collection centers are being set up everywhere, but critics say this type of circular economy has a fundamental flaw, noble and dea commodity. it doesn't promote a fundamental change in our consumption habits if we continue generating the same amount of waste without changing the productive model that generates it. we're just kicking the ball forward. perhaps. but this one important advantage to distill fledgling industry made from waste. it should help reduce the need to cut down more trees yet another environmental casualty of our times. you see in human al jazeera santiago. ah, let's take you through some of the headlines now. south america has become the most vaccinated continents in the world. governments are accelerating vaccine programs as aman chron cases. serge, alison der empathy has more now from bogota. dorothy,

so obviously worried about the arrival of the army con fiery. and the 1st cases that have been discovered in the majority of the countries throughout latin america . but right now that we haven't seen a surge in numbers throughout this region, actually, the numbers are at their lowest the end. there are many here of in a creek to praise. the fact that now latin america is the most vaccinated region in the world. frances further tightened cove 19 measures after reporting more than 800000 cases. the government has asked people to work from home at least 3 days a week. they'll be no new co, few though for new year's eve, children will return to school to as planned. on january, the 3rd indonesian officials say they will not offer refuge to a group of wrangler on a stranded boat. they say the vessel will be turned away,

but they will help repair it 1st spend on providing food. it was spotted by fishermen on sunday. russia supreme court has ordered a prominent human rights organization to shut down memorial international documents, abuses committed by the former soviet union. the judge in the thanks trafficking trial of get a maxwell says she's concerned coded 19, could stall proceedings she's urging jurors to speed up the deliberation. so avoid getting the virus which would delay a verdict. maxwell is accused of grooming teenagers for andrea. thanks with the light financing, jeffrey epstein, a group of vasquez women is being protesting and cobbled to demand equal rights from the time to bomb the march through the streets. days after the government introduced new rules for long distance travel, women must be accompanied by close male relative does the headlines. the news continues here on al jazeera, after all hail the lock down,

stay with us. ah, january, just 20 years ago, the euro was brought into circulation. we investigate have a your exam benefit from having an official currency be part of the street and going out social media community as sierra leone for recovery from civil war continues. we must see decades since the end of one of africa's most brutal complex, the bottom line. steve clemens dives headlong into the u. s. issues that shape the rest of the world. as we enter the 3rd year with 19, we go back to hand where it all began and investigate how far we come. since the

pandemic january on, i'll just see about the world economy is headed for recession. china won't be there to say that this time. northern islands, health service at breaking point. south korea sit for one of the was growth periods in half a century. the richest person in the world just gave $98.00 and a half $1000000.00. del. why am i reading these headlines to you? well, it's to prove that these could all of these leaving poor pandemic 2020 headlines in reality though they were all published in november 2019 a month before close at 19 had even been heard because well, before the current of ours pending to kid, much of the world was already deep in a crisis of capitalism and now with millions out of work in the industry, generally stagnant and health care, and scrambling for a vaccine. the question is,

did capitalism turn the emergency into a disaster? me? oh capitalism. it's an ideology and economic system, a political statement, but how the system based on private ownership and profit set world in a ton of crisis. when the situation demands, we cannot the individual gain a collective benefit. stay at home and protect lives, but they said test test test without preventive measures, that could be a spiking cases. all these cancellations are away to flatten the curve. covered 19 hasn't been like any other crisis. job losses, health care struggles a critical need for relief from state level struct segments of society that

normally don't face these kinds of grave economic stresses. ensure all of a sudden, through this pandemic, once in a century type of crisis, it's become evident to many that pre code at times in full across as entire countries went down. i spoke with a group of people whose work has been all about dissecting and analyzing capitalism . when people say they want to go back normal to complain. that sounds pretty good to me right now. the thing about morality actually inc. and politics you think actually produce a lot going to be pretty well not, not even in other people. there wasn't to be parents, keep that money to come in and talk from

