what is to the 1970 slater? then what's the law of 1972. our institute had more tools to fight the pillaging. and it went, bel: oh, now the river vaults, facts flowing out the country seems to be reversed. what the exhibitions literature says, is when a countries ought to fight for lost, erodes part, the nation's memory, and thus wide the big hunt to find that these are like little bits of mexico's memory that are scattered around the globe. the return of some of them is celebrated by this display, which marks 200 years since met, could gained independence from spain. john homan, al jazeera metzger city ah clair again, i'm fully back to bo with the headlines on al jazeera medical sources in sudan to say at least 3 people have been killed during demonstrations in on demand earlier. soldiers were deployed and the internet was caught in an attempt to prevent the

protests. a fire has raped through a south africa parliament in cape town, causing extensive damage. the blaze broke out on sunday morning. one person is being held and questions about a place where they need to go a lot deeper and lots deeper into how this type of event can take place and what measures we will need to take going forward. but for now, i think we should be grateful that the national assembly parliament has not been raised to ashes and to the role thousands of people have defied a ban on protests in amsterdam to rally against strict corona virus measures and netherlands, imposed nationwide locked down 2 weeks ago, shutting all non essential stores, bars and restaurants. bangladesh has launch a campaign to vaccinate $40000000.00 people against over 900 each month. less than a 3rd of the population is vaccinated and health officials are hoping to inoculate

70 percent by april. the only con, very difficult 19 is driving up infections in the us with cases reaching unprecedented levels. but the president's chief medical advisor says the number of vaccinated people in hospital remained slow. us proven joe biden is said to speak, ukrainian counterpart veterans, and in ski by phone to discuss rushes military build up on the border to lensky and by dint are expected to also review plans for in person. diplomatic talks in geneva between russia, nato and ukraine. people in cities across the rock have gathered to mock 2 years since the assassination of senior iranian general cost money. he was killed in the u. s. john strike in baghdad along with iraqi commander. i bought my d out in the honda and several others. actually, with the headlines on al jazeera, i'll have more news for you after inside story. ah ah

ah ah ah, the world health organization's chief is optimistic cove at 19 may be defeated this year. and some scientists say the milder ami con variance could be the beginning of the end of the pandemic. but as such, confidence justified this is inside story. ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm getting you navigate on. it's now. the 3rd year of the pandemic cover 19 has infected nearly 300000000 people and killed 5 and

a half 1000000. numbers of infections are breaking records almost every day across north america, europe and asia. the micron variance is behind much of that surge, scientists and britain believe a person sick with the strain can in fact 3 to 5 others far more than with the delta variance. now the world health organization warns the to variance could combine and cause what it calls a tsunami of infections around the world. despite this, the director general believes the pandemic can and this year if countries work together. but i still remain optimistic that this can be the year. we can not only end the i cute stage of the pond army, but we also charge a pas to stronger health security building on the successes and failures. we must not only share vaccines faster and more equitably with callbacks and i, but we much support countries in manufacturing and rolling them out to everyone

and access to new treatments must also follow or since its discovery in southern africa, november many studies have found the army cron very and causes milder disease than others. admissions to hospitals in the u. s. u. k. in denmark or north and during previous waves, and south africa says it may have passed its peak. some scientists believe on the kron will displace delta and become endemic, like the seasonal flu. but others are more cautious as come off. santa maria explains, you may have heard dr. ted ross, the head of the world health organization, talking about the twin threats of delta and army crone, but whether it's a twin threat to you and your particular part of the world. well, that depends. going to show you some maps festival from our world and day said the red map, it's showing army kron infections or at least well, micron is more prevalent, pretty easy to see. and no surprise that down in south africa. that's where we 1st saw our micron. also, australia, india,

