it's a natural heritage site with evidence of pre history. not just of the ancestry of humanity, that the irish history of the african foreigner is better represented there than anywhere in the world. he'll get him. he was less successful when he tried his hand at politics. in 1998, he resigned after just 2 years from his position as the head of kenya's civil service. he had attempted a cracked and corruption richard leaky was 77. ah ha, again, i'm fully battle with the headlines on al jazeera. so don's prime minister, abdullah ham dock has resigned less than 2 months after he signed a deal with the military following a cool ham dog failed to form a government. he says more talks are needed if the countries to move toward civilian vote, what amount was it? yeah, it was at the other one. we should, we needed a round table for this or vision of the country to come to an agreement,

and i tried to spare my country the disaster. recently i met with all the civilian and military officials of the transitional council to address these issues on mob after. i decided to return to you what you've entrusted to me and resigned the position of prime minister. india has started his campaign to vaccinate teenagers again scolded 19. the expanded vaccination drive comes as only connie infections are on the rise across the country. several regions of you introduce restrictions, including a nighttime curfew in the capitol. new delhi friend joe biden has told the leader of ukraine, that the u. s. will respond decisively if russia moves further into his territory. talks are due in geneva from next week, which in the u. s. russia, nato and ukraine. to try and deescalate the crisis. iraqis have been walking 2 years since the assassination of his senior iranian general has him silly money was killed in the us. drone strike in baghdad in 2020 iraqi commander abil my young hondas and several others also died in the attack that was ordered by former us

present. donald trump, he claimed sla money was finding an attack on us interests on gongs. online. you side to sit is a news is shutting down. it's the 3rd media organization in the city to close in recent months. journalists such citizen, you say, they don't feel they can work safely after colleagues or a separate pro democracy use outlets were arrested for sedition. authorities have moved to silence opposition after china introduced a national security law following massive pro democracy protests in 2019, and well known kenyon conservationist, which had leaky, has died at the age of 77. his study of human fossils helps who of humanity evolved in africa. vicki was central to the fight against the ivory trades and protection of africa. elephants. those are the headlines on al jazeera. i'll be back with more news right after inside story. i hope you just stay with us. thanks so much. oh, son ah, father, ah,

a mutual love of the arch the stage is set to immortalize fading memories or in a magical race against time. witness our time mission on a jesse, you know, 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. and 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 end this year if countries work together. but i still remain optimistic that this can be the year. we can not only end the acute stage of the pond on me, but we also charge a pas to stronger held security building on the successes and

failures. we must not only share vaccines faster and more equitably, was callbacks and i, but we must 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. and 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 on, maria explains. you may have heard dr. ted ross, the head of the world health organization, talking about the twin threats of delta and omicron. but whether it's a twin threat to you and your particular part of the world. well, that depends gonna shay some maps festival from now world and data. the red map is

showing army kron infections, or at least way all micron is more prevalent, pretty easy to see. and no surprise that down in south africa. that's where we 1st saw a 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 alma tron 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 omicron, the blue a delta infection. so starting at the top, south africa has got a rate of 96 percent on the 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 coping 19, and maybe that's why they are restrictions, are a little bit tighter in those sorts of countries. the question now is, is all micron, perhaps the lesser of 2 evils? ah, let's bring in our guest. joining us from dell ha, is had the scene who's the head of research cuts? our university's 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 a side story. how do you see and you heard the, 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 solidarity before. so it says optimism justified or isn't 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 vaccine rate is increasing in multiple countries. and we know that the scenes 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 and this is even against amazon body and a number 2 that are more and more reports showing that the amik on friday. and

although it's more transmissible, it causes milder disease, especially in the vaccinated individuals. the hopping by the end of 2022 we have, we have like more people from your own, against that code on a virus. ok, press on a sunday gram, the w h o t f was also warning that narrow nationalism and vaccine awarding 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 on the cross to emerge? yeah. one now the major aspect is that less than 10 percent of africa, i still left maxine nature and it is no accident that the omi cranberry and damaged from africa. so i think, yeah,

we keep on repeating this statement. no one is safe delivery money 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 it wide and dispersal off vaccines and administration of acts and saw the words. but can you just press on it just on the point that you were mentioning a moment ago, but the micron variance emerging from southern africa? can you definitely say that the micron variance of the strain is linked to vaccine inequality vaccine 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 up. it's 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 project, on this point of inequality, public health officials warned at the time of the vaccine rollout, 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, 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 stablished in the long term their own manufacturing sites where they're currently are not. so there are 2 things here. the world trade organization has been negotiating with country to try and really achieve a mechanism by which the vacuum can be a more rapidly and they can be shared in a way that currently patent laws restrict that our humans however, has lifting last dean in. no, 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 aim for a global vaccination rate by of 70 percent. and that's by july to end the pandemic