one to richard in history. and we didn't have the money to do that. in my opinion, capitalism is the pandemic. that is the root cause of so much of the suffering we're experiencing now. i mean, i want things to go back to normal. i want to be able to go to a cafe. i want to be able to see my friends. i don't want things to go back to the normal that we've been living with for the last 20 years. wells, concentration of exploitation, of working people. that's the paradigm, that's the context that says the stage for our current calamity. this fires has intensified as spotlight on health care, what it costs, who gets access and its ability to respond in a crisis. one system that runs shockingly counter to the needs of so many it's supposed to serve is the one in the united states. american healthcare is largely privatized and lacks pricing regulation, both key traits of a capitalist system. this means not only is every element of the health care system from hospitals to drug manufacturers,

owned and operated by the private sector. but those businesses of free to charge whatever they like. this makes staying healthy in the united states, a scarily expensive proposition. there's a small percentage of the population about 18 percent that does get some state support for medical costs, but for the vast majority, private health insurance is the only recourse they charge. notoriously expensive premiums making them unaffordable for many and filled with loopholes and gaps that mean even in short, americans can be left with hefty medical bills to pay. that's why. before the pandemic, it was estimated that 87000000 americans were uninsured, or under insured, and medical bills were a leading cause of customer bankruptcy. new in the united states, people can access health care because they can't afford health insurance even if they have insurance. they are buried in debt after the fact. what happens when someone like the crown of ours hits a population that is indebted, devastating population that has no savings, right?

40 percent of americans before the crisis were reported to not be able to handle a 4 $100.00 emergency. america's health care crisis has intensified during the pandemic. a tidal wave of layoffs have meant that as many as 27000000 americans have lost employer provided health insurance. and without that cover a hospital stay to treat cove. it could cost as much as $73000.00. this is despite a government plan announced in march to cover some, clifford related medical bills, the lack of coordination, and the need for medical supplies to keep turning. a profit has led hospitals into bidding war. so if a crucial supplies like p, p e, mosques, tests, and medical equipment, doctors and nurses warning that critical protective gear is running low. this is a hospital where the health care workers have taken to wearing garbage bags. with like being on e bay, with 50 other space bidding on a ventilator, the hospitals are run for profit, and so they don't have adequate staff, right,

because that would feed into revenue and they don't want to have extra medical supplies, just languishing not being used. so what we're going to see is a lot of people who are going to perish, not because of the virus per se, but because of the lack of access, the adequate health care, the lack of access to protective gear, we're going to see people who don't seek treatment because they're afraid of not being able to pay for it. it's already been reported by emergency room doctor is that you know, people, the last, their last words are literally but who's going to pay for corona viruses. i knew that existed in humans since 19 sixties. and they cause a range of different illnesses from the common cold, to more lethal varieties, such as the outbreak of saws in 2002, and merge in 2012 in 2015. the world health organization,

even listed corona viruses as being among the top possible causes of a major epidemic. so how is it that pharmaceutical companies have been caught? so off guard by this virus, it may, this year, brussels based research center, the corporate europe observatory, published a detailed investigation into the effectiveness of the innovation medicines initiative. i am i, it's the world's biggest public, private partnership in life sciences. and it directs billions of dollars worth of funds to biomedical research at the world's biggest pharma companies. what the investigation uncovered was that not only did firms in 2017, turned down an e u proposal to work on vaccines for pathogens like corona virus. but 2600000000 euro of i am ice funds were transferred into projects that represented much more commercially profitable avenues for the pharmaceutical industry. this investigation reinforced to point that big pharma insiders and whistle blowers had been making for a while. that serious matters, like pandemic preparedness,

