$50000000.00 in funding to help conserve to qualify. but conservation is criticized it for putting a price tag on what's widely seen as a national treasure. and they say, the only way the color can be saved is if the government protects the physical environment eclipse in. michelson, under sebra. ah, this is all 0, these are the top stories. the u. s. presidential biden's, holding a phone call with other nato leaders to discuss rushes ongoing to build up around ukraine, biden's or as americans to leave the country immediately. our white house correspondent, kimberly hawker, as more on that phone call. he promised that there would be close. 2 coordination with nato allies and so this call with transit land leaders is a part of that, as there is a continued effort to try and resolve. the security difference is that the west has,

with russia. a one bit has taken what the united states called a dual track of deterrence, as well as diplomacy. this is what the crux of the call continues to be about. burton's defense minister ben wallace is describing his talks with russia's defense minister, sir. i should go as constructive and frank shaw who said bilateral ties are close to 0 the graham and says, it'll soon respond to reconciliation proposals from the us and nato. you know, as president joe biden has signed an executive order to unfreezes $7000000000.00 in afghan reserves, half of that will go to humanitarian efforts in afghanistan. now the half towards relatives of victims of $911.00. now that attack spine on groups, the head of the world health organization is urging african countries to back efforts to have the continent's own of medicine regulator. the disgrace is, is in south africa, which is working to set up

a technology transfer hub for m r n a vaccines to help boost vaccine production in africa. the premier of the canadian province of ontario has declared a state of emergency in response to ongoing tucker protests against covered 19 measures. black ford made the announcement as protest continue to shut down parts of the capitol, ottawa and the city of toronto, who has been major disruption along windsor's ambassador bridge. it's a main trade route between the u. s. in canada. hundreds of people have been protesting in ghana against a proposed new fee on electronic payments. the government's planning to introduce a 2 per cent tax known as an e levy and digital transactions of more than $16.00 politician supporting the law. so that'll help raise money for development projects. and those of the headlines, the news is going to continue here on al jazeera in about 25 minutes time after inside story. good by ah

light at the end of the tunnel, that's according to the world health organization. it says africa could soon see the end of the pandemic. but as such optimism justified when few people have access to vaccines and adequate health care, this is inside stored. ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm a hammer, jim, jim. many countries are using restrictions as the number of cobra 19 infections begins to stabilize. some scientists believe the pandemic is nearly over. the world

health organization has an optimistic message for nations in africa that have struggled to secure vaccines and treatment. it's regional director says the continent will soon be able to manage the virus as an endemic disease. doses of vaccines are starting to arrive in large numbers. only 10 percent of africans are fully inoculated. the lowest in the world, the w h o admits the actual number of infections could be 7 times higher than the official count of 11000000 so far. and the pandemic has pushed up to 40000000 people into poverty is in an extremely difficult 2 years, but i guess the old africa is weathering this terrible stone. the continents long, his team and experience with large outbreaks. i'm skipping along with an accumulation of learnings and expertise since the onset of colgate 19 has seen the responds become more effective with each new wave. a steady supply of doses is now reaching our shores. so the focus needs to be on translating those into actual

shots in people's arms. more jobs are becoming available in africa as global production ramps up. that should help it tackle the pandemic. but supplies aren't the only hurdle. the continent has received almost 700000000 vaccine doses, but people's hesitancy to being inoculated logistical difficulties. and a lack of resources have hampered immunization efforts for many countries. uptake varies considerably across africa. morocco has more than 60 percent of its adult vaccinated in burundi and congo. it's less than one percent. several african countries are making headway in local vaccine production. south africa said to be the 1st to trial, a homegrown m r and a jab, but the benefits could be years away. ah. all right, for more on all this, i'm joined by my guess in johannesburg. shabbier, might he, director of the vaccines and infectious diseases analytics research unit of the

