he said, yes, i do have a plan b, but i don't wish to deval divulge what it is. so twitter clearly, elan must being a little cagey there as he often is. and we, but we really did not get any more specifics on why the world's richest man is willing to potentially spend over $40000000000.00 to buy the social media platform . ah, the top stories on al jazeera, the biggest ship in russia's black sea fleet has been severely damaged by a blast, forcing its 500 member crew to evacuate. the russian defense ministry says ammunition exploded on board its warship. the moskva, the ukrainian military says it hit the vessel with cruise missiles thus far, has led russia's naval assault during the war, making it an important military target. b, u. s. national security advisor jake sullivan says whatever the cause losing the

ship is bad news for russia. we've been in touch with ukrainians overnight. who had said that they struck the ship with the into ship missiles. we don't have the capacity at this point to independently verify that, but certainly the way that this unfolded, it's a big blow to russia. this is their flagship, the moscow. and they have now been forced to admit that it has been badly damaged and they've had to kind of choose between 2 stories. one story is that it was just in competence, and the other was that they came under attack. and neither is a particularly good outcome to them. the un secretary general has called for maximum restraints and for his rally and palestinian authorities to work to preserve a comp. com. i made escalating violence in the occupied west bank. the israeli army says dozens of palestinians have been arrested and had weapons confiscated. and

what is cooling counter terrorism operations in the occupied west bank is full suits of also killed 6 palestinians, including a 14 year old boy and a lawyer in the past day. people in flood affected areas of south africa struggling to get clean water after historic floods that killed more than $340.00 people. they were triggered by the heaviest rains in 6 decades. and campaigning is underway for the french presidential run off in 10 days time for our right candidate marine la. penn has been an avenue in the south of france. she's rejected. microns accusations of being authoritarian by saying the same about him earlier. president manuel micron warned about the impact lapel would have on the environment to the northern port city of la of so those are the top stories. the stream is coming out next. stay with us here on our is there ah

thing i asked them. yeah. okay, thanks for watching the stream. back in april of 2020 i hosted the stream for my house for months and months and months. we did from april all the way through to june 28. back to bat hovens related shows. there was so much to learn. there was so much we didn't know. so 2 years into our global pandemic. what do we need to know now? today's episode is all about catching up, the latest news from covey. and i can't do that without you your questions or comments. put them in you into youtube, and i will wrap them into today's show. let us meet our panel of doctors. so i'm

going to say hello to margaret to at made and to marion. good to have you all here on the stream, margaret, please remind out audience who you are. what you do? i very, it's great to be back with you. i'm a doctor. also a journalist and i specialize in public health, emergency risk communications and work for the world health organization. i think it to have. it's like having the fat by having a family reunion out. med welcome right to the stream. really love having you on the stream. pleasing my audience, who you are and what you do. thanks for holding me. so i'm wondering regarding my daughter, an emergency medicine as well as being a journalist. get to hattie and hello, maria. welcome to the street. please introduce yourself to our view is around the world. yes, good evening. i'm my uncle months. i'm a head over ology of erasmus medical center. and i'm obviously ever ologist and a veterinarian by background and work on emerging viruses. guess what is the most important piece of covey related needs you have heard recently, mariani stop. well,

it's actually a 2 examples. one is the situation in china with the challenge in trying to control the outbreak in shanghai and now moving to one so, so, so the phase that china is, and the challenge is that china is facing this, but in the army, kron and the 2nd example is coming from south africa where it looks like to new variance of army chron are have been popping up, and i think a 4 and 5, and that's something we need to keep our eyes out for. all right, and that is news to me. thank you for that. because we're going to talk about variance in just a moment at met news to you news you need to share covered related. what is it i think is the, the idea of, i guess test be less available thing, but the u. k. release that they're gonna start making test being freely available for people,

which is just going to make it more more difficult for us to start these new variants are coming up. so that's one of the things i think is quite surprising to hear about in a way of n unexpected place ukraine. they've become a spoke of the hub, the m messenger r n a hub, and what that means. the messenger r n a hub is based in south africa, but they're providing the expertise to companies in countries around the world. so that the messenger r n a technology will that kind of america health organization. this is how she summarized how we're doing, have a listen, how to look over the last few weeks, many countries on territories in the americas, how scaled back public have measures, and some have done so prematurely. as travel restrictions are low, sun kissed currents have risen in places that rely on tarzan especially in parts of north america and the caribbean. where vaccination coverage is low.