and russia. but i would draw your attention to europe, have a look the u. k. yes, we know there is a prevalence of our micron in the u. k, but the rest of europe is not as badly affected. it is dealing with delta change to the blue map, actually i'll change back and forth. have a look at the change across europe between the army kron and the delta maps. you can see there is a lot more delta to deal with in europe as there is a in south america and parts of southeast asia. now, just to give this a slightly different take of chosen 9 different countries here. and we're looking at their share of different infections. the red is our micron, the blue a delta infection. so starting at the top, south africa has got a rate of 96 percent ami crowd. now maybe that's a good thing. having more cases of the milder variance further down the list, let's look at the united states, for example here, which is sort of got a 6040 splits between the 2. but i think what's interesting,

and i'm gonna try to draw a box around all of them. here are these european countries, italy, france, and germany with rights of 80 to 90 percent of delta. the more concerning variance, if i can put it that way, of covey 19. and maybe that's why they are restrictions. are a little bit tighter in those sorts of countries. the question now is, is army kron, perhaps the lesser of 2 evils? ah, let's bring in our gas. joining us from dell ha. has had he has seen who's the head of research cut? our universities, biomedical research center over in london is oksana pisec, who is the lead that university college london global citizenship program on outbreaks of infectious diseases. and joining us from being a lou and india persona selig grubbs public health researcher and member of the people's health movement. welcome to the program. thank you for speaking to us on inside story. how do you see, and you heard the director,

general sounding pretty optimistic that the pandemic can and this year if he's saying countries work together, we've heard this call for global say, or solidarity before. so it is optimism justified or is it misguided? no, i assume this is, this is based on scientific facts based on 2 main facts. if we can say number one, that the exchange rate is increasing in multiple countries and we're not, the vaccines are effective, especially if the people are taking their doors. we know that the doors can provide some kind of protection if not necessary, from the infection, but at least from severe on this is even against armika and valiant. a number told that there are more and more reports showing that the army come friday. and although it's more transmissible, it cause milder disease, especially in the ex naked individuals. hoping by the end of 2022

we have we have like more people immune against that code on a virus. ok. persona son, graham. the w h o chief was also warning that nero nationalism and vaccine hoarding according to him by some countries have undermined equity and created the ideal conditions for the this new variant, the on the con, a very into a to emerge. do you agree with that? and how do you think the vaccine hoarding has allowed me crohn to emerge? yeah, one now the major aspect is that them less than 10 percent of africa. i still laugh and vaccinated and it is no accident that the omicron radian damaged from africa. so i think, yeah, we keep on repeating this statement. no one is safe until everyone is safe. but the global solidarity that is needed is still missing. even after 2 years of pandemic,

we are not seeing the sort of global cooperation that is needed for them to call them wide and dispersal off vaccines and administration of action. so there was, but can you just press on it just on the point that you were mentioning a moment ago, but the micron variant emerging from southern africa? can you definitely say that the micron variance of the strain is linked to vaccine inequality vaccine. the unique reality is not definitely in public health. of course you can be definitely talking about certain things, but definitely yes, there is a situation of maxine inequality in and for example, i was not even completed 23 percent of its population. i mean, it does not watson, it'd even 22 percent of population. so naturally it's a rhyme ground. i mean this whole topic of the better health system. and if you look at the southern african countries,

you have much weaker health systems on hands. you can imagine what could be the situation there. so that's the point that i was trying to me. okay. on a present, on this point of inequality, public health officials warned at the time of the vaccine rollouts, which was correct me if i'm wrong here. but about a year ago now, they said that equitable vaccines was essential to preventing mutations, as well as dangerous variance that would prolong the pandemic. and here we are now, we hear the same calls for vaccine equality and, and equity. what's gone wrong? well, we took an approach which promoted business as usual. so currently we have 2 companies in the world that can make m r, n a back there to find their as well as a mentor, nor companies with it. they have some licensing agreements, for example, in various countries to mass produce,

