now on bbc news, a special programme — global questions: coronavirus crisis. hello and welcome to this edition of global questions, with me, zeinab badawi. it is four weeks since the coronavirus lockdown in britain and the busy streets of london are unusually quiet, like in so many cities around the world. and governments everywhere are desperately trying to stop the spread of a virus which is new and vicious and about which we know very little. that is the topic of this global questions. the coronavirus crisis, our health.

we are now here in the bbc‘s headquarters in central london, and to bring you this edition, we are having to bring you our two panellists and our audience members who are going to be asking questions via video link. let me tell you who our two panellist are. helle thorning—schmidt was prime minister of denmark from 2011 until 2015 and until quite recently was ceo of the charity save the children. and doctor richard horton is editor in chief of the independent international medical journal the lancet. he is a doctor and has worked at the united nations on health, human rights and with refugees. welcome to you both and welcome to our questioners who are joining us from all over the world. i am clapping them because i am sure you are at home as well. let's take our first question and that is david in new york. david, your question, please.

with the meat market in china suspected to be the source of the coronavirus how can we close these down? did the world health organization drop the ball on the initial spread of the coronavirus in china? helle thorning—schmidt, what is your answer? this question is something everyone is asking right now. looking at the kind of market that caused this in china, i have no doubt that after this we will have to have new regulations, regulating these kind of markets, not only in china, but in many places. we will have new regulations and i am hoping that the who can be leading in actually getting the regulation for stopping this kind of trade and in these kind of markets. but i don't think it is the time to evaluate what was done right now. we can do that after and until then we all have to be very happy that we've actually got an international

body which is trying to solve some of these major issues that no country can solve on their own. so the jury is out, you are saying, on whether the world health organization did drop the ball on the initial spread. not the time now to look into that. richard horton, the wet market suspected to be a source of coronavirus, do scientists now think that is indisputable? that that is how coronavirus originated? do you think the who dropped the ball? yes, the situation with wet markets we have known since the sars outbreak in 2000 and 2003 that these markets were a major risk factor. there were calls 20 years ago to have those closed down and we did not heed those calls and we need to close them down as quickly as possible. 2002-2003.

i completely agree. i don't agree about the who. the who did not definitely drop the ball. they were first informed about this outbreak on december the 31st. the following day they set up an incident management team to address this new disease. by january the 4th they had already put out on twitter a warning to the world that there was this new condition of pneumonia of unknown origin. immediately they swung their teams into action in geneva and in beijing to try to understand what was going on. remember, they declared a public health emergency of international concern by january the 30th. they could not have moved faster and we should be very grateful to the who for what they achieved in a short space of time. richard, we have had on social media somebody from china asking why are politicians blaming china and the who for mismanagement? why are politicians doing that in your view? well, i think politicians are trying to cover up their own missteps

by blaming the who and by blaming china. if you look at president trump's reaction a few days ago i think what you are seeing there, since it is the country that has the highest number of reported cases and reported deaths, that is a failure of the us public health system and he is trying to direct blame against other organisations very unfairly, i believe. let's go to our next question and that is from india. sanjiv, your question, please. thank you for having me. i wanted to know how can some countries like germany and china have a low mortality rate in comparison to other countries like the us, where there is a mortality rate of 37—40%? why these differences between nations and within nations about levels of mortality? i think we have to understand this

has spread in a very different way across the globe. we have seen the asian spread and the european spread, then africa and now the us. this has been an issue from the outset. it is a complete national competence. health services have reacted very differently. we see complete lockdowns in some countries, we see smaller lockdowns in other countries, we see a later response, so countries have reacted so differently. also, we are seeing that health systems actually matter. what we are seeing in this crisis is that political leadership matters, the population want to support the political leadership so it doesn't only become governments that decide what we have to do, but society decides what we have to do together. also, very good health systems in a crisis like this. i think all countries and the whole world will have to look at themselves after this and ask

have we got a health system that covers everyone and is prepared for this kind of pandemic? i think many of us are realising it might not be the last time we have to deal with such a crisis. richard, does itjust come down to that? the differences in mortality rate is down to how good your health system is? i think it is partly due to how good your health system is, but it is also due to the particular response that each country put in place. the distinctive difference is in germany as they have been ramping up their testing and contact tracing to about 350,000 tests a day, and that is an incredible response. the standard public health response in an outbreak is you have to identify the person who is infected, you have to contact trace, and you have to isolate. the countries that responded fast in that way have been super successful in controlling this outbreak. the countries that took too long have failed.