i see you nodding. this is how well behaving in some parts of the world of to have an impact on other parts of the well, your thoughts about what to don't to chris. i had to say that, well, this is exactly the face we are in. there was a world health organization that age our emergency committee meeting this week that looked at where their army with this pandemic. and it's actually this sort of global split where you have countries where, because of, well the, the situation in the virus is, is running quite high because theirs are not many restrictions anymore. and there's other parts of the world that are still trying to very much contain them and they're looking at at their so. so we have this diversion in the world and it's challenging phase because we are in this transition from the really acute phase of

the pandemic. to somewhere in the future. but what exactly that future will be? i'm not sure yet. so we still have to be on our toes about what this fires can do, which surprises we can see. and the conclusion also of the emergency committee meeting was, please do not think this is over. please keep looking at these as the public health emergency that it is. and that requires global coordinated action market. i had so yes and a marion is that absolutely right. in fact, there was very little debate in the emergency committee on whether public health emergency of international concern exists. and it is very concerning that a lot of countries we're looking when we look at our numbers with the k, the testing strategies ah, changing people, countries are dropping the number of tests and doing so,

even though we're reporting low numbers of cases, our epidemiologist is saying that our numbers should be interpreted with caution because so many countries and not just dropping their restrictions, but no longer during the testing, no longer really tracking what's happening with this virus. and that is really concerning. i'm at this is exactly what you were saying in the u. k. they are stopping funding free testing. so you on your own, your yeah, as it is quite a complicated thing and i can see the point of why for testing is important, especially for us in terms of trying to find what the new variance i coming off and things like that. but the same time as reached a position where as in yes, numbers hit the records high of current of virus in the possibly can the u. k. but it didn't reflect that in terms of hospitalized missions. i was seeing goes and i was spending a whole week and the resource departments about the most sick patients, that kind of came into the emergency department. and none of them were any of the kobe patients or suffering from any symptoms kind of ours. they may have corona

virus, but they've come in presenting with the fight, isn't it just just in case of ours. so there is a risk to remove some of these measures. but at the same time, you know, we're not testing everyone who comes in with them to answer and i've been to work out exactly what straight to answer is or exactly what strain those of kern of ours kind of ours isn't a new virus. it's been around for years, but it's just that in 201-920-2020 i could guess be tatum's and something that became very deadly and spread rapidly. maybe it's something us mutated into something less that leads back to the working. but it's just difficult to balance that it's very expensive to continue these test, especially for some of the poor countries around the world to continue providing free pcr tests and things like that. it's i may. yeah, i think so. the testing has extra 2 goals, and i think that's what we really need to put put, take apart. testing has been really

a pillar of our ability to know who was infected, who needed isolation and who you could then also what into quarantine. now that is now loosen certainly in, in, for instance, in europe because of this decoupling between infection and severe disease. and that is because of the high level of vaccination. now that situation is very different. if you are in a region where you don't have that high coverage, or if he would face an ovarian that are, we cannot be sure that they will all have this same relatively mild diseased presentation. so, so that's a reason why i think at least the, the infrastructure for that testing needs to be treasured so that it can be put back up. or when need is my lay person's question. if we not testing widely, how do we know about new variance? so marrying you told us about new variance in south africa,

can you tell us what they on and should me be disturbed by them? are they variance of concern? so we don't know that yet, or what we do know is that there is in 2 regions in south africa. now an increase of these new variance be a for and be a 5 over of the previous variance. and so these are variance of our micron. so they are essentially on the ground viruses with some additional mutations. and those mutations are in sports that makes us think it could be something to do or how immunity protects. we don't know that for sure, yet that needs to be validated and that's work that's ongoing are and that will be looked at by the w and show in the coming weeks. but it is an example of the kind of surprise we can still expect to with these viruses as long as they keep circulating no widely. and can i can i can i add to just really emphasize that

point that marian's making? she mentioned there were 2 reasons for testing. one is indeed to know who is infected to keep the, the, basically the infected away from the healthy. but the other big thing, and the only thing we're very concerned about is if you're not testing, we're not being going to be able to do the genetic sequencing to identify the variance. now we're really lucky, the south africans have done this great work. this is a 2nd time brown. they've really shown one doing the work achieves. but we need this to, but you happening everywhere. we've got huge amounts of virus circulating. we've seen that without mccormick, worried about 5, some lineages and several of them are causing a lot of trouble. so if we're not tracking, we're not finding out whether there's something around the corner that's going to give us a lot more trouble. so, so i'm actually, if i just, yeah, if i can, this is a really oh, this is a real debate i because if you're not testing because you can't afford it and you're not going to know something that had rainy cost you later down the line. i

