also move round heights and valleys to work and farms the child. i remember we used the as a dietary supplement. the people over my dear say proudly that customers from across iraq visit the town, just to why it's a to haney. it's believe the 1st to haney. walter mill was built by curtis rulers in the 16th century. what's not known is how long traditional mills will keep running without the introduction of some modern technology. but without the we're had al jazeera in o, my dear town, northern iraq. ah, clare again, i'm fully battle with the headlines on al jazeera, saddam's prime minister, abdullah ham dock has resigned less than 2 months after he signed a deal with the military following a cool. he failed to form a government. he says more talks are needed. if sudan is to move toward civilian road, what on the opposite?

opposite though of one we should. we needed a round table for the salvation of the country to come to an agreement. i'd try to spare my country the disaster. recently i met with all the civilian and military officials of the transitional council to address these issues alan mob. after i decided to return to you what you have entrusted to me and resigned the position of prime minister, yeoman's healthy fighter say there sees the united arab emirates ship off the port city of her data. the rebel say the vessel was carrying military supplies, but the saudi led coalition says medical supplies were on board. saudi arabia is leading in military coalition last battle. the whole theme for more than 6 years. india has started a campaign to vaccinate teenagers against covered maintain. the drive comes as only con infections are rising, several regions have introduced restrictions including a nighttime curfew in the capitol, new delhi, hong kong online news site susan use is shutting down is the 3rd media organization

in the city to close in recent months, media advocacy group say chinese national security law is eroding press freedoms. chinese property giant ever grant has suspended trading on hong kong stock market. it's fine. you probably buy more than one percent after failed to be invested on thursday. at grand owes more than $300000000.00 as more than any other property developer in the world. a man is due to appear in court in cape town on tuesday, charged with arson and damaging state property. he was detained inside south africa ornament on sunday, as the building was badly damaged by a large fire. and the u. s. president has reassured ukraine that washington will respond decisively if russia invades that moscow has mass thousands of soldiers near the border with ukraine. diplomatic tal saying that the escalating the classes are set to begin next week. you're up to date with the headlines on ology 0. as always more news on our website,

al jazeera dot com inside story is mixed. 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, covered 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 variant. 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 i cute stage of the funding, but we also charge a pies 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 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 chron: very, and causes milder disease than others. admissions to hospitals in the u. s. u. k, and denmark are lower than during previous waves, and south africa says it may have passed it's peak. some scientists believe on the chron will displace delta and become endemic, like the seasonal flu, but others are more cautious as come all 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 kron but whether it's a twin threat to you and your particular part of the world. well, that depends. gonna show you some maps. first of all, from our world in days or the read map is showing army kron infections,

or at least where 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 omicron in the u. k, but the rest of europe is not as badly affected. it is dealing with delta change to the blue map and actually i'll change back and forth. have a look at the change across europe between the omicron 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 us a slightly different take of chosen 9 different countries here, and we're looking at their share of different infections. the red is all micron, 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 variants,

further down the list. let's look at the united states, for example here, which is sort of got a $6040.00 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're restrictions, are a little bit tighter in those sorts of countries. the question now is, is army kron, perhaps a lesser of 2 evils? ah, let's bring in our guest. joining us from dell ha, is had the se in 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 liberal in india persona sally 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, 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 is it misguided? no, i assume this is this is based on scientific facts based on 2 main facts that we can say. number one, that the backseat rate is increasing in multiple countries. and we know that 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 and this is even against america and body. and number 2 that there are more and more reports showing that the amik on friday. and although

it's more transmissible, it cause milder disease, especially in the vaccinated individuals. the hopping by the end of 2022 we have we have like more people immune against that code on a virus. ok, press on a sunday gram, the w h o t f was also warning that nero 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 me crohn to emerge? yeah. one, now the major aspect is that less than 10 percent of africa, i still left and vaccinated. and it is no accident that the omi cron radiant emerged 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. what 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 variant 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 there for nicky. yes, there is a situation of maxine inequality in for example topic i have not even completed 23 percent of its population. i mean it does not like it even 22 percent of its population. so naturally it's a rhyme ground. i mean this whole topic with

