unity during the hardship to the pandemic. last year, north korea faced its worst economic contraction since 1997. now the u. k. official tasked with investigating alleged christmas party last year at number 10, downing street and other government offices in breach of cupboard restrictions has stepped down cabinet secretary simon case recused himself after emerged event was held in his own office despite the lockdown. ah, look at the main stories this hour. now. current of virus infections and deaths are reaching alarming levels in the united states. on average, more than a $120000.00 infections reported each day, which has a rise of 40 percent on last month. the number of deaths is climbing as well, with almost 1300 fatalities a day. the head of the white house coven response team is one, the unvaccinated,

that they are just. they're not just putting their own lives at risk for the unvaccinated. looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families in the hospitals you may soon overwhelm. the u. k is reported another record number of covert cases for the 3rd day in a row. just over 93000 infections were registered on friday. about $3200.00 of those cases, a confirm to be the only chromes arian. the total number of cases in the u. k has risen by about 39 percent interest 7 days, but the death rate does remain relatively low. and then in france, they've announced major that may major public parties and fireworks will be banned on new year's eve. as current of virus infections rise, apartment decision, carfax says, all citizens, even if vaccinated should self test before attending social events. said on the

chrome would be the dominant strain in france from january. france has been reporting an average of 50000 new infections every day or in the headlines. the u. s. is cool on all sides. and if you abuse brucell year long war to renounce and, and violence against civilians. this is the united nations human rights council agreed to establish and international commission to investigate alleged abuses in the country. the u. n says it's receiving credible reports that all sides and a few peers conflict to committing severe human rights violations. if you can dismiss the council statement is politically motivated and the philippines is counting the cost of typhoon rye, which has killed at least $12.00 people and left a trail of destruction behind him. winds of close to 200 kilometers and now it destroyed thousands of homes across the central and southern philippines, forcing hundreds of thousands to seek safety. now heading toward vietnam and china . and that's it from myself, from the team here in london. see you tomorrow counting,

the cost is coming out next. it's one year until the 1st real world killed in the middle east. talk to al jazeera meets, must cembura 1st ever female secretary general the 1st to share her journey and discuss the routes to cut her 2022. 0 no, just 0. i . hello, i'm come all santa maria. this is counting the costs on al jazeera, your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week, for letter m r n a. it is in many ways, the breakthrough technology of the pandemic, vaccines that teach ourselves how to trigger an immune response and ultimately protect us from infectious diseases. look at the companies behind the vaccines, how to invest, and whether you even should. also this like the philippines upset,

relaxing rules to foreign investors in the hope of boosting a post coven recovery. but it may not provide the bounce, the government's hoping for. and another set of letters to get your head around, nf t's just what is a non fungible token. why? of a spot to rally in the crypto digital art market. and does this latest investment price have legs ah, suck the past year? it's been one of touchstone woods, hasn't it? virus pandemic lockdown flattened the curve, social distance, ingual. the sorts of things. arguably right now though, the word of the moment is vaccine. there is little doubt. science has been our exit from this pandemic. but how often do you consider the science behind the science and hung credibly significant? it is not only have vaccines been created inside a year. don't forget that. but the technology behind the by and tag vaccine has the potential to be one of the biggest breakthroughs of modern times. it is called m r

n a messenger robin nucleic said and it's a game changer. let's start with the basics though. the traditional way to make a vaccines with a weakened or inactive virus that gets injected into us, triggers an immune response, produces antibodies, protects us in case we get infected with the real thing. it's hugely successful. it saves $2.00 to $3000000.00 lives a year. m r n a, the does it differently? it teaches ourselves how to make a protein to trigger that immune response. and it's the kind of technology which opens the door to treatments of cancer, heart disease even brain disease is like outside and parkinson's. now i mentioned the company leading the way here by on take it was only founded 13 years ago in germany. it's been working on this m r n a technology for a decade or so. it also has various cancer trials underway by and take the vaccine part of a joint venture with pfizer, the 172 year old american multinational. and it's