might note it is quite tempting because let's say you do you got symptoms of what the cold like, why fi, you want a bit of a cost and you took the test and you, you know cove, it comes on negative. does that mean you're safe to go out and like, walk around in the cities and go spread whatever virus you have. you may have another virus, it's just coded, right? so it's just, it's quite complicated to be like, you know, we need to just keep testing for this one specific virus, one we testing for other viruses as well. the other influences out there that may be more deadly to the vulnerable population than, than, than, than the on the common barion of code. it is to some people. so it's quite difficult to say, yeah, let's just keep testing so that we can protect colbert. i do need to maintain infrastructure. i do believe influenza. we do, we do just when i did so and around the world we, we do send no surveys all the time in all parts of the world. we don't show quite

right. we don't do population why we do it through various general practices designated. i don't, but we, i have, i do understand what i'm saying. you're saying i have a cough, i immediately go and get it to a test to check to see if i've got co because i'm working in an environment with other colleagues. i need to make sure i'm not sweating, covey to them. if i before 2020, if i had a cough, i might probably come to one which is a terrible thing. but we've got to learn back to social distance in a better practices over the last 2 years. and we probably have done for all of that period up to then let me just bring in another doctor into our conversation. this is dr. oak. well, he's a deputy director of africa, c d. c. this is what he told us, that he to be only 15 percent of the african population is fully roxie mated. and this is the far from the target that we have set of 70 percent by the end of this year 2022. um,

2 key challenges that are facing the continent from our delivery perspective. getting the work seems from the storage. second view from a public perspective are members of the public find it difficult to leave the economic activities to go and get vaccinated. are these 2 when they are solved, then we start seeing that the vaccination rates increase on the continent. so nadia asked as a scenario during this episode, what is the hold up in vaccination rates in some parts of the world? is it still a supply issue or lack of confidence in the vaccine among some communities? mother, i'm going to ask you to handle this one because the debate show by this point was expecting 70 percent of countries dipping vaccinated by now at mother help us out with us is certainly and it was a supply issue,

but that was last use problem. the now infected so much flipped the other way. we have got a really good supply, but countries that have been waiting and waiting, but didn't know when they were going to get anything. understandably, hadn't got their teams ready. i didn't have their teams on stand by because i didn't know that have a vaccine. now suddenly the tap has not only been opened, it's flooding and not every country is ready. so where now working very, very hard, particularly with countries that are struggling to go from getting the vaccine from the airport through the coaching, by the teams, into people's arms that has improved. i mean, in the last month, i think we delivered 77000000, but there are countries with very, very low vaccination rates. some of the other problem is indeed, hesitancy upon people in countries that were waiting for a year to get vaccines have become very suspicious. suddenly that they've got

a lot of vaccine coming this angle. why we got it now, is that the bad vaccine? so you do have that, that lack of supply actually lead to greater hesitancy. i other issues are just simply getting the teams funding the teams having the transport, the logistics, even the petro, to put in the cars and the boats, and feeding the donkeys that you have to feed, to get out to where you go. so it's, it's much more difficult that citizens simply sending it, but last year, just getting hands on vaccine was the problem on youtube. i got this question, i'm gonna share it with you on that. actually you go ahead cuz i know you got more say about faxing and equity, and then i'll put the future question to you. go ahead. welcome. one of the things i want to the me to highlight is instead of having this huge focus, i'm trying to get as much testing and maintenance testing available. getting the right seems out the spreading the awareness about what they are as essentially, i guess key to making sure that we do have manage. it was covered in general. but

the real question is that, like you said, the dice in qualities is out that the prices are rising every 6 months or so 5 decides to increase the price of, of its own vaccine. so when we say that people are struggling to get vaccines and like poor countries, part of the reason is that i know there are cheaper vaccine options out there available. but some of them don't have a stronger immunity as far as, as all the boxes are using in the west. so it's is about trying to make a level playing field. these by teens one made just our private investment. a lot of the vaccine will came out of public funding. so i know as much as people like to bash donald trump. he put millions of dollars into dikes in development, which is public funding. this should be publicly available to people who love not just maintain and private institutions. i mean, i just question on youtube. i want to share with you. and it was a question about how do we find trust in public officials,

a medical professionals, because as we know, 2 years of misinformation, as well as great information, but misinformation and imation as well. in fact, on youtube right now, i'm not going to let you look at youtube right now, because there's some stuff going on there that even 2 years into a pandemic that's still misinformation flying around. all we better act coping with that now. are we more savvy about understanding what is accurate? what is inaccurate? i think that's one of the big challenges of this pandemic. it's also been called in for demick and certainty around vaccination. and there's a lot of stories out there that if people just go on the internet and, and google may may come across. so i think what we've learned that it is important to really have trusted source is what brought, there has been studies that have shown people trust their, their own physicians,