thank you, let's go down under, australia, sydney. what do you want to ask? i wanted to ask how quickly the virus is evolving and how are we going to be dealing with those consequences, especially since there has not been a vaccine developed yet? thank you. doctor richard horton, how quickly is the virus evolving? is the gene mutating? we have seen in south korea how people are worried that even though they have got it, they thought they might be immune, they have been reinfected a second time. in fact we have got that on social media. from india, is it possible for a person to get infected again after recovery? is it evolving? the first thing to say is we only knew about this virus at the very beginning of january and so the truth is there is a lot we do not know and we still have to learn.

but what we do know so far is the virus does mutate, it mutates very slowly, it does not mutate as fast as influenza for example, and that is good news. if we do create a vaccine at some point in the future, hopefully that vaccine will work for all strains of the virus. but it is changing. at the moment we do not know whether the rate of change could speed up or slow down. that is something we have to monitor very carefully. could you get infected again? again that is a question we must be able to ask and at the moment we cannot answer it with certainty. it is possible you could get infected again if your immune system does not react strongly enough if you get infected the first time. we are now going to go to africa, nigeria and lagos. what do you want to ask? with all the changes, the constitutional changes and all the changes that have been

implemented across various sectors in many countries as adaptive measures to cope with the coronavirus, how are we making sure that we are ready? how is the world being prepared for the next major pandemic? what things are being put in place, especially in the health sector? i am going to ask you to stay on the line because i am going to come back to you to see if you are satisfied with the answers. helle thorning—schmidt, i suppose essentially our health systems, our governments, are they taking the right measures to make sure their systems are robust enough to deal with this current pandemic and also ones in the future? as somebody who led a country, the prime minister of denmark until 2015, what is your take? well, i think everyone will be asking themselves after this

whether our international regulation is strong enough. that is why, for example, new zealand and china in wet markets we need to have stronger regulation. every part of the international community and every government will have to ask themselves is our health system strong enough? i have no doubt that when we look at this in a year's time, everyone we look at themselves saying, were we completely without responsibility and fault in this? in that evaluation we will find there is definitely room for improvement in all governments' ways of handling this crisis and our health systems. the health system that came really well out of this is the german health system because they had enough ventilators, they had a system where they could start ramping up testing really fast. all of us will be looking to countries that did really well to find out what were the ten best things they did in terms of this specific pandemic, but also

in their general health system. richard horton, this has not come out of the blue, really? we had sars in 2003, we have had swine flu in asia in 2009. there are those countries particularly in asia that ensured they were quite well—prepared, like south korea, they had proper protection for health workers and so on. is it a case of governments knowing what needs to be done but they are just not doing it? this is the difference between what has happened in asia and what has happened in europe and north america and the different responses. because of the sars outbreak in 2002, 2003, china was so sensitised to another outbreak like this. so, as soon as they discovered it, they put their cities into lockdown. they did not mess around, they knew they had to suppress

the outbreak as soon as possible because they knew what the threat was. whereas in europe and the united states all of our modelling and anxieties were focused on influenza. influenza has a mortality rate of about 0.1%. this particular virus has a mortality rate of around 1—2%, so our response was much more relaxed and not as aggressive as china's and that was the mistake. that was the fact we did not learn the lesson of sars because we did know it 20 years ago. i think going forward, i agree with you completely, we need to understand about the health systems. my subject is sub—saharan africa, where the health systems are weakest, and if this virus took hold in sub—saharan africa, you would have a humanitarian catastrophe on your hands and we are not prepared for that.

i will come back to you there. richard horton saying it could be a catastrophe if this takes hold in africa. i think in africa so far the cases are only about 15,000, and the mortality rate has not been as high as it has been in europe and elsewhere. what is the feeling, the sense, in a crowded city like lagos where people are saying, we cannot practice social distancing? i believe that, if anything, this virus has exposed the fragility of our health system, especially in nigeria. it is so overpopulated and so impoverished. if anything, we are onlyjust waiting for an impending doom if we don't take serious measures to combat the virus. but so far our mortality rate has been in check compared to other continents and other countries across the world. but we cannot be so relaxed,