including in india. but we should be leveraging global back the manufacturing power as much as possible, as well as helping countries to stablish in the long term. their own manufacturing sites where they're currently are not. so there are 2 things here. the world trade organization have been negotiating with countries to try and really achieve a mechanism by which the back end can be a more rapidly and they can be shared in a way that currently patent laws restrict that our humans, however, has a lifting law. steam in, in know, because countries like the u. k, germany and switzerland all oppose this in order to protect our industries. and if we're looking at the argument around vaccine equity, we know that in largely unvaccinated populations where there is more opportunity

for transmission and replication to occur, we're just increasing the really probability of, of, of variance to occur. i think we're now looking at, in the inevitability that more variance will emerge, but hopefully we will have the tools to suppress the severity. and that is why the doubly show is also now negotiating a w show pandemic treaty. so that in future there is a legally binding instrument that will prevent vaccine wording to occur. so it right from the beginning countries will be obligated to share doses. however, this is of course contingent upon all countries agreeing. and consensus has been something that's been very difficult to arrive at in this and i'm it right. and also outside of the, the w h. o. she said that the, his organization aimed for a global vaccination rate by of 70 percent. and that's by july to end the pandemic . so looking at the way things that have been going up until the sport, do you think that target is likely to be met?

i think it's an ambitious target. i think that it will likely take longer than not if the current level of cooperation stays where it is. and if we don't see a radical change of mindset, countries have made donations. but those dollars have not translated into doses or jobs in arms. and while places in the u. k, are now they're up to 30 percent of their population boosted. other countries have yet to get up to 10 percent of their country even with the 1st dose is and that includes healthcare. workers were one and for health care workers in africa are currently unvaccinated, and these are the people who are at highest risk. so we really need to start to think about things more creatively than we have been to ensure that we can get a quicker resolution to the end of the pandemic. if this does not mean the end of coven 19 in the end, the acute phase, and where we can manage it without the same pressure that we're experiencing here,

i with hospitalizations, and in the u. k, they're massive. i work for shortages as result of our micron and the steep incline of not only cases, but we're starting to see those 1st signals of a creaking and a chest. right. ok, i had, they are saying, how do as a virology, i wonder if you can explain to us how do inequities actually prolong the pandemic? so as, as was mentioned by the other colleagues, so if you, if you have a community that's not immune to the virus, the virus will have the opportunity to duplicate. and as it's triplicate until i submit from one person to another with acquires more and more mutations. and this means we're going to have more and more volumes that circulate in the, in the population. there is one more i want to mention in here is that the guarding ometer on valiant the number of mutations bad on the conveyance obtained from my perspective,

it seems that it emerged through unusual event. so it's not like mainly through like transmission from one person to another person because it is like that way we could have detected like earlier than that. but for me like complement, but because of the number of because of the high number of the mutation, it could be one of 2 these and how it's immersed. it's either it's like transmitted to animals and came back to the human or. busy it has been evolving through immunocompromised patients, like i be so in terms of america and body and i don't think that backs in the vaccine shortage in certain regions have led to the emergence of american body . and so what you're saying is if inequality is in vaccine access continue, then how do we will continue to see mute and strains of this corona virus?

yes, because like if you are in you and even if you are infected with the virus, the virus will not supplicate for a long period of time. so like if it gets for longer period in, in young people and that will have that give it the chance to mutate and transmit from one person to another. the mutations be acquired and become stable in these values. and if you are in, you then have less chance to, to, to, to duplicate for a longer period of time and less chance to mutate. it's going to mutate, but the mutation rates will be much lower. okay. understood a percent. i'm going to ask you to respond to what had he said, because i saw you nodding along and also i'd like you to tell us because we hear a great deal about the situation across europe. and we've spoken about africa as well. but what does the situation banga lou or where you are when it comes to the on the cron variance? yes, so 1st i answered the 2nd for sure. we are going through