a partnership expected to net them a share in $15000000000.00 with the profits. you've got my donor as well, which uses m r n a. it? it's coven, 19 vaccine. it expect sales of $18400000000.00 from it? i don't. it's pipeline of drugs includes trial vaccines for the flu virus and h i, b, that's on top of all its work on cancer drugs. but for every success there is a struggle. for example, germany's cure vac it's m r n a vaccine has yet to be approved and it was already part of a controversy involving speculation. the trumpet administration had attempted to acquire the company even so, britons glaxo smith klein, bought a 9 percent stake in cure back last july. so with all that, do we find ourselves with a bit of a dichotomy here? life saving life, changing technology for the good of humanity, but with a whole lot of money to be made as well or not just for the companies. we're going to talk to independent analysts jemila had about the joining us from london. jamila, this is so interesting. you've got joint ventures going on here for the most part

and i thought to one to did big pharma kind of miss out. they only needed the smaller biotech companies to push this technology forward. my know, actually it's a commodity unit, stop and as commodities as the bun grows, you know that grow into it as a commodity. this technology, generally a vaccine will take at least 8 to 10 years to develop. but the technology, the specific cobra, taxing that some of these big pharmaceutical companies have used to develop the, the hopeful cule it showed that you can actually do this functional to time spend so much a nation as already gone. wow. to a degree in a good way that this technology can not be used for the better. good, great to good to truell many more illnesses that sadly cos multiple lives every year. and i think it's more infused the awesome. now, not so much that big science has missed on the snugger, but that these big on mr. trickle companies can now adapt towards the new technology around that will hopefully help show lives after this terrible risk of

the pandemic is over. and i wonder from hakes big farm or a little bit more palatable as well, because a lot of people have a lot of issues, shall we say, with the money that big pharma makes and, and the profits that they make and how much they charge us for for the drugs, it's a very profitable industry and again, if we had a time machine and you'd look back on what you would do exactly one year ago, let's say the end of march 2021 that's been done because we're starting globally globally locked as we can well you would buy sanitizers mosque and you would purchase pharmaceutical starts because we still defies the stock. hit the lot somewhere like $30.00 at the end of march 2020. then we went up to something like $40.00, but thought mcdonough that's listed on not stuck in. as we all know, the technology sector did tremendously well, which one is undone? if found from $30.00 and march 2022 is high. 156, by the end of the yes, of course, that's where you put your money in. have been said that since the end of year pigs we half now seems somewhat patrol over the consolidation and the share prices. i

guess if we had a time machine would go back in march these markets, but we do sit, look like that ship is out unless we have a bittersweet moment why these vaccines are not proven to be as effective. fingers crossed and touch would not get to that stage yet. well, thing as you've started on the numbers, hey, we've got some of our own, which i might just bring up to show to our view as this is over a 12 month period. are looking at some different starts by an take up a 118 percent and that's gives me medina, 305 percent again over the 12 month. q of actually even with the issues it had 65 percent. and then another one which i must admit, i hadn't heard huge man translate 63 percent. can you tell us a little bit about that? there's multiple brands in the pharmaceutical industry that really we haven't heard of so much before. obviously johnson and johnson of pfizer. well known for the huge market, capitalize capitalization of value, you know, got johnson. johnson got a market cup of someone like 420000000 faces. somebody like 200000000000. but there

are industry instances of these much more, less known companies that the one you just mentioned and firma is number one. that's one that seen a maximum is to be a lot more effective hopefully than of us. and we've seen the stock prices. so i think generally pharmaceutical companies, without any stocks, less well known or these big chimes dies. one of the sectors that performed tremendously wound up and done with the over one, obviously being like stokes and the technology sector. other than not, the doors have been close to the other sectors over the past one. yeah. i believe also it goes be, i mean we, we've been focusing on m r n a they've t r n a and it is so many fields here it is. is there something else we need to be keeping an eye on, or is it all sort of in the same under the same umbrella? no, that's the only difference is i think that we can consolidate those acronyms. there's so many different acronyms you just mentioned back when i'm struggling with a tongue twister, as we have to remember that with this science and stuff it is penned, i make, there is a sentiment. so i just wanna talk about your question. like for example,

