what's most important to me is talking to people, understanding what they're going through here. it does ita. we believe everyone has a story worth hearing. ah . hello, i'm mary. i'm to missouri and london a quick look at the main stories. now. corona, virus infections and deaths are reaching alarming levels in the united states. on average, more than a $120000.00 infections are reported each day, which is a rise of 40 percent on last month. the number of deaths is climbing as well. with almost 1300 fatalities a day, president joe biden is wound on vaccinated people. they are at great risk. a message that was echoed earlier by the head of the white house. covet response. tain, for the unvaccinated. you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves,

your families. in the hospitals, you may soon overwhelm why canada has worn us now from washington. while the initial portion, this rise was the delta variant which continued to exist in many parts of the united states. but in recent weeks, increasingly, army kron very and has been found in several areas of the united states and health experts. saying that this increase in infection rates is being driven essentially by these 2 very and now there's another issue as well. and that is the amount of american to on not vaccinated. that's nearly 40 percent of americans who have not been vaccinated. now as you heard there from the white house, the point being made that this is essentially an increasing epidemic of the unvaccinated. they are pushing these numbers very largely. it's also pointed out that those who had the boost shot shop a far less effect should they contract that the virus. so this is an issue within

the united states. how do you get more people to vaccinate? because as i said, the vaccination are driving it, and here's the key point. this is a political divide very clearly. so research has indicated that the infection rates are highest in states controlled by the republicans read states as against those control by the democrats lose states. meanwhile, the u. k. is reports a record number of covered cases for the 3rd day in a row just to have a 93000 infections registered on friday. about $3200.00 of those cases are confirmed to be omicron total number of cases in the u. k is risen by about 39 percent in 7 days, but to the death rate remains relatively low. and then francis announced that major public parties and fireworks will be bound on new year's eve as infections rise. prominence as young cassock says, all citizens, even if vaccinated, should take a self test. before attending social events, he said only chrome will be the dominant strain in france from january will in all

the headlines, the united nations human rights council has agreed to establish an international commission to investigate alleged abuses in the country. the un says it's receiving credible reports all sides in ethiopia, conflicts are committing severe human rights violations. up to 7000 people were detained in the past month. there are unconfirmed reports of mass killings of ethnic to grinds. but to the government and address alba has dismissed accusations of abuses and rejected the resolution. hold a home caused the members go visible stunt gave us shortsighted in those and those whose blues additional humor, right? by rejecting these reasons you, i will let the my daughter live, we not operate with anyone. comes up. maybe it was all he's a 7th round of talks aimed at reviving the 2015 iran nuclear deal has clue

concluded in the austrian capital vienna parties to the talks hoping to resurrect the agreement that sees iran limit its nuclear activity and exchange for sanctions . sanctions relief, it's been breached on both sides, since the u. s. unilaterally withdrew from the agreement 3 years ago. the us national security advisors has the talks and not going while, while the use delegate says progress has been made there still a long way to go. and the philippines is counting the cost of typhoon rye, which has killed at least $12.00 people and left a trail of destruction. winds of close to 200 kilometers an hour, destroyed thousands of homes across the central and southern philippines, forcing hundreds of thousands to seek safety. now heading towards vietnam and china . the bottom line with steve clemens is the program coming up next? ah

hi, i'm steve clements and i have a question. it's been almost 2 years since the world woke up to the corona virus and now with new variance. like i'm a crohn. will we ever get the pandemic under control? let's get to the bottom line. ah. what started with one case of the flu in will hon. china has left more than $5000000.00 people around the world, dead in less than 2 years. 800000 of them. in the united states alone, scientists have discovered new mutations like lambda and delta, and the current wave of ami kron with no end in sight. they've also created amazing vaccines and medicines to deal with the virus, which brings us to the cycle we're stuck in now. new surges in variance of illness, coupled with new measures to try to manage it. and a clear distinction between the haves and the have nots of the world. vaccination rates in rich countries have reached about 70 percent,