university of the a bit of autism in a boucher is sarah mako, bobby executive director of engagement and mobile mobilization for one campaign and organization fighting extreme poverty and disease. and also when a buddha is dr. if funny, and so for community health, physician and senior vice president for africa at the human health education and research foundation, a warm welcome to you all and thanks so much for joining the program today. sarah, let me start with you today. so the w a chose regional head of africa said that africa is transitioning out of the pandemic phase of coven 19. what does that mean and what will that transition look like? thank you for that question so. well, the signs of recovery are encouraging. any recovery is fragile and in particular for africa, because you'll recall that over 70 percent of the high income countries have gotten

vaccinations, therapeutics and testing and what the need and access. hovering right around 11 percent. so what it means is that i still behind and so recovery truly must be a moment for us to ensure that we actually, but cover fully rest. and particularly since the continents request for the ability to produce us on vaccines and other medication. and we can't forget the konami crisis, that was the tale. and quite frankly for africa front, i'm ways of this crisis that still remains. so on the health side, things might be improving, but we see that would cautious optimism. but an economic site is still a crisis brewing it should be, or you heard sarah there talk about a vaccine production and the importance of it. um, i'm curious to know your standpoint about how the vaccine trial and the vaccine production is going in south africa. so don't exceed north and south african it's

about just over 40 percent of the population that they're for. steve, at least a single dose of at seen i in people about the age of 50 y, responsible for more than 80 percent of the fatal covert cases. that she sits at about 60 percent. but i think what's next, what's been experienced in south africa guys, not so much of function or vaccines, but draw the consequence of immunity. that is, that as an over time should in the course of the 1st 3 raced before americans thought it. and at this unit, did that, as it of institute due to an infection, would divide us so in south africa, 70 percent off unvaccinated individuals who have got community against severe disease and death shoot to pos infection. and it's probably not to disseminate many of the african countries we had to spite madison or lot of it seems an effect sometimes negligible, brought up the vaccines a large percentage of the population, if not develop community against severe disease and death in particular. ah, and unfortunately it's a situation where even though vaccines are likely to scale up in terms of excess in

an african continent to some extent, it's come too late. i because the loss of life has already transpired in south africa as an example, as a country. then what does it debate from cove at 1918 at e, jennifer, about $490.00 per 100000 are which is in excess of what there's been experience in the united kingdom twice as high and even higher than what it's experienced in the united states but communities, now it isn't against them yet. disease and death logically the course of high force of pos infection. if anya, from your vantage point there in abuja, what do you say is it simply too early to make this call with regard to africa and the pandemic? i don't think it's too early because if we look at what's happening in the west, you know, countryside beginning to move restrictions are moving. so we also have to move ahead. but however, i think we have to be very honest with the very little by condition called bridge. what it simply means is that within the next few months, africa really be,

you know, we do not confident or confident because we have the lowest back think coverage across across the world. so in as much as the, the statement by the doubly jewel, afro headed is encouraging. but i think within countries, we have to really ramp up the box initial and i'm from, i put this on here and i get out for a how do we begin to take the boxes to people where they leave on walk? because now we were waiting for people to come to us. but again, if you look at our economy in africa, about 70 percent, i would end up back to him a lot leave where the india daily wage got new boxes, lots of big boxes to the people. so what do you need to begin to think about innovative ways of ensuring that the boxes back to i gettin translates to increase back in the shop? are people on the continent, sir? i saw you nodding along to a lot of what if i was saying this, i want to give you

a chance to respond to jump in. but i also want to ask you about the problem of vaccine hesitancy on the continent. why use it as bad as it is right now? so on the finest points that they're positive signals that the, the pandemic might be healing over. well, you know that the fragility of recovery is where we really have to double down on africa. has really martin left unprotected and we've been here before and we feel free to finish the job. and one of the things that, that heartens me is that we do know how to get back into the last mile. we know how to do it. we did it with, with polio, it was challenging, but it was done, we did it with that, we do it with the children's vaccines and immunizations, and go from house to house. so it's not a question of, can we get it to the last mouth? it's a question of the way the vaccines came in this time they came in and drips and drives . and it's really hard to mount a campaign reading the last mile when we didn't have sufficient supply. and so he's present from a supply problem. so