we saw the past couple of days on a lot of the controversy over the western seneca vaccine that does not use this technology. but because of that controversy why regulators might be pulled back or some of 40 might be saying that we had the light vaccination, certain age groups. we have to also take into account that i can wait down on the whole medical sector as a whole, which is again another reason why these profitability and also the share price is of the specific from to when that industry can come to a container in effects of contention effect as well, that might be one risk, then risk all of the other elements of thought paul, and i think that's something that we have to take into account the market as well. one industries become very profitable, all the shop prices, but as soon as we have some so consolidation of market and excess attracted to an investor too. what are, what are the other ones? what are the other industries to keep an eye on that have? let's face it benefited from the pandemic. the tip of the tongue rather than archie . you know, you got your streaming devices from netflix is to the,

on the google the alphabets. but really what we store is technology stokes. what with zoom, microsoft and so on. so many parts of this world economy and everyday life has been cut off full. ready the overall majority of not all of us over the past one year. but there's certain things that we might have looked at as luxuries or stuff that we did in aspects. i'm like watching netflix, but it has become essential because it's been nothing else to do. so there's 2 sexes over what the act on extreme me, why and prospered in this environment is pharmaceuticals. and it's technology. and i do think that we're gonna have a lot of these social distance measures are working remotely, or there's going to be a staggered return to large scale events. and large scale governs so to say, i even the technology sector. yes, this property rights caused, but us do some gaps. hi, they can reach for the same time in the ceiling. while we say that necessity will always be the mother of invention. wanted to me last night in london. great to talk to you. thank you. thank you. for the

philippines now where unfortunately, the economic picture is bleak, not 3. 1 to this time. last year when the country went to lockdown, unemployment had risen to a record high of 17.7 percent. it's down off those highs now, but president rodrigo detect, i says the economy is sinking deeper into debt, losing more than $800000000.00 every day. and on top of that inflation that it's highest and nearly 2 years as well. so well, congress is planned to open up the economy to more foreign own businesses. help reverse all of this. jamila alan dugan investigates from manila, aaron jeweler, sylvester known as e g says life has never been dis challenging. he owned a travel agency for 20 years, but it went bankrupt after the crew. and a virus pandemic broke out. he worked at part time as a musician, but that too has now been put on hold for some of the luxuries we used to enjoy. we

had to stop that 1st. ah course, we've also had to adjust our budget for food, expansive utilities. we save whatever we can and spend only, ah, with what we need. small and medium sized enterprises like the travel agency, e. g used to operate, accounted for around 60 percent of jobs in the country. but latest figures show more than 2 thirds of these businesses have been seriously affected, are closed completely by the corona, virus pandemic reporting amendment. the certain economic provisions of the night. but congressional efforts to revive discussions about amending the constitution to relax its foreign ownership restrictions have not been welcomed with open arms. critic say the focus should instead be on providing relief to those suffering. in the current recession, we are over selling it by no means like you are all simply opening up the quote to

me will not create an army of investments. quality of local governance is the most important factor for in close offer for indirect investments and by quality of local in governance. this might include the rule of law, but what congress wants is to make economic laws much more competitive by allowing for an investment in public utilities. at the moment, that's restricted to filipinos citizens along with the right to own public land and natural resources. not because there are short term needs that we will forego working on the longer term solution i make. the pandemic was reno wake up call for us. it has become clear that longer term structural reforms. i needed the philippines implemented one of the longest and strictest locked down in the world last year in an attempt to stop the spread of the corona virus. but as in other countries, the economy has taken a battery, jamal alan dog,

n al jazeera manila. so it's not a pretty picture and really, aside from vietnam, they haven't been many southeast asian economies. they've managed to weather the pandemic, even with the swift locked arms a year ago. in fact, the united nations believes 89000000 people in the region have been pushed into poverty. a 140000000 jobs have been lost as measured by the loss of working hours. all told countries in the asia pacific spent $4.00 trillion dollars in response to the pandemic. and here's an interesting statistic as well past the tonic related diseases that is diseases which made the jump from animal to human have caused the region $200000000000.00 previously between $22010.00. so let's pick up on that with our guest, anita sal. say alice giovanna, who is the united nations under secretary general for economic and social commission for asia and the pacific. and she's with us from bangkok today. thank

you so much for your time. asia has experience here, doesn't it? it's dealt with murray. it's dealt with sars. it's dealt with h one n one. can we? did you said it should have been able to maybe deal with the coven 19 a bit better? or is this just on a different scale? yes, definitely. devon lake of it mind, dean is saying a much larger scale. yeah. than the previous, been them me, but several countries in the reagan because of the previous experiences with, with especially sars and then i'm sure a some lessons learned next. best practice that now day i did day are better able to prepare yet, and this is shown best, several countries in the region that day manage the and them make so far quite well, relatively speaking, of course, of course, for example, i said vietnam taiwan was another example as well, in fact,