of being held hostage by commercial considerations. on march 5th, les karone, of ours cases, spread across the u. s. congressional hearings taking place. we also took on a decade ago of the interesting problem of making karone of ours vaccines. because we recognize these as enormous public health threats. and yet we have not seen the big pharma guys and the bio dex rushing into the space. so dr. peter hurt is one of america's leading vaccine. scientists said that a vaccine his team had created 4 years ago. in response to the sars outbreak may have been able to provide patients with cross protection from the virus at the heart of this. but it simply hadn't been commercially enticino for drug companies to invest in. the bottom line is, had we had those investments early on, or to carry this all the way through clinical trials. years ago, we could have had a vaccine ready to go, you know, one of the big problems of capitalism, the capitalists, direct investment. the capitalist say, you know,

it's really important viagra because that's a huge market. even though the current arms exist, not invest in vaccines because that market doesn't really exist. and also, if you really want to vaccinate the whole world in this preemptive measure, no, let's create something that we can sell now. so, you know, we like capitalists, me direct investment at or o'clock of peril whenever a vaccine is hopefully created. the next battle, at least for patients in the united states, will be over affordability. and that's when we're back to one of the fundamental point holds of the american health care system, where unlike in almost every other nation, basic pricing controls simply don't exist. and it's not even as though this is a secret and you're saying it, oh, for sure, the affordable for anyone who needs it. i'm saying we would, we would want to ensure that we work to make it an affordable, but we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest. that was donald trump's health and human services. secretary alex's on

a congressional hearing in february this year, an interesting side note before he was appointed to his rolling government. as i worked as the top lobbyist for the pharmaceutical firm, eli lilly, and company the hunt for a corona virus vaccine has now suddenly become one of the most well funded areas of biomedical research. not only a governments and pharmaceutical giants investing in it, the so called super heroes of the corporate world have all stepped into the fray. a ceo of netflix is donating $30000000.00 toward research for a corona virus vaccine. microsoft co founder bill gates has continued the fought against garage of ours investing billions of dollars on the construction of factories working to develop a coven 19 vaccine. some of the wealthiest people on earth found is, and ceos of major corporations. i'm making headlines for donating to coven courses through their own philanthropic organizations. but it's not just about the money. it's the perception that it comes with all the trappings of the corporate world efficiency returns on investment,

streamlining of operations. all of this has transformed what was wants simply charitable, giving into something else. philanthropy, capitalism, lindsey mcgee, has written about it extensively in a book, no such thing as a free gift. i think we have to move past the headline. sometimes mr. gates did talk about the need for mass testing at an earlier stage than some u. s. officials. and that was a good scientific approach to take, but i really didn't question whether or not their efforts were anything more than a bad day as solution because there was no evidence that they were really having much of a positive effect on the sort of really deteriorated and ramshackle approach that was underway in the us more generally. i think what we're applauding when we see a dipping into their own trouser pockets and giving any are some cash is we're frauding that makes the copies. and what's the, every walk that anyone can beat up getting a baby ordinary guy. i'm supposed to money. and that's not the case. there.

billions. all a collective creation, not their own individual creation. every being a sign attractive. and i, yeah, because no one should have money when other people are sleeping on the streets or going about inequality is one of the defining factors of capitalism. it's meant that the world's top one percent now hold close to 50 percent of global wealth. and so when the philanthropists among them contribute to causes, it's often only a mere sliver of their network. jeff bezos is $100000000.00 donation to us food bags, for example, amounted to 0.07 percent of his estimated wealth moccasin bugs is $25000000.00 donation. again, just 0.05 percent of his net worth. the point of all these numbers isn't that 1000000000, it should be giving more. that's another discussion entirely near the point here is that philanthropy, capitalism is too often used as a distraction from meaningful possibly more expensive systemic changes ramp and

corporate tax avoidance. the suppression of minimum wage levels, reliance on state subsidies, precarious working conditions. i mean, a list of what actually needs to be addressed if long. and it can often get obscured by flashy headlines or new segments about billionaires and their generosity. q 2 stepped up and you're providing $25000000.00. we didn't have the money to do that. and i just want to thank you to this is not an access, right? this is the product of a political strategy that's been going on for the last 4050 years, whereby you taxes are slashed and private, what the cumulative, and what that private well does is it concentrates power and that threatens democracy. so we have this really negative feedback loop where the more dysfunctional the state is, right? the last is able to provide basic services, the lessons able to protect our public health. the more ammo there is for the

