with it, but like previous power, couples with political differences. think coal meter all chirac. schroeder, that's no reason to think sholtes and macaroni can't see eye to eye on europe and the world. joe, the whole al jazeera paris. now if you're spotty senses have been singling it may be cause the superhero film, spider man, no way home, is taken in more than a $1000000000.00 and ticket sales globally. the 1st pandemic era movie to reach that milestone. it is the highest grossing movie of 2021 right at the end. film industry, of course, hit hard by pandemic restriction, losing around $30000000000.00 in revenue in 2020, in the united states alone. ah . up up the hour and these are the top stories south africa observing a week of morning for the nobel peace prize laureate desmond to, to he's done at the age of 90. he rose to prominence in the 1980s as an opponent of

apartheid during white minority rule. his ami tamila in cape town. what is key is, is just really the humility that the archbishop is described by in that he didn't want a big show around his passing and even his death. but it simply can't be avoided given who he was. so they will be a state funeral on friday. we do expect people to come out thousands of people to come out to observe that just given how well respected desmond to, to isn't south africa. and globally headlines and somali as president says, he has suspended, but the prime minister and the commander of the marine forces president and prime minister of accused each other of delaying the countries parliamentary elections. israel government says it plans to double the number of jewish settlers in the ocoee by golden heights from 25 to 50000, to go to night, seized by israel from syria in the 1967 war,

and then annexed in 1981 flash flooding and ne, brazil's lead to the death of 18 people and it's affecting more than 400000 officials say the state of bar has received 5 times if the average rainfall for december, australia's most populous state, new south wales is recorded. its 1st death linked to the only con variant of covered 19 testing science across the country have been overwhelmed and a hospital and sidney as i do apologize after i sent out the wrong results to almost a 1000 people. one, hundreds of us flights have been canceled for a 3rd day in a row. airlines say they just don't have enough staff to get the planes off the ground. coven 19 infections. rise once again, due to that on the chrome variance. and with that, you're up to date with the headlines on al jazeera, we're back with more after inside story. in the far reaches of the new siberian islands, gold rush, fever is in the air, hunted,

searching for priceless woolly mammoth tusks of honor the holy grail. an incredible journey into the realms of science fiction, where cloning and synthetic biology have scientist playing god. witness genesis to point toe, the hunt for the woolly mammoth on out to sierra. thousands of doctors and nurses are dying on the front lines of the pandemic. many more our stress burnt out and leaving their jobs. so what should be done to ensure health care workers receive the protection and support they need? this is inside story. ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm how much am jerome, doctors, nurses,

and other health care workers around the world have been working tirelessly to save lives since the pandemic began. but the world health organization says since january last year, up to $180000.00 of them have died from cove at 19. some believe the actual number may be much higher. many health care workers say they're overworked and under appreciated. some have opted to leave the profession, industry leaders or warning of widespread staff shortages if governments don't give medical workers more support will bring in our guests in a moment. first this report by homeric boundary health and care workers, ah, they protect us. when we meet at most, they're seen as the heroes of the pandemic. doctors and nurses around the world have been working nonstop for nearly 2 years to controlled this head of cove at 19, often without proper protective equipment. like many say there are breaking point

like the workers in this hospital in russia. not only are they battling a surge of infections nationwide, they're dealing with misinformation about vaccines and people refusing to get to the job. only a 3rd russians are fully inoculated just water and to be honest, we're not even outraged anymore. we just feel sorry for these people, because even if you take a hospital, i can tell you the out of every 50 admitted only one or 2 of them are vaccinated. the world health organization estimates up to $180000.00 health workers have died on the front lines of the bustle against growing the virus since january last year . it's urgent governments to get better support and speed up vaccinations. the fund to me is a powerful demonstration of just how much we rely on health workers and how vulnerable we all are when the people who protect are held out of themselves and protected

my expense, say many more burnt out, stressed suffering from anxiety and fatigued. it's a shocking and document of government. it's a shocking indictment of their lack of juicy, of care to protect health care care workers in ultimate sacrifice with their lives. less than one in 10 health workers in africa and the western pacific awfully vaccinated compared to 80 percent in wealthy nations. doctors and nurses in some countries have been told they'll lose their jobs if they don't get vaccinated . oh, these protesters outside the health ministry increase. say the vaccine mandate is unfair and will lead to further staff shortages in hospitals. in again, we are going on the streets going on strike,