you would say those countries have done better than a loss of western developed countries. what did they get? right? yeah, again, because out of previous experiences then the early response, yet the fast, early response include being in certain instances the initial locked down, but not only that yet, so that population have been better able, prepared than all this measures the health caution a measures are, are readily a, you know, in place like, you know, the simple, a hand washing social distancing went wearing mass. i think that's immediately being taken up. and 2nd is also the effect. if i identification a con, compact tre, saying, and then also a, you know, dead a bit, the measures that follows. we are still very much in the middle of this pandemic, vaccinations still have a long way to go,

but we always have to think about the recovery about coming out of this. and, and i think about the idea of an inclusive recovery, one which doesn't leave less developed countries behind and, and, and, and collectively brings every one to get a do you think that's a, that is possible and that countries are planning ahead for that. how to recover better in the sense that we would, we do do not one yet to recall for going back to the creek. and that makes situation. so therefore recovery that will lead to more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable. of course we have to translate that we have to trace that more inclusive starting with a better health care system and then universal health coverage. that's one second. at the scale of the social protection system, which again many countries in the region have not that system in place.

and also how to digit the ly, sir. then we learn this. digitalization is very important, especially for, for example, for the in the fact that s m e 's to migrate the digital platform that will help a lot not to mention the education sector, government and how to deliver to the public services, social services to that population. in need, right, and those are the sorts of things if we get those in place that will help, obviously mitigate any other crisis, which comes further down the track. in the more immediate term that you've got issues with debt, you've got a lot of countries which are racking up debt at the moment. i'm wondering how they're going to deal with that. are the development banks in the region on board with helping the mouse in the, in the, in the near term. our region several times in the region are, are we're in the quite a better position if i can see that. so therefore, in the initial stage, every, each, every,

each adapted you to be the issue is about 40 percent every year. so therefore many countries is region we're bit better able to live, to put away the fiscal stimulus need that because they have the fisk space. but since, at the panoramic crisis, have been for a long of course, yet that space is getting smaller and smaller. and also the dep situation is also getting more worrying. so therefore within the global framework, as we know, that is this initiative that so called d as, as i said, dep suspension initiative, especially for the least developed countries. and now also a paul to include the middle income countries, especially those countries that are vulnerable to the depth situation. yes sir, that's one for step. and 2nd, again,

we need to utilize more a innovative ah, let it fiscal instrument such as dep swap agreement or arrange men and, and also but again, the basic basic year at the basic domestic resources mobilization is we need also to still implement that although may be in this situation is it is, is a proven to be a very challenging i'll meet at. so say i'll is giovanna from the united nations in bangkok. thank you so much for your time. we do appreciate it. thank you very much . finally this week. well, something which i'm struggling with, quite frankly, i want you to have a look at this 1st of all. okay, this is a piece of art by the american artist mike winkleman. he goes by the name people. it is called every days the 1st $5000.00 days. it's sold at auction at christie's recently for $69300000.00. now art sells for

a lot for all sorts of reasons. but this is a piece of digital out of not hanging in a gallery anywhere. it's a bunch of pixels and some one paid 70000000 bucks for it. allow me to attempt to explain the technology behind the crypto artwork is called n, f t's or non fungible. tokens, now if you know anything about crypt occurrences, you'll know about block chain. this is along similar lines or through in f t is a buyer, can be certain of the authenticity of the art because it's all stored digitally on the block chain. like a digital recorder or a ledger if you like. but then what is art? is it a tweet? because the malaysian ceo of the block chain serviced by $2900000.00 for the very 1st tweet posted by twitter chief executive jack dorsey 3000000 dollars. technically for a tweet. and where did all this man sat well back in 2011 with nie in cat, a mame, which sold for $500000.00. well, i have questions,

