vaccines were safe and nobody was going to tell you that mitch mcconnell, the most these vaccines were effective powerful us republican, until we had the answers after the president, has finally broken ranks that they were both with donald trump, safe and effective. and congratulated joe biden and those both come on winning the at the end of the trials. you can't tell while the trials presidential election. are going on who's had the vaccine and who hasn't. mr mcconnell also urged fellow so, until the trial republicans not to object is finished we can't tell to the result when congress you that the vaccine is both safe and effective. all right, georgia, so what are you going to say to david? he says public concerns — meets to ratify it. he doesn't agree with you that they remain widely unaddressed. i want to politely disagree, just because on a couple a second coronavirus vaccine of occasions... looks set to be approved so, in terms of having to wait for emergency use in the us. until there's the data there, the food and drug vaccine acceptance and vaccine administration says the moderna hesitancy is more than going jab is safe and 94% effective, at the end of the thing it's and it can be stored safe, it's about ongoing public at higher temperatures trust, ongoing public than the vaccine developed by pfizer and biontech. medication, ongoing education about what vaccination actually if approved shipments is and what it means, could begin within 2a not just simply at the end hours. pressure is increasing for the uk government of the line this is safe. to revise its relaxation because, ultimately, of covid restrictions while logistics and the biology in england over christmas. is important, if people don't choose to take the vaccine then days before the changes, it's simply not going to be — two leading medicaljournals it just can't work. say the move would be ok, thanks. a mistake, that could our next question is from cost countless lives. edric ramirez—valdez, a mexican—american. thank you. your question. thank you. my question's actually along a similar thread, but related to efficacy and logistics. so, given the vaccine needs to be stored at very cold

now on bbc news, join temperatures, what measures zeinab badawi, her panel are being taken to ensure of experts and question askers quality control when mass from around the world batches are being supplied to discuss the race from production plants to rural vaccination centres for a vaccine for covid—19. in middle america, for example? professor david salisbury? hello, and welcome while a vaccine is in its box, to the royal college we know what is happening of physicians in london. to it. we know that it will go we've come here for this into —70 degrees freezers edition of global questions to talk about covid—19 at the point of distribution of the box. and vaccines. what is really difficult is how you then split the box, which has got 5,000 doses well, the united kingdom in it, into smaller quantities is the first western country to roll out a mass nationwide that can go out to communities vaccination programme, and i think everybody is seeing and we're all hoping this will mark the end that as really difficult. of the coronavirus nightmare. the easier answer is bring people to where the vaccine is, but that requires them to be mobile and it disadvantages those who do not have transport or who are frail and can't get but questions linger about the durability to where the vaccine is. of the vaccines, and with millions refusing to take the jab, how safe will all the rest of us be? that's global questions. the covid jab: is it really the silver bullet? it's a huge challenge for low income countries. in fact, we've got a question that relates to that from hannah thomas from singapore. hannah. thank you, zeinab. in terms of first world countries having an advantage

in securing many more doses of the vaccine in comparison to third world countries, how do we ensure that there are no vaccine shortages well, here in the royal college of physicians, we have an audience drawn in such developing countries? from london's multinational community, and they will be putting their questions suerie, so we've heard to our two panellists. an alliance of charities coming out saying countries in north america like canada and in europe are buying up millions and millions of doses, far more than their so, let me tell you who's populations actually number. in the hot seat this week and nothing much left giving the answers. for the lower income countries. how do ensure they get fair access? professor david salisbury this is a big topic is an eminent doctor who has served as the uk's director of immunisation, responsible for the national programme that led to the introduction of many new vaccines. foryou, i know, suerie. he works extensively with the world health organization on vaccines. and suerie moonjoins us from geneva, where she's indeed, and i think it's the co—director of the global not a hypothetical. health centre for the graduate it's a reality that high income institute. countries have secured, in some cases, enough vaccines to cover once, her particular areas twice, three times, four times over the entire population. of expertise are in health meanwhile, we have, the rest of the world, that is going to have governance issues, infectious diseases and a focus to struggle with a lot, on ensuring that all lot less. i think one thing to point out countries get fair access to global vaccine supplies. that perhaps has not been widely appreciated is that you do have lots of what we