we need to decide on measures that we can take right now to strengthen and have an inclusive health system. thank you very much. our next question is from alex, who is ukrainian, but who is currently in lockdown in bali from where he joins us. alex, what do you want to ask? my question is what will the state of global borders be after the virus? helle thorning—schmidt. this is a very good question coming all the way from bali. what we are seeing in europe is that countries have closed their borders. suddenly it was sprung on the europeans that the americans closed their borders on europeans and all these things were done without proper consultation. i sincerely hope that we will open our borders again, not only in europe, but across the globe. what this crisis has taught us is how dependent we are on each other,

both in terms of our economy, but also our health systems and people to people. we need to open our borders again, but i do think it will last quite a while. richard horton, do you worry that nations will put up their borders after this? one of the tragedies of this pandemic is that in a moment where we need greater global cooperation we are actually seeing countries setting themselves against each other, passing blame from one nation to another, putting up their borders to stop communication and to stop collaboration with one another. europe unfortunately is an example of that. that is a terrible, terrible loss, this loss of trust in our society, and we have to rediscover that. the health of people living in china is going to be affected by my health, my health is going to be affected by the health of those living in china. we are all interdependent.

my great concern is that this pandemic is going to damage that sense of interdependence and trust that we so need between each other. our next question, which is from turkey. hello, here is my question. would you describe the pandemic as a wake—up call for european integration? helle thorning—schmidt, when we see what your country, where you were the prime minister, denmark, taking a very different approach from the uk with children in nurseries and primary schools. germany says it will soon open some of its shops. not at all an integrated response to the pandemic. no, i think we have to conclude that the european solidarity did not pass this first part of the coronavirus crisis. every country acted for themselves.

there was very little coordination. in the middle of this there was a massive row about the economic health packages, particularly to the southern part of europe. when italy asked for help on the 28th of february in this mechanism that we have in the european union, there was actually no reply at all to italy. it is only in the last couple of weeks that countries have given help to italy and spain, and this is far too late. richard horton. i think when the pandemic has passed and we calmly reflect on some of the lessons, we will understand that we need greater cooperation, greater coordination, structures that will facilitate us working together in a much more integrated manner. you cannot go it alone in this globalised world. any country that thinks that they can go it alone is going to get badly hurt. all right.

let's go to the ugandan capital, kampala, what is your question? what happens when governments lift up the lockdown and there is no vaccine so far? thank you very much indeed, hassan. claire brown from the uk says, how are we getting on with a test that says you have covid—i9 and any vaccine use? ——news. one for you, richard horton. how are we doing on the vaccine? well, you have hundreds of initiatives around the world to try and identify a vaccine. the projections put it at 12—18 months. i am a bit more optimistic. with new technology and the possibility of scaling up production we might have a vaccine within 12 months. but the fact remains that this virus will be with us during that time and although the immediate pandemic in each country will decline, and we will suppress the outbreak in nations, the risk of it coming

back is incredibly high. that is something we all have to be prepared for. the way we have changed our lives, the way we have changed our work, these are not going to be... they are going to become embedded in our daily existence, and that is a big change to our society. you know there is this idea that while we are waiting for the vaccine, you say 12 months, although there are dozens of teams working on this and there is one group in oxford under doctor sarah gilbert, who feel they might have already got the vaccine and they are going to carry out human tests, is it the case we will see short cuts being taken on the usual kind of safety measures that we normally have when a new vaccine comes on? is that acceptable? i think this is an area of great concern.

yes, you might well be having vaccines going into early human studies, but the normal process is that those safety studies then have to evolve into proper testing to make sure that the vaccine really is effective and really is safe before it becomes licensed. i would strongly recommend that we do not take any short cuts because if we do take short cuts and something goes wrong, then you are in danger of undermining the whole global support base for vaccines. vaccines are probably the most important development in global health over the past century. we do not want to undermine trust and confidence in vaccines, so, please, let's not take any short cuts this time. are you happy about how the international community is developing a vaccine? philanthropist like bill gates say they are putting lots of money in it, the united nations is putting its weight behind any kind of momentum.