a demand problem vaccine hesitancy is not an african problem. it's a global problem. we see it all over the world. but what we're seeing is a range of apathy, vaccine apathy, where we're sort of getting on with it because the vaccines are coming, you know, things where we need to move on. a lot of folks just forced to head at a set of misinformation, guided by what if in the vaccines, and that's what a vaccine campaign could have done as we had enough supply. and so so, but the research is coming out as like africa doesn't have more hesitancy than other parts of the world. in fact, some research says it's 80 percent receptivity to vaccine. 50 percent of the backseat, depending on the country you're, you're looking at. so hesitancy is not the challenge, it really is get, let's get the supply on the ground. let's get them in arms, and let's get it africa protected. unfortunately, this pandemic has reveal the inequities of making sure all of us are protected when a new pandemic one another,

and the on the corner. so i really hope we can learn from what we've seen and set ourselves up for better, a better protection down the line because the truth is, until all of us, none of us se shebye or sarah, there was talking about some of the challenges when it comes to distributing the vaccine supply demand logistics at some cases, hesitancy, maybe not as much as it has been reported as sarah was a just describing there. but i wanna ask you from your standpoint, what has to happen in order to turn the corner? and in order to make sure that jabs aren't just being produced, but that they're actually going in arms. and i think what's also important, i totally agree with sarah in terms of some of the dos that we need to overcome. but i think what equally important is recon dismissed, what has transpired on african continent and at the 70 and more percent of the population if now developed community against severe disease because of boss infection. so what type of exceeded becomes available? it's pretty much a futile exercise right now, trying to go house to house, to vaccinate every individual. we need to be much more targeted and to be able to

prevent severe disease and death. we need to focus on people about age of 50 and people with underlying medical conditions to be vaccinated as a product. the it out that in just doing a bean count of number of doses that are being administered. and that, that make us much more efficient in a manner in which we can optimize the gain from roll out of vaccine. similar to when we vaccinate the children against polio, we vaccinate children against polio. the chords are most susceptible to infection and the stemmed on it people are up to age or 50, that the most susceptible to severe disease. and it probably is toast and to benefit from vaccines in protection against of yet diseased, despite them having been infected in large numbers already from up in a pos, if any, i saw you nodding along to some of what does should be or was saying there did you want to jump in? yeah, i mean, i think what i need to add, the majority of the population africa have gauge immunity because of exposure.

well, also need to bear in mind that as far as the west is concerned, if you're not back, then you know, then the other problem. because, you know, going back to what i said by the, you know, that this particular on them, if you will find all about it was, it was so by a month ago when you know the thing backs and we took on the continent was not a problem as in the you based on your grade. so i wanted to push on whereby was tribe what's possible on the continent to make sure that everybody eligible? i do, we shall, we should prioritize those people with compared to the younger population. what we should really make sure that everybody gets back to it, that we cannot keep with people. people come to go back to the said for me. i think if you look at the hesitancy bucket, confidence is when the mall is right because we don't get the boxes to be as long got to keep working for people to come to help facilitate the gun. but it cost much

more difficult. how do they not sell, whereas in the market leave are ways to go back and they said it, so don't practice that. we deployed in, kicking off, for instance, i called upon to that some of the stuff that we need to deploy to make sure that just like i said, prioritizing those, that we, but ultimately making sure that everybody, you know, get back on the confidence sarah, earlier you were talking a bit about the economic impact of cobit 19 across the continent. and i want to go back to that point and have you expand and in a little bit, according to the world bank. the cobra, 900 pandemic, is estimated to a pushed up to 40000000 people into extreme poverty in africa. just how dire is the situation right now. so jobs and unemployment have really become the pinnacle of what we're seeing with this economic response to the people who, who faced this every day for the economy as we see a communist contract. and what's, what's important is ethically,