but most of the world vaccination rates are hovering around 5 percent of the population. so is this year wraps up what lies in store for us in 2022, and can scientists create a pan virus vaccine? today we're talking with dr. eric total, a cardiologist who founded the scripps research translational institute, focusing on genomics and the author of many books on the future of medicine. i am a big fan and most recently, deep medicine, how artificial intelligence can make health care human again, eric, it's great to see you, and i just want to start out with this issue about something that you've been writing about with on the con virus and understanding the data, let me just give, ask you to give our audience and understanding of how serious the evolution of these variance are and how prepared we are or aren't for dealing with them. well 1st, steve, it's great to be with you. ah, knowing you for many years and having to chance to weigh in on this whole pandemic,

you know, i'm a crime. you know, if it hadn't been for the evolution of ours we, we would have been done with this pandemic many, many months ago. but unfortunately i read around thanksgiving was the 1st report of the our crime variant, which is the most challenging by far, it really takes the vaccines that we have to day out. and it makes them less effective. makes even the booster dose 3rd dose are not as effective as what we've seen with all of a previous mariners. so this so called immune escape is a problem. and of course we don't know if the virus will stop evolving here. if we don't contain it, which is you started in your intro about not having the global vaccine equity and covering the planet unless we get containment, we could see further revolution and complete escape from our vaccine and infection . immunity. so this is another major bump in the road as we try to get an exit ramp

from the pandemic to an endemic state. do you think that we understand the complexities of these virus well enough and it's evolution to understand whether it is evolving in a more deadly way, a less deadly way? you know, i, i remind people that are, you know, annual flu vaccines are essentially, you know, caused by a very deadly varied of a flu. at some point that evolved and became less deadly over time. is there any chance that might be the vector? ah, that coven 19 takes? well, you know, this virus is so different than slew super, an a flu is a hyper mutation virus, and that's why we're, our vaccines are not very good. we can't keep up with the mutations or protect them very well. here we've only had 5 major variance in over 2 years. you've all, with the armor time being by far the most difficult to deal with. but, you know, did the capability for us to develop. i pan corona's, a corona virus,

that she for this family of the server co virus is, is imminent. it's in our reach, and it's been so much progress about that. and that's what we should be doing right now. instead of trying to come up with the on her con, specific vaccine, which appears it would be necessary if we're gonna start to get hold of and control of this particular variant. so, you know, we can do better. the science has been, as you touched on, just remarkable. and even though influenza has never yet had a universal vaccine, the corona virus, it lends itself much better to that. you, you've just mentioned the science has been remarkable. tell the folks that if you haven't been through this before, if you're a young person, a developing a vaccine for a virus in a year was unheard of it's. it is practically miraculous operation. warp speed came up with a, with a set of variance. but eric, you also wrote something a while back and, and i'm just going to paraphrase this as it brings us to the united states sitting

in the zone of denial for then the 4th time during the pandemic thinking in some way it's going to be immune to what's happening in the world and, and so i find this juxtaposition of almost will for willful ignorance. we're sitting right next to profound successful science. you know, one of the most alarming elements of this time. but i that, you know, as we say in, in this business, can you separate the signal from the noise here? what's happening, particularly in the united states with this denial of science and what it, it, and the, and the lessons and benefits it's offering us. no this is truly incomprehensible to me now or in the fish denial of alma cra. we have 820000 new cases a day. we have 67000 people in the hospital over 1200 just a day and we haven't even yet seen. they amr crown effect, so we are looking at a very serious potential of more than a 1000000 new cases

a day in the united states. but yet we're not doing anything about it. we're not contain daughter and we have more trouble lying ahead. so this continued repetitive notion that what's happening in south africa or europe, or wherever it is not going to happen. the united states is pure stupidity and i'm just amazed that it continues. now there were various institutions created over the last decade, one of the month and they are with is the coalition for epidemic preparedness innovations. we also knew of simulations done by the u. s. government, as well as european governments, anticipating how to behave, how to react. ah, before the next pandemic comes, the rockefeller foundation is worked with people like dr. rick bright, who is very not to basically set up new institutions. you know, to look at this. i guess my question to you is i see a lot of these institutions that have come online. what are your view from a science view, but you're also so savvy with blind spots in science and blind spots and public