corporate sector to say, hey, look, the state is inefficient. the state is incompetent. we, with all of our resources, can save the day. that big philanthropic power to influence is a point that's not lost on 1000000000 is light bill gates. when asked in 2012, if he would ever run for president of the us. he responded. i actually think, you know, maybe i'm wrong that i can have as much impact in that role as i could in any political role. i role in the foundation, i don't have to raise ah, political campaigns. i don't have the frank elective, i'm not term limited to 8 years odds of it's a very nice office and i don't doubt. bill gates is motifs that the bolton is very teas hadn't got a long history invoking these things, but he's not beholden in both. is in making decisions, his monthly rate that he wishes there is not one. again, cathy for that's that's,

that's not the constraint works. so what he does is that he's not replacing full gum in a complex won't looking for simple narratives. benevolent dylan is a great, they have name recognition, they appear heroic, and they've got the cash. however, this pandemic has also shown a light on the other end of the economic spectrum to the key worker delivery drivers, supermarket, shelf stack. as nurses care is the pandemic, momentarily appended the hierarchy of labor. and yet in the u. k. a set of proposed post briggs at immigration controls in february, deemed many of these exact essential workers to low paid and quote, low skilled to receive a visa to work in the country. i think god is a hard capitalist systems that those who were deriving the most value from the e r, they're not the most essential workers. because what is keeping our economy going right now? are the lowest paid workers who are really our most indispensable parts of the

workforce. workers in the healthcare system at seen the funds that got me here when i'm off people on this more than one of the one of the nurses, the old one that is torn and people working. so she passes them, are often not on enough to, to live on. what do you plan on? because it wasn't just me, my wife is going out and applauding the health care workers. and now makers is also prime minister on downing street who had part of the gum, ha, b resources that were going in today, and i just installed in a chest there's a time that's gained renewed current st. during his pandemic disaster capitalism, canadian activist, an ortho, naomi klein came up with a years ago and had booked the shock doctrine and went viral during the 2008 great

recession. it points to how disasters, buck, recession war a pandemic, not necessarily catastrophic. across the board in a capital a system, they can also present an opportunity for the money minded. and we've seen a lot of profiteering during this current pandemic already. i don't think we've seen yet the limits that profiteering, but we've got an early sense of which doctors in your companies are starting to, for example, price scouts when it comes to basic necessities like math that are on for example, being charged up for it's of 15 times their usual cost. price gouging is one manifestation of disaster capitalism. and during this look down, it's done everything from cause a temporary spike in the price of hand sanitizer, to effect the number of ventilators available to the u. s. government, according to a pro, public or investigation in 2014, the u. s. department of health and human services signed a 13800000 dollar contract with dutch electronics conglomerate phillips to design

and manufacturer cheap and portable, ventilator for use in emergencies. although a ventilator was created and the government ordered $10000.00 of them, not a single one was ready at the start of the pandemic. like many countries, the united states faced critical ventilator shortages, while phillips was selling too high, a price commercial versions of the same ventilator around the world. so they never fulfilled this order at the cheaper level for the department of health and human sciences. it's deadly brit. prioritize the more expensive overseas orders, and it's only been recently that the department of how human sciences has really negotiated the same order, but it has been forced to pay for the ventilators at a higher price. that renegotiation, that lindsey mentioned. it resulted in the u. s. government ordering $43000.00 of the commercial ventilators in april at 4 times the regional price. in late august, the remainder of the order was cancelled only after a congressional committee raised questions about the expenditure. but disaster