something very clear that more needs to be done to help their economies recover. and they're not looking for handouts. they want more autonomy and investment institutions in their health care. they cannot, and their health and the economies. i think a began the pandemic african leaders called a 100000000000 sd ours. and as we stand today, own, we only have about 40 by 1000000000 s yashira cycle to was africa. and to give you what it means in contexts, honesty, ours are sort of liquidity being pushed into the economy. in context, america had bought 3 trillion dollars and liquidity support for the economy to recover europe. or we had about over $2000000.00 in liquidity support. entire continent has asked for a 100000000000 and we're still not there. so you can just imagine what is the quietest property economy so we can get more jobs expand. so,

um, subsidized for lots of lots of businesses that have taken a hitchens, corbett, and so that lingering economic tail, the lack of act will remain with us. if we don't stand up and do something, it's not just about africa, it's not sort of us over here. it affects all of us. we know we're an increasingly interconnected society of economy. so what happens in africa will affect the rest of the world. so one of the calls will be asking for st, showed that the g 7 countries, the richer countries recycle, they sd ours. so that africa gets more support. and the people on the continent to feel a relief from what coven did the entire world should be. or i know you've addressed a little bit of this in some of your earlier answers. but i do want to talk to you of it more about the fact that last week, south africa took a huge step towards what they say is getting back to normal. government announced the easing of most coven 19 restrictions and regulations, and said it was taking the steps because the proportion of people with immunity to

coven 19 had risen substantially. i mean, does that make sense to you? i absolutely, and i don't think i come to a such a soc, epic and most other african countries have got many other options of that and to try to get back to dallas, to a relative normal lifestyle, about rescued economy. israel is to undo some of the indirect consequences detrimental consequences. so to type of restrictions if you have been imposed. so what you see happening in south africa, jude and of course on the con wave is that if we take all of the number of people that died of covert 19, since a thought would have been demick less than 5 percent of those are good and of course on the crown rave compared to which 50 percent of all the depth having transpired should and of course would have delta v and rave in about substantially low up percentage of population at that developed community. so we've seen this massive decoupling off infections and severe disease and death and what go but 19 it's all about, it's not preventing infections but minimizing severe disease and death. and we've reached a threshold in south africa where be seen as the coupling and infecting all likely

the number of people will dive cove at 19 children. of course, of the sea in south africa wouldn't be too dissimilar to what bus experience with season influenza before the pandemic, and would be substantially lower than a $50000.00 people that were dived to be close. as the seo in south africa, we don't expect more than 10 to 15000 people, which of the lot number to die of go with 19 dcea. but they the same thing. 50000 people will die t be the see in south africa. if on a, according to the w, it shows figures, africa is among the least affected continents. from coven, what exactly explains that are, are the deaths. and the infection cases under counted, is it, is it that the continent has a much younger demographic? what explains that? ok, well i think the hall if you go back what sometime last. yeah. when, when, when did you into a song by continent. yeah. the fact that i freak out the confident how to best according to the strategy. so i think that's one. then. secondly,

we tend to forget that experience is the best teacher when it comes to detecting prevents in responding to fact. so these are great, after big currently across africa, we have at least more than a 120 different things that are happening. you know, so we do expertise in how you know what the life community do contact to see what would be frank, community structures, you know, to be able to mix out all the message in full or in fact. so that is our but also the trisic. why you texted, you know, but there's no doubt that wealthy population, that's just that the have to count as far as the continent is concerned. you've got some of the interventions that the africa you know, to get. because cdc shit that will respond to me. the african box and the, the african medical supplies platform also, you know, coordinate response across the country to compare to see all the content that you,