and i'm sure you do too. so let's put them to talk to giovanni equal of it's a who's assistant professor of digital humanities at the university of amsterdam visiting research at the alan turing institute as well. it's nice to have you with us, doctor, i've been a little bit tongue and cheek with my introduction today, mostly because of the extraordinary amounts of money involved. what i'd like you to do is to explain that. so for example, with the tweet, the $3000000.00 paid for the tweet, what does that invest to actually get for that money? that's very, very excellent question. pertains to what really is the value in buying digital art? and i think we should ask that question more in general. what is the value of buying art? i can as many as actually can have for the full and subjective problem. personally, we might like art because of its beauty. but also art can provide visibility and reputation to its owner. and furthermore, art can be an investment. i can have,

it can make money. and i think for digital arts, the, the interesting question to ask is, what is the value of for whom? so who is interested in, in digital art? and i'm going to just quickly, i'm sorry, because i want to pick up on the point that you've made up someone about, about, about the value. it's like shares in the end, in a company it is, you know, they are worth what someone is willing to pay for them in this case. what does the invest to get that money? yes indeed. well, i think exposure, this is very important because digital arch is always on display. so country tool to find art, i mean it's not hanging someone living room that it's always on line. and this is extremely interesting for, for some people right to really care about the whole life its ability. so the buying reputation and buy something that everybody can see. furthermore,

i think digital art is also very liquid. and so country to traditional arts and fine art. it's going to be very easy for them to make it into something financial to sell it, but also to talk about it. so to, to sell fraction ownership of a digital token. and it's again in terms of at least short term economic value. it's very appealing alicia to a newer generation. is it quite nice shit? the moment i noticed that the person who bought the people piece of art was actually a crypt currency entrepreneur himself. i wouldn't say, saw or minutes. there is indeed, new capitals coming in particular creek to capitals. these are not the only the only people interested in digital art by all means. but it seems to be the case, at least for the, for the most important sales. but i would also the line that's i don't think this is really very surprising, quite. i mean, i've been new generation as asserting sell with distinct,

artistic taste. so it seems to be the case here that we're witnessing new generations and new capital that is just buying what they can find fundable, the amounts of money and the profile, which all of this has gone out at the moment is that lend credibility to an f t, does it make them them more visible apart from the on the actual and if case, because i think that's probably the underlying story here. isn't it? what's a non fungible token, how that technology can be applied to any number of other things? yeah, this is really an excellent question because no fungible tokens really as much broader scope than, than digital art. so in a sense, it is somewhat easy to start using them for collectibles. and, and indeed what we are seeing is that also the mainstream art or it is taking notice and jumping recently had people say lots. christy said we have 4 county

sale. sotheby's by the artist. but, but to your question, i think an s t 's are very interesting for many more applications that will probably take a little bit more time to, to developed. it's very exciting and sees the projects that are going to use and s t 's to tokenize money including intellectual property, but even personal time and personal commitments. so it's really flexible technology that allow us to take something that is that the can be made rare. and making into something that is financial that becomes bailing. which very interesting stuff. dr . giovanni glove. it's a joining us from amsterdam. thank you for your time. thank you very much. come off for your invitation, and that is our show or this week, but i want to hear from you want to know what you think, what you want to say as well, say to d n. a. if you treating the hash tag as the female is more your thing, it's counting the cost down to the red dot net. and it's always more for your

online account with your dot com slash ctc that will take you straight to our page with all our previous episodes for you to catch up on whenever you like. and is it better for this edition of counting the cost time? come out on to maria from the whole thing. thanks for joining us. the news on out to 0. ah. compelling journalism we keeping our distance because it's actually quite dangerous . ambulances continue to arrive at the scene of the explosion inspire program making. i still don't feel like i actually know enough about what living under fascism was light, how much money did you make for your rural and deliverance? i made. fab al jazeera english proud recipient of the new york festivals broadcaster of the year award for the 5th year running. in the next episode of earth rise, nick kong joined to greenpeace crew on

a voyage through the widow sea. to highlight the importance of protecting this fragile antarctic ecosystem against an expanding list of manmade threats beneath the surface of magnificent desolation is just tv with life. louisa. so the remote is walters or antarctic sanctuary on al jazeera ah. covered 19 infections and death surge in the us and europe as the only con variance prompts governments to tighten restrictions. ah, player watching al jazeera alive from del howard, me for the back to ball. also coming up. the un human rights council is to investigate. abuse is committed by old.