policy? what blind spots do we really need to remove? what leadership that we need to see to, to, to fix? what still looks to me like a wobbly response to the next pandemic? right, well the 1st year of our pandemic response was chequered by a pure political of bots. should bungle and you know, i worked with the rockefeller foundation on the action plans which we submitted to the white house. and the government will just ignore totally ignore this year. with the new administration, we have other problems we have in finding among the leadership. we have the inability to execute with respect to getting rapid tests out there, which are essential and should be free. i should be available for every household. and you know, in just not happening so that along with, you know, the booster issue, we knew about this in august from israel. and we basically ignore it and said, well, we don't have u. s. data. well,

that's another issue. in the 2nd year of the pandemic in the u. s. r navigational system, our data tracking is that it, you know, we don't have a handle on the breakthrough hospitalizations and desk that are occurring no less. all of the hospitalizations with respect to all of the demographics that, you know, make sequence of the virus. and these are just the most extreme cases. so data tracking and not having rapid tests have not improved whatsoever in this country. despite the urges of, of all of us that we have to get this resolved because, you know, we have a lot more months, if not, the whole year of 2022 to get through in this pandemic in, you know, it's taken much too long to get this on track, you know i, i can't agree with you more when i was in paris. ah, and i needed to get a rapid test. look, there was a tent outside my hotel. they were tense all over paris. you could easily get an

immediate test, almost anywhere on, on the spur of the moment. if you were a french citizen, it was free. for me, it was 30 euros. you know it, but it was there and available today the united it's, it's so hard. there are places you can go, but you've got to be, you know, a kind of a complex game player to find out where they are, then to navigate the costs, etc. so i guess my question is, why isn't the scientific community screaming at the, by the administration to work out this dysfunction, to prioritize tests to price. i mean, we used to talk about contact raising no one mean you a lot. if you mentioned contact racing, people laugh, so there seems to be an abandonment of all the public health steps that were being advocated during the trump administration. it seems like the bite administration isn't even trying. do i have that wrong? well i think it's not far off. we have been screaming, i've been screaming or micro mina and many others. they get this rapid test are,

you know, right. and in colorado, now they are free to all people in the state. and as you say, in select places like in some of the few cities in the us, it's like what you described in paris. but that's, you know, a tiny, tiny fraction of the u. s. and, you know, it just is truly unexplainable. this is the context reasoning. as you say, we're starting to see that for armstrong, for the 1st time in the panoramic. that's oh wow. we want to do some check tricia year. but, you know, we haven't done public health one or one, and that is what made the u. s. performance, you know, giving an ass great on the science, you know, a plus for the vaccines. and so many other aspects of the science advances that have been centered here. but far as managing the panoramic, it is just been horrible. you know, one of the things i would recommend to our audience to do is to go read eric copel's, twitter feed because it is a quick lesson. i mean,

it's deeper than most out there, but it's a quick lesson in many of the different dimensions of the spread of a pen demick this pandemic. how to respond, what the deficits in policy are. but you also highlighted who you felt were heroes on the team in south africa who identified and then tried to say, it's here, it's here, it's here went to a process of trying to tell the world about it and want to watch work. and it wasn't easy, which was surprise me. so tell us why you saw them as heroes and, and why, what they did was so important and what lessons we should take from it and replicate with possible variance down the road. right, well, you know, we saw in the prior variance alpha, beta gamma delta, and those 4, it took quite a while for the world to be alerted about the presence of a variant of concern and varying of concern. you know, it's a big deal. i said it's only been 5, but without a whole different look to the own. avira and colleagues in south africa,

south african ministry, crisper organization. what they did was just extraordinary because they knew by announcing this, our con variant with the sequence that they had. and the outbreak in your tang province that that was gonna create trouble for south africa. and indeed what happened. steve is just horrible that they, their travel was banned from south africa as a result of announcing the, our crime bearing. i mean, just extraordinary. but i that within 2 days, the w h o had an emergency meeting, i labeled it categorize it a very in concern. and we've seen what has been doing out throughout the world. i mean, throughout europe in denmark, in norway, in belgium, in the u. k. what is going to do in the u. s. basically it has destiny is becoming the dominant new strength throughout the world,