because the government has transformed us from heroes, into scapegoats. we're going on the streets because so far they haven't satisfied any of our fair demands. surveys in the us and the u. k. have found the pandemic has worse and existing problems in their health care systems, such as under funding long hours, and a lack of support for staff. thousands have already left that profession. it's feared many more will follow them if the situation doesn't improve. seen her marriage all 3 for inside story. i mean of all all right, let me in our guests joining us live by skype from geneva, howard captain. he is the chief executive officer of the international council of nurses from one by dr. issue arg alada, an infectious diseases expert, and secretary general of the organized medicine academic guild, and from melbourne. grant blashley and associate professor at the nozzle institute

for global health at the university of melbourne. a warm welcome to you all and thanks so much for joining us today on inside story. howard, let me start with you today. it is estimated that between 80002880002 health care workers could have died from cupboard 19 since the beginning of the pandemic. that is a staggering number. just how shocking is it to you. i'm. it's a, it's a conservative estimate. it is absolutely shocking. i think the true figure could be higher. i think we could be pushing close to a quarter of a 1000000. it's an indictment of government's failure to act, to protect health care work as these are people who were just going to work to do their job. but the real issue that worries me hugely here is that the actual number of deaths reported to the world health organization. from countries around the world is less than $7000.00. people are clapping,

but nobody is counting. and that sends a message to suggest that it's just not being taken seriously enough. one death is a tragedy. it leaves in its wake families left without her with, without mums, without did dad's kids being offered. but when we get into the scale of the thousands, it appears that we just treat it as a mr. to stick. grant. let me ask you how traumatizing a has this pandemic been for health care workers on the front lines. are fighting against coven 19? yes, i think that the, the mental health impacts for health workers is vain. enormous. you know, it's been a mix of anxiety, you know, concerned about getting the illness, the uncertainty. and i think as time goes on, you know, the chronic nature of bass that you get burn out, you get compassion, fatigue, get

a bit cynical and despondent about things. so it's been very tough and really were very concerned about a psychological well being of a health workforce is who are let me ask you also being on the front lines in this fight against a pandemic from your vantage point. i mean, you just heard a grant there, talk about the burn out. i can talk about the psychological impact. what do you see amongst colleagues? how, what kind of an effect has this had if we are to kind of colleagues one, those are not going to work fine. sir. digger tall girl getting very, very scared of this brand of it. i'm quite a lot of wishing. so they came out only after a year or so. and secondly, people like us who are always on the horn and being in medical profession, we've done a lot for our kind of professional upkeep conferences. so why does that put in last one? hardly any time and we, we don't, we did a colleague now all our only video buildings are skype meetings. so that kind of

interaction is not good enough. what will people, what will be effective with people having professional circle? so there is obviously some sort of burnout exam is a, some psychological problem and more so by seeing more and more depth and suffering, it is not only merely i'll be sure to put some time on me and the other was family members. so that way we'll all be directed as any other you want be united with that being doctors. we are all the more because we got across death search putting and one reject mortality. what triggers as well as the fisher's data del, howard your organization, the international council of nurses calls the number of deaths that health care workers, coven, 1900, a damning indictment of governments. do you think that we're at the stage where we will start seeing governments do more?

i hope we will. i hope that this will spur them into action because i'm really concerned that they've been looking the other way by not reporting by not counting, pretending that the problem doesn't exist, but what we're seeing now very clearly are the consequences of the impact you've just heard about the mental health impact the mass traumatized zation that's now translating to people who are leaving are the professions not just nursing other health professions, as well, who feel that they can give no more nurses round the world. we went into this pandemic 6000000 nurses, short the impact of the pandemic. we believe has increased that. and we think that we could be on the edge on the brink of a global health workforce crisis. and if government don't do something about that, if they don't recognize the issue, if they don't invest in recruitment and retention,

we have no health services without our health care workers. there are some parts of the world we've heard already of reports from, from, from scotland. i think from the u. s. where governments, how to bring in army personnel army medics to help to deal with the demands that are, that exist and governments cannot afford not to address this issue to invest in i health workers is who are you just heard it, howard there, talk about how governments from his point of view really have been failing and their responsibility when it comes to protecting health care workers i, when it comes to ensuring their safety and to ensuring that the health care sector is able to help people and 3 people from your perspective, what can be done about this from a health management point of view. i think the him, what does to health care and his go go to should be bad. yeah. here it should not only be saudi. when did is a been event, you remember or doctors and had well because and then everything inside and you are

not bothered. she will not only get it faster on going. did you just think that you declared oxford and all you do what i should baseball you created some temporary passivity. i did. i did forget it is not going to be done by that. when he was looking at the was his dog edition. they had the report from may with them, the shooting on that they were pilots. why they're shot dead such what up your time go because i what is the problem? what is their dog that is a healthy body? i think they are. there was a double body to understand what can happen to the parent, right, because doctors, nurses, technicians at the stop. so if they are to take one off your time, we don't expect much, much more. 4 more dollars or governance are not technical people and up water. so during the pick up the big, they all want to dump it for doctors and they taught a lot of doctors are a lot because i stop daddy to take pictures that are