capitalism can also be less direct and more obscured from public scrutiny. like who stands to benefit from some taxpayer funded bailouts. take the u. s. airline industry, which had its request for a $50000000000.00 baylash approved by the u. s. senate in march. while the loans were condition long job protections, the sticking point for many is that over the past 5 years, the big for ally companies, american delta southwestern united have not only made record profits. a collectively spent nearly the same amount, 45000000000 on stock buybacks and dividends 2 ways in which companies can directly enrich their corporate executives and shareholders. so it's not the things bailouts aren't necessary now to avoid mass unemployment, except a substantial part of their current financial problem is arguably of their own making. billions of dollars were mobilized, basically in an incident to bail out corporate america. and this is incredibly ironic because these, these corporations were, you know, in

a week financial place because of their own business models because they had over leverage themselves. because they had engaged in pushing money out to shareholders instead of planning for tough times. meanwhile, people are held to that standard. you know, if you haven't said, then it's your fault that you're suffering in the moment. so there's, there's a double standard written into the economic response. so you have a formal capital which didn't lead up to billing because we'll kept reading cute and say, well, capitalism works when we kissed company goes to the war when, when things aren't watching a bad idea, they fail to clearly haven't gotten in any society under this and that's probably a good thing when we come out, i think we can certainly say that the old month for of public bad product.

good stuff, stopping work. and i think we can all sorts of questions about why did last the socialize it to an outside crisis. again, boyd project, we need to reach out to kind of the assets to rethink capitalism, have been going on almost as long as capitalism itself has existed. and to be fair, it's practiced in notably different ways in different parts of the world. but one of the most toxic and recurring problems is that in too many cases, the system seems designed to favor of small elite segment of the population. if the idea we began with that way before the crisis of this corona virus, we will already grappling that the crisis of kathy was we should have this phrase, you know, that we need to save the economy or we need to keep business is going, it makes sense, but i think we have that good, deeper question, which is, well, what's in the economy for look at something like g d, p,

gross domestic product. all that means is that there's more affluent, but it has nothing to do with distribution that has nothing to do with the quality of people live. you can have enormously high g, p and, and have, you know, rector, rates of homelessness and unemployment. so we, we have to deconstruct this idea of the economy and, and put people at the center. we are living in the moment and not being clear. cuz the wealthier nation could not for their own company or their own public sufficiently to prevent going to put that on there, the, the welcoming, the sort of mentoring have not been fair to share. they've been ordered by a view, what people are left or more modern by market and other stuff that it's really not stuff that we will. it's clear that actually everything nearing the whole collection of action. individual action is also clear that there are some parts of

the a just small pool and she was taking those a pre patient, michael and found patients of a cigar. i miss clinton neglected in all of this attention. it's being given to look at it's getting as much in coming to country without thinking too much about lana. i think we need to reason click on characters in the thought. i was a neat think we need written on august the 2020 the year of look, downs and social distance saying he can't reach across the screen and get someone to hug. alley re explore is one of the global pandemic. biggest side effects loneliness, everyone who lives alone has been forced to be socially isolated for the 1st time

ever highlighting its effect from physical and mental health and discovering unique ways of coping. controlling, being alone together, episode to of all hail the look down on al jazeera. ah frank assessments. this gracious continued to weaken a look. i shall go up even though perhaps he believes in the beginning. that what's that i'm informed opinions. i think politicians will now be under incredible pressure from the young people. that is one of the most helpful things to come out of this critical debate. do you think they should be facilitated? not sure. okay, it's a great. it's a really simple question. let's give time your child swans that. inside story on al

jazeera, healing the debate, 90 percent of the world's refugees have come from a common impacted country. the climate emergency is putting more pressure on across the world and amplify your voice. it's not really the future. 8, now it's not a lock can get this completed. we cannot lose hope. we know what to do and we have the tools to do to get this going on now to sierra i care about helping you with engaging with the rest of the world. we're really interested in taking you into a play. you might not visit otherwise and feel as if you were there with

a guest with a, a ah. back to square one corona virus cases serge globally. but governments are divided on how to combat the new wave. ah, i'm sammy's a dan. this is al jazeera alive from dell hall. so coming up in the nation, officials say, well, send a group of range of refugees bank to see after fixing their boat.

oh, exhausted.