for instance, better than some others. and it is important to, to find those trust it a sides of information that may be also you can put on your website to after that program a big it because it is a struggle. and there's so, but we also have to be careful, and there's a lot of people that have questions about vaccines that are valid that just need to be answered. they are not entirely sure that it's not being anti vaccine. it's just someone who really wants to understand what these vaccines do and do not do. and so it is important to really keep after have the patients provide that information carefully say what we'd know, say what we don't know and, and that i thing in the and this really yeah, what is needed? i'm gonna put on a new doctor. so when he does his on nauseous, how much information that information dot to lucy mcbride is

a primary cat doctor. and she's pushing as in the direction of adapting to the global pandemic that we're in right now. how should we behave going full it, he, she is as a primary care doctor who says teenager is the parents of younger children. and as a mother myself, my biggest concern about kids and teenagers right now is the effect of prolong school closures on their social, emotional, and medical health. at this moment, the pandemic is appropriate to recognize that children and teens as an age cohort phase, the lowest risk for serious outcomes from covered, yet have been subjected to some of the strictest mitigation measures. it's time for us to recognize that children have broad health and human needs, that we need to address their mental and physical health in tandem. and that time for them to be back in school with their peers or mentors. there is teacher is unrestricted as time to mitigate the risk of coven 19 alongside the risk for other health harms that they inevitably face at. let's start with atlanta on this on

because we have a generation now. a pandemic generation of kate's, and i'm sure you've been on social media, anything, kates that were bulking at the dog. and they were bulking cuz they hadn't socialized because they'd been at home for a whole year and they hadn't met anybody. and all sorts of interesting things that happened to ad youngsters at young generation because they've been growing up in a pandemic. what do we do about that at night? what do you think? how do we me foot? i think it's really quite difficult. there was a paper released a couple of months ago looking at these children who, you know, all the schools and lessons, everything was done on i pads or laptops and things like that. there's actually going to those being evidence of withdrawal symptoms from gotcha. as soon as they start going back into schools and inability to focus things on that, it's quite dangerous to think about a whole generation people who haven't really engaged. and i don't, we don't really know what the issue is going to be in the future for them. i still don't have any other forms of social anxiety. and that's something that i think is

urgent for us to talk because these are our future generations, right? so what we need to be doing is slowly reengage them back to school. some of them have this fear of, you know, socializing with their friends going outside. not because fear of the virus, but generally because they haven't engaged with anyone other than their own parents . so we need to try to make going back to school as fun as quick and smooth as possible for them, not adding extra restrictions to them. and you know, you need to be far away from the child next door. i don't think that's really in the long time in this current environment, something that's stage to a teacher, children to continue. i have one more detail. there's also been, that's also been mentioned right. recommended by the w h o that are in this phase of the pandemic. really, school short closure should be avoided, which also means looking at the future, the near future, the vendor or where we have to prepare for possible increases again. but where

the recommendation is, the last thing you do is close schools because exactly of the reasons that were explained there. having said that, there's also things that can be done in schools. there's the issue, offend elation. and there is the thinking about if the numbers increase again, what can we do also in the school system or to help sort of limit the spread a little bit without closing to schools. and that's certainly something that, that is recommended or in the different parts of the world now. marian, false about thank a saying they're saying, yeah, yeah, monica, it is. yeah. is we've, we've been working very hard, not just us, but the unicef, our sister agency really been looking at what can we do to make school safe? a beta not just full curvy but for over 30 diseases. i think anybody who has had a child knows that they constantly have a cold because their kids brought some yet another thing back home from school. so

let's take this opportunity to make them places where our kids died. constantly get respiratory illnesses improved. the ventilation improved. the way they interact and do so much more, we owe it to this generation to get them a better chance of much better health through going to school. thank you so much. i just want to ok. yes, yes, i'm a did you got just the 32nd sound going to give you ahead. yeah, it's just how, how extremely unethical. it's ross. does he sold out arenas like the super bowl park, a 100000 people that all the embryo playoffs, yet we still have some schools are closed or open. thank you so much. i says there's always so much to talk about when we're catching up on the ladies from cove it. thank you. 2 doctors. i met marianne a margaret. i am going to leave you with a campaign that was a chilling campaign from africa. cdc and mastercard foundation. it is young people across africa doing their best in college,

all the young people to get vaccinated. i. so watching cnx i with

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black sea fleet has been severely damaged by a blast, forcing its 500 member crew to evacuate. the russian defense ministry says ammunition exploded on board its warship. moscow for the ukrainian military says it hit the vessel with cruise missiles moskva has led russia's naval assault during the war, making it an important military target. us national security advisor jake sullivan says whatever the cause.