a lot of assaults happening all over the country. are there are large lists. what those. 1 are the one in florida when i got up to jer, jer, gum. the wall is a rental. i think the hospitals, clinics, nursing homes that are when it comes. but if you have got us, so they, they were there is a big problem where they drove it, or to book glossy is the actual classes are not worried. people what the property could proficient those, what they're proficient, they want to take leave or they want to relax and those who want to join, they were didn't buy. so ties with a visual drug prohibition because it is not making proficient anymore. i don't know those who else kind of a ship but the but the, you want the service at the heart or part of that got a british about this unless people are mostly commercially interested at the same time. they're started safety and security. so i think these are the door of the cat

and say that what is to be done for me to go over to robert? he is not merely in the article by grant. could you talk our viewers through some of the specific types of anxiety being experienced by health care workers around the world during the pandemic? and from your perspective, our countries doing enough to provide these health care workers with the appropriate amount of mental health care? yes, so i think the 1st thing we need to say is that common sense will tell you. health care work is made to feel safe. they need to feel that, you know, they're being looked after a maze, a simple things. before we get into psychological support, you know i, you vaccinated, i do, you have access to protective equipment, appropriate, protective equipment. and i'm, do you have ways to manage the sort of occupational sort of

violence and abuse that goes on with some very stressed communities. so this is the 1st step that governments have got to think about to deal with those really practical issues. you can imagine as a health worker, fairly terrifying for any body to be in that position without the proper safeguards . so that's the 1st thing on site. i think that 2nd lay governments can do a lot more to provide psychological support to take it seriously. and i think i very much agree with how it's comments that we're going to have a gap in the health workforce. if we don't make sure that we're attending to the psychological things as well. so that can be things like pay support from colleagues, mentoring young health professionals,

helping them to learn to manage their boundaries, their professional boundaries, when they're working in these very difficult global pandemic. and to understand that they have to have realistic expectations for themselves and to be able to switch off and paste themselves. because these panoramic has turned out to be a marathon. we're not in the acute crisis anymore wherein an ongoing sort of long term management scenario. and remember, you can feel someone else's cup if your copies empty. so the health workforce need to understand self care at the same time. so very important issues that we have to deal with. howard, there was a shortage of nurses, even before the pandemic began. how much worse is the situation now? the shortage before the tan demick was $6000000.00,

but we've got an aging population in many parts of the world. that's another 4000000 nurses. we know it due to retire over the next few years. this impact of cove with the covey effect on the nursing workforce with estimated could push us up to 1213000000 nurses that we will need to replace or over the next few years. that's about half the number of nurses in the world as a 27000000 nurses around the world. i think what grant is highlighted here, those well, is it. this is a health crisis clearly, but there's also a rights crisis, a human rights crisis. the rights of nurses in health workers, which is, which are not being respected, which is take this vaccine issue. there are some equally shocking statistics about the in equity of access to vaccine for health care workers. on the continent of africa, we've done some work to look at how many health workers have been fully vaccinated . about 10 percent in other developed countries. 1890 percent of populations were

up to in terms of people who are being vaccinated. we are asking workers, health workers and, and africa. they're of low levels in the western pacific as well, to go to work to be at higher risk and not to afford them the protection, despite the words that we're gonna prioritize them not to deliver on that. our government's a g 20 a leaders, a meeting at the end of this month that made big promises about numbers of vaccines that they will share. but the process for delivering them seems very opaque to us. we heard gordon brown in the last few days say that actually there are 500 1000000 available day st doses around the world, some of which my actually expire. go out of date. he's called for an air lift to get them to the people who need them to health work is. this isn't an issue about supply, it's an issue about sharing and it takes is back again to ah,

health leaders to deliver actions, actions, investment to support health care workers. not just the continuing words and applause is where i saw you reacting to some of what howard was saying there. did you want to jump in? now basically, we look at the own too much of iniquity. on one hand, the guarantees like canada, usa, european union, australia, why 2 to 4 times one number of actually the required for the entire population. and they're allowing it to expire because we've actually tell a really short expiry, but they're not going to dig in a very large numbers to africa. rebuild initially started doing, but they're after they're the u. s. guy in india and they said that a bonus typically we don't have actually can do it. but now we are done up, you know, back to mission. we cross 1000000000, i started it and we all been getting that record showed us to also pretty go where