a phase bed and we are having a rapid increase in cases in the last 4 days, our coffee county has gone up 4 times. so we were at $5000.00 till about 5 days back. and now we are at $27000.00 cases. so there is a rapid increase in the number of cases so that as the ground situation, we have vaccinated almost 90 percent with one doors, but 60 and 60 percent of eligible population in talking about with those us. and we have fallen shocked by about 40 per cent in vaccine 80. so what they were talking about in the global scenario does on so played out in india in the sense that only 2 companies and the government did not break the monopolies. so the 2 companies are allowed to have that monopoly and as a result of which initially we had a chart fall and then they transferred it to the private sector. the private sector

could not use them actually because it was very costly and people could not access . so the show access equity production, all of this are coming to get done to displaying audio during the time of funding. so that is the fust yes. yeah. ok. the 2nd is responding to heavy i think, yeah, the very fact that there is that immunocompromised person who doesn't have the immunity, also speaks all the legacy issues of the access to medicine. so be not access to vaccines. i mean, so even dr. a patient or anybody else with immunocompromised do having a variant having the white us between them, then there is always a chance that the way it us mutates. and that's also the legacy issue. if you look at the, any credible access to medicine and those sorts of issues. so the iniquities are

very stock. and the irony is that the countries which are opposing the whole to flavor ion for the release of the patterns and all those. they are the ones which are also going to hold 56 to be the countries of germany as the bus from you get talked about u k. they have been opposing this tips favor putting 15 months back by and then thought africa and dad's offering on. so with the most number of cases, so i think you'd up and you are better off in breaking the monopolies rather than holding onto the monopolies. if they, if they want to be safe. and another classic if it is, it is right, which did not bother a new knife. and by letting in, so that was vaccine apart by other then maxine liquid, if you have axial apart, they'd also be followed as it is use really close to the 4th will start those. okay . and all that know, so let me bring you in exactly on that point of boosters, the,

the w h o also he chief, excuse me. he did criticize some nations for conducting sort of blanket booster programs as he called them, while other states remain largely unvaccinated. so there is this view by some of the wealthier nations that the booster shop programs will perhaps find their way. it will help them find their way out of the pandemic. i mean, can they boost their way out of this pandemic? how likely is it that it actually achieves the opposite effect? well, certainly, multi layered levels of protection are going to be the most effective relying on the vaccine alone is partially why some countries have a much higher force, fixed weight impact on their health care system than others boosters. however, we need to be talking about them as a and because at this point with armor on, unlike other variants, there is a huge amount of breakthrough infections occurring. so to jose is clearly not

enough to really prevent the level of impact on hospitalized hospitalizations. so again, in the u. k, early days, we're very early in the wave compared to south africa where we saw that it's peaks . but there are cautions about comparing the u. k too closely because they had previous built up immunity from other variance and they were younger population. so in that instance, it is necessary in this case, for us to ensure that boosters are delivered alongside other doses, but as a u. k. apologies, but the u. k. i mean data out of the you k very recently suggested that protection against army kron starts to wayne officer, 10 weeks after that booster vaccination. so does the suggest to you then, a 4th job of the imminent, on perhaps a 5th job? well, what we did see is it is a drop in antibody,

but there is also studies being done on t cell and be self protection. and that cross reactivity, which shows that there will still be a levels of recognition within the bodies to help fight off the pathogen. so it's, i would say that although we have some winnie, the point now is that it's still quite effective in reducing hospitalizations. and that is really the most important aspect around the vaccination program in the year of amazon is to reduce symptom severity. so even if there is a waiting effect of the anti bodies, which we are seeing with boosters, it may not necessarily mean that a force jose is needed. israel is acting on very early data in this instance, and the w show has recommended on waiting for a stronger evidence base before proceeding with that. but we know we need to be making sure that while we have a booster program ruling that this doesn't detract from vaccinating other regions