unless it doesn't compete fully with delta. so it's really the south africans that know within days instead of months that took this. i'm a crime variant and gave us awareness that gave us a head start. so getting back to what you mentioned earlier, steve, you're going to do contact tracy. we got on this in the us, even though there was some delay in getting the 1st sequence is the u. s. now it's, you know, everywhere, but we got to those cases very shortly after they arrived very shortly after community transmission was started and we owe that debt to the south african sciences. let me ask you to talk about, you know, cutting off travel. and there seems to be, you know, in this drama, this major health pandemic drama, a desire in some places to blame a country to blame a place as opposed to saying, hey, you did the right thing by stepping forward because of the consequences. it would come out and as we know, and as we've seen, you know, once you've identified it,

it's likely already out somewhere else. me. this was, you know, part of the lesson we didn't learn before, but you know, it does raise. he's interested of, divides in the world, and let's listen to what south africa's president cyril rama post. i had to say recently i, the reading disappointed in rich countries have to issue the order they order off of asians required. we want to see, you know, giving come from the table. i am interested in this because there seems to be along the lines of what you were critiquing. united states for doing. i sense that if we take care of it here, we're ok that we don't have to worry about the developing world or other corners of the world that may have, may have this. and i'm just interested in it from you. what we need to do in terms

of approaching a whole world solution to dealing with this pandemic. right, well, you know, is clear that we have to do much better. the continent of africa has been almost completely ignored with respect to getting the people vaccinated. they are in south africa, were 25 percent believe action and it is one of the outliers on the, in the positive side. but as you know, you know, you know, many countries are well over 70, even e, approaching 90 percent. now, the problem we have though, is not just the global equity. united states is an outlier, contributing an enormous number of new cases each day. so we have under vaccinated, you know, we are ranked number 67 in the world and united states vaccination, which is so incredible having the m r n a vaccines originated from the u. s. work. so if power is inaccurate inequity, there's also inequity of the case burden,

which is the breeding grounds for yet another very which could even be worse than our car. so we have to look at both of these, you know, where there's tremendous number of your cases and spread. we've got to put the fire off. and so we need to attend to both the under vaccinated parts of the world, the lower and middle income countries. but also the culprits, and the u. s. is corporate number one as a country. obviously, the continent of europe is also contributing a lot of cases, but no country like the u. s. right now, do you think we should be much more forceful when it comes to mandates then our system has been so far either at the federal level or the state level. that, that, this notion, ah, that some folks considered out and that they are right, versus the collective health of american society, global society. you know, are we getting the, the equilibrium right between those 2 poles. right. well see if we haven't gotten

the librium right. and it's very sad that mandates even had to come off as an issue, because you would have thought that all americans would one of the united against a formidable foe of this virus. but it hasn't happened. and we have a balkanized country with very profound globalization o vaccines and mask, and the science and everything else. and math, which held us back, all the misinformation and disinformation of politics. and that's really the best explanation of how we have failed and how we are number 67 in the world of countries that are fully vaccinated right now and sliding, you know, every week further down the list. so, you know, we're performing in terms of vaccination, much worse than many countries that are not even in the developed world right now.

and we can account for that just because of the, the politics, the lack of community sense. and we have to in resort to mandates, but as you're seeing, steve, we have of course, we have governors and states taking this on and we haven't been able to make the progress. we can't even get health care workers that have mandated to be fully vaccinate. no less the rest of the population. why have we not, you know, filled that gap with the developing world and gotten him the vaccines? and so they're calling as the south african president said, for a waiver this because they, they want the i p to be able to, you know, reach their audience. what, why haven't we taken the obvious course, which is just to pay for vaccines for this developing what is also paying for our health? right now, we should be managing just pain, but you know, donating vaccines in, in enormous supplies. not little piddly, a mouse. also, we need to set up production facilities in other continents and much faster than