they are in the back to georgia. so if it turned off his go out there vaccinated, i think it was the responsibility of that would be up to date. but globally, that dakota rush direction at the bar rockers got if they are not really worried about it, they'll get a crisis down. so if you look at in airlines, there are special sheets for a lunch top in deal with that us which are in this top, you've got a visit, they're all just going to stop. what for doctors? for nurses, there is no special or special ed any bit by board doctors or doctor deborah accepting delivery. you didn't be locked out. i did to needed to started the same. you'll often are to be out of the board as g that they get a bit should that they're delivered properly. if this is the situation, what a doctor, you the hospital that you can imagine what facilities we're getting nowhere. so i didn't, we should prioritize like every of it. i'm not saying that doctor should be treated

like god, visual you on friday, but at least in the hospital for the doctors like we can bite for beta for others. but if we have to fight, but i want a little bit that it is very difficult situation. so i think it could be been watered fires where the water was while this talking particular lavista life. what was diagnosis? what is science on this item was douglas bit is a good deal. this out up was started us. so on what have you want? i see gotten kick on the other act. you don't want others to get you one kick. so basically, did this come up unique, your t is not acceptable, and i think w joe should come, come on. he really should make all sorts of it boards with the respective got max, who it was. so it is buck biling, the vaccines. so that direction good, rush to the up. this is very dick wires, the most particularly healthcare community grant in this situation that we all find ourselves in where health care workers are so fatigue where they are experiencing so much burnout. how are hospitals and clinics around the world going to be able to

hold on to their current staff and also to get new staff? yeah, i think it's a very important question because what we're looking at is really a combination of a very serious occupational health issue. i mean, if you ask anybody who might be watching, you know, would you like, would you go into a dangerous workplace where you haven't got the right safety equipment or preparations and most people would want to do that. so you're not, that's not a mental health condition. match just, you know, the human humanity of just worry about a very real issue. so i think that that's the 1st issue that needs to be dealt with . i think that once we deal with that, there are things that we can to in place to make the health work force feel supported, that it can be

a resilient work force that you're bringing in young new people as well, who a mentor, prop plane, and also you know, old turn piece support for managing a very traumatic time. this is a very serious pandemic, and you know, it's not like one person can, can somehow solve it. i mean, if you're working as a health professional, you really are finding yourself in a very difficult situation. one other important thing, which i think is a community attitude thing is for people who are listening, if they find themselves interacting with the health system, either because of their own illness, for their family or friends. you know, keep in mind that those health professionals who are hoping you are really putting their lives on the line, you know, they're, they're genuinely extraordinary people who are trying to do the humanitarian thing

and do the right thing. but everybody's got a limit. so we need to make sure that we nurture a health work forces and build them up so that they can continue to provide the care for the community. howard, what needs to happen from your point of view to improve the situation for health care workers around the world? what are the steps, the concrete steps that can be taken? i just want it. so i just, i come to that that just to also put on the table. i think that there is a really significant gender issue at play here as well as 60 percent of our health workforce. our women, 90 percent in nursing are women. the historic, under valuing of the work that women do inequality in access to agile education in terms of career advancement as well. and this attitude that caring work and important as it is and doesn't really have any economic value. and i think one of

the things that the pandemic has shown us as just how if we don't invest in our health systems, if our health systems are weak and not working, the impact it has on our economic life, on our, on our freedoms, in abilities to go for a, for a walk in the park to go and see, see granny that i think must result in a change in our thinking about spending on health. it's not something we do just in the good times when we can afford to. it is spending that is an essential investment in the economic security of all of our countries. we shouldn't also, i just want to put this on the tables. well, with the issue of vaccines, not shy away from misinformation about vaccines and the anti facts campaigners i've talked to nurses, i've had their stories. that how they believe that some of the attacks in the abuse that they have been subject to is a result of anti vax mis information. there's a direct line, i believe, between misinformation and a tax on

a health care workers. yes, we need to invest in recruiting more health care workers, but that will take time. doesn't happen overnight. we need to really focus as much attention on how we support and retain the staff that we've got. all right, well we have run out of time to we're gonna have to in the discussion there. thanks so much oliver. i guess howard caton, dr. ish ward yolanda and grant laskey and thank you for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al jazeera dot com, and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. you can also during the conversation on twitter, our handle is at a j inside story for me. mm hm. mm hm. jerome, in the whole team here, bye for now from the al jazeera london broke authenticate to people in thoughtful conversation with

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matter what lucy, al jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. al jazeera ah a week of mourning in south africa for the anti apartheid hero, archbishop desmond tutu live pictures here from saint george's cathedral, and cake tom, where he will line state. ah, hello and come all santa maria here and joe hall with the world news from al jazeera somali as president says he has suspended the prime minister after trading accusations over holding up on going parliamentary elections. also dozens of people .