you know, america where countries where more like will it be on the own? so i think that this is something we lack knowledge that africa brings a lot of expertise only that she, when it comes to managing facts about i hope that the lesson that we blend, you know, in responding to particular agree apply to dealing with those or the upgrade happening call or are you looking for things like that to make sure that people do not all think i know, but most importantly died less from infection that ordinarily we should prevent from happening should be looked like you were reacting to what a funny was saying did you want to jump in? yeah, unfortunately, i disagree with death analysis. and i don't think that land from the swank look endemic in 2009 oh engine. and of course, would have been democrats, in 5 percent of all the cases were documented in africa and south asia and off that have been demick at pos, when they did an analysis of excess mortality. 53 percent of all of the deaf that the could shoot the swaying floor cut in africa and south asia and the system of

who is the issue of weak systems. that attitude right now is deflect africa, which constitutes 5 percent of the african population accounts for 45 percent of all of the cases that have been document that then all of the death death run spy it. that is not because south africa substantially different from other african countries. that is because we do much more testing than any other african country besides botswana to ability to detect cases and even death. when got many african countries even to date, don't have a vital registration systems in place to actually measure excess motel at the i think it's really at i don't think that 3 grand on right that i fought claiming victory on african continent to course i think the truth of demanding tons of burden of disease is yet to mature delights which look out to the number of people that there died of covert 19 certificates. in example, that aquatic number of deaths is about 800000 just under under 1000 not. but when we look at excess mortality at to put to cover 19 a countries such as south africa is underestimating death,

threefold. putting it amongst a duck and in countries with a highest go without mortality at 8 globally, at about 402-940-0000. and it's very difficult to understand why other african countries was yonce get systems i given less gazillion in south africa, would be speed. the impact of co with 19 is not because we good at you to with other pandemic, because we wouldn't care for those other products. or would the other infectious diseases because we wouldn't have that problem if you had that great in dealing with a sarah and, you know, sometimes a lot of stuff comes down to political will. and i know that, you know, we're talking about lots of different countries here. all with their distinct issues and, and challenges, but from your perspective, is their political will mostly on the african continent to support the local manufacturing and distribution of vaccines. so, africa, increasingly speaking with one voice question is the world listening. so this pandemic really reflected how african organized and had a uniform and

a collective political will to do what it needed to do when you juxtaposed that with the political will, that we needed from north american europe to end the pandemic. it's missing. so one of the things that africa calling for is self sufficiency and vaccine production and not just vaccines. to the point that both gentlemen made earlier, we need vaccines, therapeutics diagnostics testing needs to be a suite of products. and so there's a lot of political will right now, there will be an event in germany where a biotech and african leaders are standing to make sure that we can develop and, and, and create vaccines on the car and manufacture vaccines on the continent. there's been a lot of energy from rwanda, south africa synagogue, to make sure those are hobbs for vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostic of development. but another pandemic cannot see africa holding the end

of the back again. and as such, i'm, i want to believe that the african leaders have, have woken up the reality that self sufficiency and protecting her people from another pandemic. a one like this is essential because what happened with this pandemic is just a spotlight on the in inequality that it revealed. and um, and so that, that has really driven a lot more political will. i will have to add that we saw failure political well from the west. quite frankly, it was a, it was a doubling down a nationalistic tendencies and the science and the common sense approach to disconnect. we're wired, looking at your people, but looking at others as well, because again, it needed to be a collective protection for us to get out of this condemning. so if we take the lessons that we've learned today and with this pandemic, so that will be better prepared the next time, something like this shows up. i hope the world can stand up and have

a passing mark, because we didn't this time. all right, well we have run out of time, we're gonna have to leave the conversation there. thank you so much to all of our guests should be, are mighty sarah, mecca, libby and if on yet and so forth. and thank you to, for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al jazeera dot com, and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. you can also during the conversation on twitter, our handle is at a j inside story from emergent room, the whole team here, bye for now. a ah,

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