that's been happening. so we haven't had this, you know, true humanitarian or global. i overarching objective. there's been so much nationalistic behavior, not just in the us, of course, but throughout many other countries. there's been this big fight about boosters and how this detracting from getting other countries to their initial vaccination. but frankly, you have to do both. because if you, if you lose the protection for the people who are vaccinated, you're in a particular with our crime, you're basically back to square one. so we have to get this right. we're not moving fast enough, where as we got, as you noted, within 10 months of the sequence, we had vaccines that were taken through pivotal large phase 3 trials. but in order to get the production of manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain of the vaccines throughout the world, we have not come up with a parallel high velocity strategy. eric, which, which, you know,

if you're basically a family person here worried about your children, worried about your, you know, grandparents, you know, others out there. you know, there's been a lot of different information and signals sent regarding which vaccine to take to deal with on the chron how effective it is. it's almost, and i understand as a person in the news business how hard it is to be formulaic and to issue, you know, precise instruction to people. but almost the debate about efficacious of these drugs translates into uncertainty and a big question mark. and i'm just interested from you, if you're advising people, what's the best step forward is at pfizer. it is that astrazeneca is it, johnson and johnson, is it you madera? ah, is the booster critical what? you know? what's your best counsel to people who don't know a lot, but want to go down the right path? well, partly depends on where you are in the world because different vaccines are available in the us. it's basically, you know, pfizer and madonna, and now it's very clear that

a 3rd child is going to be necessary for those to maintain effectiveness against amr crime. but if there's a for j and j, which is the cousin of astrazeneca, these are add no viral vaccines. the difference with j and j was supposed to be a one and done. it's not true. you really need to have at least 2 shots. we don't know about a 3rd, and it's probably advisable to take an m r in a 2nd shot for j and j or a m r and a that's visor or madonna for astrazeneca we, we're seeing a really nice effect of this mixing. that is, you had an annual viral that seen my doctor's anake or a j j, and then you get an m r and a vaccine. and that peers to be, this is boost beyond just a booth which is that the different types of vaccines are more than additive for the immune response. that's one thing we could do. and as you're,

i think getting to steve, that's not what the manufacturers recommend. or the government recommend in general there are some exceptions. but for people that would be a very prudent approach to get the maximum, the biggest bang out of vaccination. so, you know, we, at the moment calf can seen a consistent edge of modernity over pfizer, about 8 to 10 percent points for efficacy that's held up. but with the weighting the same type of waning that's likely due to the higher dose of m r and a of madonna over pfizer. remember it's $100.00 micrograms, or compared to 30 my to room. but near now the booster router is 50. and we're also seeing, you know, now the children age 5 to $11.00, the teens. so this hosting and the different vaccines, there's lots of different issues when you start to get into different age groups of people. well, thank you for that. well, we'll have to end that. they are cardiologist, scientists, author,

doctor eric topple. thank you so much for your candid boss today. thank you, steve. so what's the bottom line? 600 years ago, galileo was punished by the catholic church for insisting that the earth rotated around the sun. and today, despite his supposedly living in the age of science and rationality, the debate about the corona virus reminds me about galilee. oh all the time. no matter how much disdain some folks have for science and scientists guess what folks, the krona virus is here. the west is fighting it with masks and testing and vaccines, and contact creasing and avoiding crowds. but for the majority of the world, all of these measures, even washing hands with clean water, is a really big challenge. in the end, the scientific approach is going to succeed. it's going to take time and money, but it is possible. and then all people on this planet should have fair access. no matter the content, no matter the zip code. that's the only way. and that's the bottom line. ah.

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from across the network. all now to sierra lou. hello, i'm marianne lindsay in london. i'm main stories now. current of ours infections and deaths are reaching alarming levels in the united states. on average, more than a $120000.00 infections reported each day. she's a rise of 40 percent on last month. the number of deaths is climbing as well, with almost 1300 fatalities a day. man universities across the country now going back to online teaching and sports events have been cancelled. is phoned president joe biden has warned the on vaccinated there are great risk message that was echoed by the head of the white house covet response team.