are you happy there is coordination in that particular area? i am very excited about the enormous outpouring of commitment to develop vaccines. what i am worried about is the lack of coordination of those initiatives. the likelihood is we will get a lot of vaccine candidates and each of those is going to have to be tested. how we are going to decide which one is better than another, how we are going to decide which one we will scale up into production, there does need to be some governance of how we develop vaccines, otherwise we could waste time and a lot of money and resources, and we could end up in a very confused state at the end of it all. i hope we have a more coordinated effort. helle thorning—schmidt, we have had the science on the vaccine, but the question from hassan in uganda was also how can governments lift the lockdown if there is no vaccine yet?

i think all governments are considering this and they are weighing up how long can we actually have our capacity in each country on half the level we normally have? we are getting poorer day by day during this lockdown. on the vaccine i totally agree with richard. i would like to see more coordination. that is another reason why we have to have international organisations doing this, of which of course the who is one. that is why i do not think we can have this discussion today without remarking that this is not a time where we evaluate the who. this is not a time where any government, including the american government, should withdraw funding for the who. it is such a bad time to undermine one of the organisations we have to actually coordinate some of these big issues, for example the development of a vaccine. i really hope that can be part of the conversation in the months

going ahead as well. when we set up this programme we were inundated with hundreds of people asking the same question, such as ella from germany. how long will the pandemic last? briefly, helle thorning—schmidt. i don't know, i think richard has a better answer than me. i think we will see the consequence of this in many years to come and i think the rest of this year will not be normal in terms of how we interact with each other, or how we interact with other countries. doctor richard horton? the epidemic in each country will burn itself out and if lockdowns are imposed on countries, the evidence from china is it will take about ten or 11 weeks to burn out, but the great danger is it will come back as you slowly lift the lockdown. i think we need to be prepared for our changed lives, physical distancing,

different ways of working, life is not going to be the same again after this pandemic. thank you very much indeed. thank you to my two pannelists, helle thorning—schmidt and doctor richard horton, and to our questioners and all of you, wherever you are watching or listening. that is all from this edition of global questions on the coronavirus crisis. i hope we have brought you some insights that you have found useful and helpful. please send us your questions for our next editions which will be looking at the impact on oui’ economies, oui’ politics and our societies. you can e—mail us. you can find us on social media. until the next time from me, zeinab badawi, and the rest of the global questions team, goodbye.

hello, if you're lucky enough to have a garden, it will see plenty of sunshine this week. you will have to do the watering because it is looking dry. just about across the uk. as i show you the big picture, you will not be surprised to find a high pressure, that is weighted so settled in the week ahead. brisk easterly breeze, isobars close together. at least during the first half. may make it feel a little cooler than the sunshine and ten which is might suggest. as we take a look through the rest of the night, high cloud spilling across parts of southern england, channel islands, you may get an isolated shower. most will avoid a fourth, parts of scotland, highland, colder than this, getting down to —5 in the coated sports. tempted rebound quickly in the sunshine tomorrow

morning. early cloud on the far south—west, isolated showers disappearing and then sunshine just about across the board for monday. the wind is in play, average speeds on this easily wind, especially to england and wales, 30—110 mph. this is the temperature of the north sea, 7-9dc, the is the temperature of the north sea, 7—9dc, the breezes blowing a bit of a distance over that north sea, so the area has been cooled closer to that ten richer. right along the coast, 10—1lidc, whereas elsewhere ten pitches will be in the mid to high teens. little change for tuesday, later in the week we will find that bees using a little bit, so even on find that bees using a little bit, so even on the north sea coast it will feel a little bit warmer. tuesday are bringing an isolated shower towards the channel islands, far south—west, parts of wales, more cloud compared with elsewhere, but they still a contract in temperatures between those north sea coasts temperatures between those north seacoasts and further inland with a warm spot into the west as where

we'll be nearer 20 celsius. highs not as in control, some weather systems try to get a bit closer from the atlantic, friday into the weekend you can expect more cloud, it will turn cooler and there is a chance of a shower, but even going into the weekend, you notice these textures coming down, there is still no sign of any widespread rain. most places will remain dry. april shaping up to be a very dry, warm month. that is how it is looking this week.

this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the uk government says it's working to ensure that a shipment of protective equipment reaches healthcare workers in the coming days, after it emerged that the delivery from turkey has been delayed. we're doing absolutely everything we can to bring as much ppe in right from across the globe. we recognise it's a big challenge. the uk's education secretary also said he was unable to give a date for when schools will reopen, four weeks after they were shut to curb the spread of coronavirus. while spain looks towards relaxing lockdown measures by allowing children to go outside from next monday, italy is still