose that would restore confidence in the company itself well i do i think they need to look seriously at the situation with south africa and marry into them and examined in south africa and the other companies as well into how do either. rejigged and the current vaccine or develop boosters so that's important but importantly we need to remember that the answers in a can actually does work against severe cases. even with the south african variant and of course across europe with that mary and isn't it widespread and it's not as
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big an issue. as the in in morocco various mutations are something we have to deal with in the near future because the. virus is still around is this something that is taken into consideration by the. by the government absolutely i think it's a it's a something that's really very important to deal with and i think in morocco we are trying to see if we have the british or the the body and the b one variant extra and i think we are watching it closely and i think that by the end of april this variant will be the dominant one in morocco but i think what we're really having in morocco a great situation to have a massive x. issue because the plots is done and we have the infection rate is lower and the death then result rouer and i think if we do greatly with the mets vaccination hopefully we can soon try to see the end of this pandemic in real simon i think this is a case that in
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a way or another shows us the need for some sense of humility because we are in uncharted to rain and we're learning by the day from this particular case because if you go back to these particular cases of several villa scientists from bosis it was detected in spain but then the same day they saw that there was some cases in norway and germany and everyone freaked out and said you know what i think it's about time just to shelve everything for the time being we are likely to see similar cases related to similar incidence in the near future how do you think we should move forward tackling this particular issue other same time maintain in the momentum of the vaccination campaign. well i think that it has people get blood clots they happen in every country every day and unless there is a very clear numerical association between vaccination and. these blood clots then really all that should be done is
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a careful. increased observation increased surveillance of the situation rather than pressing the panic button where you really it's far too early to start panicking because if you do that and you do it unnecessarily which does appear to be the situation at the moment then you will frighten people away from the vaccine and you will make by definition therefore more susceptible to caveat 90 well jeffrey we have a frightening people for quite some time and you have people have always been skeptical about the vaccine comes this particular case of the suspension of the years of of us trials seneca at a time when every day that goes by without that same vaccination being administered in many european countries could really mean a difference between life and death and and that under this particular landscape why should the e.u.
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move forward. well really we have really fed the monster the those who are you know strongly opposed to taxation and that's often a small number they're very vocal so i do agree with simon that the issue is we need to investigate the cases that we didn't need to necessarily suspend its use and that europe didn't act as a block or follow the recommendations of the european medicines agency i think. you create reduces some of the confidence in the system so it's a moving forward your needs to really show after the decision tomorrow that we will secure more vaccines but will it minister them more rapidly and that we will work you know country by country population by population to build the confidence we really need a strong european and even a stronger global campaign to build that exene confidence. likely to further skirts
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or dies the track record of any pharmaceutical company of any future because of this whole issue about vaccine safety well i think i think the clinical trials were there to show that this this vaccine is safe like the others i think it was amazing or so that's when you look at the other vaccines and they have to say that pfizer has the same effect on a number limited number of people who are there now has the same thing and it's surprising that the only one that gets rid of heads by the e.u. is us through as an it guy may be the astra zeneca is not available in europe but the jeffrey to commercial and political decision nothing to do with science i think we have to go back to the basic scientific committees decide if the vaccine is safe and its efficacy and quality of production and i think that what we are trying to do and we need some leadership from europe to do that or so simon if we are to oppose just for a 2nd. and look at the overall picture which is the fight the global fight against
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covert 19 those who are optimistic were thinking then that if things go hunky dory by september october or november we could reach some sort of herd immunity in some parts of the world 2022 would be the beginning of the end for covert 19 do you see that optimism still prevailing against the backdrop of this particular case of suspension of. vaccine. you know i think that sooner or later in fact very soon they. have actually won't be restricted in its use i think people will have come to their senses but you know if we get much more of this when it's groundless it's perfectly acceptable when there's a reason to do it and if we get more groundless speculation about this sort of thing then we'll end up in a situation where we keep pushing back pushing back on our sort of time frame to to
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a big caveat 98 you know you're quite right come the autumn many countries the u.k. certainly will hopefully should be looking at herd immunity to effectively stop the spread of the virus in their populations and then in 2022 you'll see more of that around the world but quite simply if you make people fright or the vaccine and there are people who do want to do that. then you're pushing it back in your like i said earlier exposing more and more people around the world to the risk of death from cave with 90 looking forward to hearing some very positive news in the upcoming days for the rollout to be continuing increasing spreading all over the world and putting an end to this disease that has shattered many many lives globally jeff elizabeth as the abraham is simon i would appreciate your insight and your time looking for talking to in the near future thank you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com for was last
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a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. incised bought it from me. and the entire team here in doha i don't know. jump into the story there is a lot going on in this and julian global community when i don't have all the misinformation i think we don't want to feed than we are aware that be part of the debate don't ever take anybody's one word because there's always a difference when no topic is off the table we have been disconnected from our land
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we have been disconnected from who we are and with enough to he. be part of today's discussion this streamed on out is there are. no moved out of his parents' house after he got married he says he found more space to begin discussing after a run of eating it last year it's now his home along with his wife to tour and all but there is really government said the key was to be constructed we've gotten permits and issues that the militia ordered last month with our interview with cut short as he hears that the israeli army has arrived in the village with a bulldozer residents say soldiers gave them one minute to get home it took the found me months to build their brick and dust than an hour to see you get demolished. to say just sick and it's time for a different approach one that is going to challenge the way you think on the ask me
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questions now always a new host of the next season of the show that's got no space for sale but it's only top of the list leave simplicity to the headlines join me as i take on the lies dismantle the misconceptions and debate the contradiction. marc lamont hill and it's hard to get up front right here on al-jazeera. hello i'm daryn jordan in doha with a quick reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera tanzania is set to swear in its 1st female president after the death of covert 900 skeptic john magaw family the government says he suffered a heart failure but the opposition has said he was sick with covert 19 other chapelle reports. thank you for that would go the last time john pomfret magnified he was seen in public he was carrying out official duties and not wearing a mask not long into his 2nd term in office he suddenly vanished from public sight
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