. so looking at the way things have been going up until this point, 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 in 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 doses. and that includes health care 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 any of the end, the cute phase, and where we can manage it without the same pressure that we're experiencing here, i with hospitalizations, and in the u. k, there are massive workforce shortages as a 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 the us in how to as a virology, i wonder if you can explain to us how do inequities actually prolong the pandemic 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 as a triplicate anti smith from one person to another with acquires more and more mutations. and this means we're going to have more and more bargains that circulate in the end up population. that is what i want to mention in here is that the

guarding amik body and the number of mutations bad on the conveyance obtained from my perspective. it seems that it was emerged through unusual event. so it's not like, mainly through like transmission from one person to another person. because it, because 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 invitation, 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 human or. busy it has been evolving through immunocompromised patients like i b. so in terms of, i'm working on body and i don't think that vaccine the vaccine shortage in certain regions have led to the images 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 if you are in you and even if you are infected with the virus, the virus will not triplicate for a long period of time. so like it's what it's like for a longer period and not in young people. and that will give, have that it give it the chance to mutate and transmit from one person to another. that mutations be acquired and become stable in these values. and if you are in you and then the virus have less chance to, to, to, to duplicate for a longer period of time. and let chance to mutate, it's still going to good day, but the mutation rate will be much lower. okay. understood the present. 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 bangalore 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 there and we are having a rapid increase in cases in the last 4 days, our corporate count 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 is 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 but

a monopoly. 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 that actually because it was very costly and people could not access . so they show access equity production. all of this are coming to get done to displaying audio during the time of find them. so that is the fust yes. yeah. ok, the 2nd is responding to heavy i think yeah, the video, the 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 back to be so even be patient, but 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 ivy and those sorts of issues. so the iniquities are very stark. and the irony is that the countries which are opposing the whole tips waiver iron for the release of the patterns and all those, they are the ones which are also going to hold $56.00 to be the countries on germany as the bus from you get talked about u. k. there have been opposing this tips waiver put in 15 months back by dan thought africa and dad's suffering also with the most number of cases. so i think europe 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 to a new knife. and by letting in, so there was vaccine apart. they then maxine liquid you had to act in apart. they'd

also be followed as it is use really is force to the 4th step goes, okay, that, no, 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'll 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 and force fixed way impact on their health care system than others boosters. however, we need to be talking about them as it and because at this point with on mcgraw 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, of impact on hospitalized hospitalizations. so again, in the u. k, early days were 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 a 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 they say, you k apologies, but the u. k. i mean data out of the you k very recently suggested the protection against the army. kron starts to wayne after 10 weeks after that booster

vaccination. so does the suggest to you then, a 4th job of the imminent looks on, 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 body to help a 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 has 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 this. i don't know what's 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 leftovers 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 on what the nation is in terms of vaccines. right. and one thing i can point out that maybe some of the 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 comment too much about about the subject. it's something between between tickets or bank, then let's take it to bank of the room. press on. would you like to weigh in on this? yes, we should. politics and the whole vaccine inequities audible politics. for example, there was a recent paper restored that at 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 are there that it is happening on top of it. we are frightening the buses of the ones who also i incidentally more than not got the money from public ex chicken of united states. if i made it got to man manufactured the mother maxine and the costliest max. and so we need to talk politics. we need to talk about global health governance. right to alex on, i was saying a persona also, it's not just the shortages of the vaccine of an effect, the logistics. so once the vaccines arrive in some countries, there issues with distribution. there's issues with the vaccine has as well and have that i when have the, i would, is also the politic. so they might have been out. i've been very late for that. i've had system deficiencies which we all know in african countries. but beyond

that, actually there are 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 that we're 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 they were to be enough supplies, then we would not have had so much of bottlenecks everywhere. right? 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. how excited physic? and 1st on a cell grammar, we appreciate your time and your thoughts. thank you for watching you can see the program again. anytime 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 as well or handle is ajay inside story for myself and the whole team here. and so how, thanks for watching and bye bye for january on that just, you know, i don't you year we look back on us president joe biden supposed deal in office 12 months on from the capital building via the part of the stream. enjoy most social media community. se early owns recovery from civil war continues. we mock 2 decades since the end of one of africa's most brutal complex, the bottom line, steve clemens dives headlong into the us issues that shape the rest of the world. as we enter the 3rd year with cove it 19,

we go back to woo hm. where it all began and investigate how far we come into the pandemic stuff. january on a jesse about from the al jazeera london bureau car center t special guests in conversation. this is the chance to start the revolution, unprompted, uninterrupted. we need to do away with the what evil, because it stops conversation. where should we get a land to baton, meets i, asia, i can be this is the beginning of friendship. this is the beginning of love, right? like getting somewhere we can really break through the barriers studio. be unscripted on al jazeera, 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 empower, 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 cobalt people in power on a j 0 ah sometimes prime minister resigns after failing to form a civilian government as protest grow against military vol ah. plan 40 back to boy watching al jazeera live from doha also coming up. india begin scolded 19 vaccinations were teenagers as it struggles with why.