of the world to have to be and, and there are mechanisms for that to happen. i just need the appropriate cooperation unless politicization around distribution is awesome. really practical on the ground thing. so we need technology transfer as well as ensuring that we have a support with supply chains and other practical aspects to ensure that syringes are an appropriate supply supporting workforce. it can't just be hanging over a blueprint there. used to be a full package road suite of solutions and sure other countries can get up to speed with it. i don't know what else on i was saying just to pick up on what works on i was saying, i wonder if you can weigh in on the situation here because we also know that there have been reports in fact that nigeria for example, had thrown out a 1000000 vaccines because they had expired. so our african, some african country is getting the leftover so to speak and, and how do you change that? so this is more into politics. i'm not sure if i can commit too much about that.

for me, the kind of obligations on west the nation to support commonwealth in nations in terms of vaccines. right. and one thing i can point out that maybe some of these african count is getting that say 2nd or 3rd leaven vaccines rather than the best vaccine. he was like the messenger automate but i really can't come in too much about about the subject. it's something between tickets or bangles, then let's take it to the bank of the room. press on. would you like to weigh in on this? yes, we should talk politics and the whole vaccine inequities audible with politics. for example, there was a recent paper resort that had about 100 companies around the world, including african countries. where am i didn't have actions could have been manufacture on it. what you call ramped up scale. but we are

seeing over that it is happening on top of it. we have fattening the buses of the ones who also i incidentally more than not got the money from public ex chicken of united states of america to manufacture the mother maxine and the costliest. maxine, so we need to talk politics, we need to talk about global health governance. right to alex on, i was saying a person or also it's not just the shortages of the vaccine of an effect, the logistics. so once the vaccines arrive into country, is there issues with distribution, there's issues with the vaccine has a time in the as well. i have that i when have the, i would, is also the polity. so they might have not, i mean, maybe late, of course, that our health system deficiencies, which we all know in african countries. but beyond that, actually, then our papers made sure that, for example, the whole supply of my students have been delayed by the

global mechanism that was put up and for which the african countries even to the field of actors late by which time they could, i mean they were not given by an intimation they were not given, but it, but it re time nothing. and the vaccines landed like that are. so there are issues multiple layers of issues. but one of the things that we have to talk about is if there were to be enough supplies, then we would not have had so much of bottlenecks events, right? so that'll take a whole other show, but we have to leave it there. we've run out of time, let's hope the w h o chief is correct when he's optimistic this year can be the and thank you so much for joining us. had the se in santa pacific and 1st time to sell the grammar, we appreciate time in your thoughts. thank you for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al jazeera dot com for further discussion. you can go to our facebook page, that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha, inside story. you can join the conversation on twitter or with swell. our handle is a inside story for myself and the whole team here and how, thanks for watching,

bye bye for know. ah ah january, and i just i, we look back on you as the president joe biden, you, in office 12 months on from the capital building might be part of the stream enjoy . and our social media community, se owns recovery from civil war, continues. we mock 2 decades since the end of one of africa's most political

complex, the bottom line, steve clemons dives headlong into the u. s. issues that shape the rest of the world . as we enter the 3rd year, have it 19, we go back to where it all began and investigate how far we come into the pandemic . january on i just need to talk to you just a. ready wild alarm we listen, design is, are making serious efforts in our 18 team and just talk to 10 of those. we meet with global news makers about the stormy stand on a mineral central to the quest for clean energy. a key ingredient for the production of electric car batteries, cobalt extracting it is dangerous, but profitable with global demand set to skyrocket. people in power investigates, claims that industrial mines, extracting the precious material, needed for cleaner energy, are in fact,

poisoning the environment with dire health consequences for those living in their shadow. the cost of co bolts, people in power on a just 0. ah, you this is al jazeera ah, this is a news hour on al jazeera, i'm fully by t bowl ly, from our headquarters in doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes. 3 protesters killed in c. donna's security forces confront demonstrators angry over the military's role in government. protestors against covered 19 restrictions in the netherlands, clash with police in amsterdam.