a better health system. and if you look at the southern african countries, you have much weaker head systems on hands. you can imagine what could be the situation there. so that's the point that i was trying to me. ok, on a project, on this point of inequality, public health officials warned at the time of the vaccine rollouts, which was correct me from 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 a vaccine or 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 site where they're currently are not. so there are 2 things here. the world trade organization has been negotiating with country to try and i really achieve a mechanism by which the vacuums can be a more rapidly and they can be shared in a way that currently patent laws restrict. that argument, however, has a lifting law. steam 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, that we're just increasing the really probability 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 many. right. and also outside of the the w h o. and 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 look 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 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 any of the end of 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, there are massive workforce 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 as a triplicate until i submit from one person to another that acquires more and more mutation. and this means we're going to have more and more valiant that circulate in the, in the population. that is what i want to mention in here is that the guarding ami

con body and the number of mutations bad on the con. valiant 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 you could have detected like earlier than that. but for me, like almost going by and because of the number of because of the high number of invitation, it could be one of 2. these and how it's emergent. it's either it's like at transmitted to animals and came back to the human or. busy it has been evolving through immunocompromised patients like i b. so in terms of mac, it on body. and i don't think that vaccine that the vaccine shortage in certain regions have led to the images of amazon volumes. so what you're

saying is if inequality is in vaccine access continue, then how do we will continue to see you in 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 if you click it for a longer period and not in your own people, and that will get, 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 and then the virus have less chance to, to, to, to placate for a longer period of time. and let chance to mutate, it's going to mutate, but the mutation rate 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 chrome 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 break them or not beneath. 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 the axis because it was very costly and people could not access. so the issue of access equity production, all of this are coming to get done to displaying audio during the time of find them . so that is the 1st question. 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 vaccines. i mean, so even be patient by 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, j, v and those sorts of issues. so the iniquities are very stock. and the irony is that the countries which are opposing the whole troops waiver and for the release of the patterns and all those, they are the ones which are also going to the 4th 5th, 6th to be the countries on germany as the bus from you get talked about you k, there have been opposing this tips waiver, put in 15 months back by dan thought africa and dad's offering on. so with the most number of cases. so i think you're 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 gifted israel, right, which did not bother to a new knife and by letting in. so that was vaccine apart. they then maxine liquid, do you have actually apart, they'd also be followed as it is use really force to the 4th was to do 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 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 and 4th, 5th 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 our micron,

unlike other areas, 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, the 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 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 u. k. very recently, suggested the protection against army kron starts to wayne after 10 weeks after that booster vaccination. so does the suggest to you then?

a 4th job is imminent, on perhaps a 5th job. well, what we did see 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 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 in severity. so even if there is a waiting effect with anti bodies, which we are seeing with boosters, it may not necessarily mean that a 4th dose 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 night,

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's 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 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, which i'd like the message of automate. but i really can't comment too much about about the subject. it's something between 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 politics. for example, there was a recent paper record 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 over 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 of america to manufacture the mother maxine and the costliest max. and so we need to talk politics. we need to talk about global health governance. right? now we're saying a persona also, it's not just a shortages of the vaccine of an effect, the logistics. so once the vaccines arrive in 2 countries, they're issues with distribution. there's issues with the vaccine has as well and have that i when have the, i would, is also the polity. so they might have been out. i've been very late, of course that i had 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 i, for which the african countries even to the field of actors late by which time they could, i mean they were not given by intimation, they were not given, but it, but it re time, nothing, and the vaccines landed like that. 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 in that event. so 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, graham, we appreciate your time and your thoughts. thank you for watching you can see the program again. anytime by visiting or 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. i was well or handle is ajay inside story for myself and the whole team here? and so how, thanks for watching and bye bye for now. ah ah . a rite of passage present to the generation. my cousin was laying down there, i'm to was claiming she was helpless. the woman or after indoors as go through cycle of pain. for what pat my night meets the women affected by f g m. and

those re shaping perception. do you think people will abandon the site eventually, but to those take algae 0 correspond the con there is no channel that coverage. world news like we do, we revisit places, mistake i'll deserve really invest in that. and that's a privilege. as a journalist, 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, or in fact, poisoning the environment with dire health consequences for those living in their shadow. the cost of cobalt people empower on a j 0. we town the untold story. ah,

we speak when others don't. ah, we cover all sides. no matter where it takes us. absolutely a fear or my i am power and passion. we tell your stories. we are your voice. your news, your net al jazeera. ah hello mcglochan to hold the top stories here on al jazeera and sedans. prime minister, abdullah ham dog has resigned less than 2 months after he signed a deal with the military following a handout failed to former governments. he said more talk to needed if the country is to move towards civilian rule. if morgan reports now from car to 2 weeks after the news of his intention to resign emeralds, and amidst a dead log between for dance political parties, primary.