would call middle income countries who are able welcome to you both to produce vaccines and also to our audience. and who have secured access remember, you too can to vaccines on their own, join the conversation. such as brazil or indonesia it's #bbcglobalquestions. give yourselves and our or mexico, for example, two panellists a big india and china. round of applause. but we also have many, many countries who are really relying on a global solution, on a multilateral solution, and there is one called it's so nice to have covax that has been an enthusiastic audience developed very quickly. with me here. i think the ambitions of covax are really important and really admirable. they're trying to reach ok, let's get right down to ourfirst question, and it is from azad ayube. the most vulnerable 20% azad, your question, please? of people in every single thank you, zainab. what was the hurry, and was there a race between countries? country in the world and that's right, professor david salisbury? why the hurry? how you prevent death, was there a hurry? that's how you prevent hospital yes, there absolutely was a hurry. the hurry was because people systems from getting were dying in countries overwhelmed. all over the world and we had but, unfortunately, right now to get a vaccine as quickly unless wealthy countries as possible. are willing to share some suerie? of the vaccines that they have already secured, covax indeed, it was a race is really going to struggle to meet that objective. against the virus, but i think we also have to recognise that countries were racing for scientific prestige. they were racing to be economically more competitive all right. with each other, and they were david, you have something racing to strengthen to add to this, just briefly? their geopolitical relationships with each other, i think that countries that

because of course a vaccine have ordered five times in this pandemic is a strategic the quantity they need asset. on the population bases are not going to draw down all that vaccine. so, hopefully, they will be able to cut back was it healthy or on the contract that they've made so they don't take vaccine unhealthy competition? that could so well be used elsewhere. i think the worry i have some healthy, but i think about covax is that, we could have used a lot more wonderful as it is to help collaboration, actually, countries protect their most among scientists and companies. vulnerable and their health and that would have actually services, the quantities moved us much faster are not going to be enough towards the finish line to stop transmission amongst than what we have. people, because you need more than 20% coverage to do that. azad? was there a race between the nations, and so, we've got to find ways or different countries? of getting more vaccine to places where there are many, david, you answer that. was there a race many vulnerable people between nations? was there competition to help them. nationally, between nations? i think the race was between science groups to get ahead as quick as they can. thank you. hannah? yes. i think the race was a good race, because everybody was going to benefit from it, and i think that we have seen science doing its absolute best well, i kind with great collaboration around of politely disagree. the world amongst science groups, amongst companies, i think we should really because i feel that people applaud what has happened to get us to where we are now. from different social economic backgrounds sometimes may have less of an advantage over people that come from higher income families. all right, terrific. so, it doesn't exactly answer applause. the question on what we can do to help the vulnerable

and those living in poverty. thank you. you're carrying the audience with you there. very good, excellent. let's go to our all right, let's go second question. to ourfinal question. iva na minnelli from italy. and it's from halima paracha. and you're from your question? pakistan, originally. thank you, zainab. thank you. my question is, if a vaccine is safe and it works, why do we need multiple vaccines from different companies? suerie, it's reckoned by next year that there will be something like 20 vaccines available, johnson & johnson thank you, zeinab. my question is how long working on one, and until we actually start all sorts of people. living our normal lives why so many? now the vaccine is out? do we have a timeline? i think it's actually a great thing that we have so many sighs. that's what we all want to know, halima! vaccines in development, professor salisbury, and often times the first generation of product is not as good as the ones that follow. when can we go back to normal? we're also already seeing just well, my family keep telling me with the three frontrunners why am i being so gloomy? however, i think for that there's a big difference a while we're going to be in safety and efficacy, well, at least on efficacy. in vaccine, plus i think we've got to see the roll—out and we see a huge difference of vaccines before we can make any changes to our lives in price, for example, one vaccine, the astrazeneca and i think we will continue vaccine, is about 10% having to socially distance, of the price of wear masks, work from home where we can, and only when we can see that we are the moderna vaccine. impacting on saving lives, saving our health services, and only when we can really be

it'll also be a lot easier sure that we are impacting to deliver in countries that with our vaccine programmes can don't have as many resources we carefully, as, for example, europe gradually move back. i don't know when it will be, and north america. i simply hope it will be soon. unfortunately, the efficacy yeah, well, soon but you don't data is not as good, know when it will be. but what we hope is that with more and more vaccines all right, well, let's hope coming out of the pipeline it will be very soon. suerie moon, last in the next year, we are going word to you on that? to have vaccines that i would agree it is, of course, are affordable, available, difficult to predict. that are safe and effective, but i think that return and that can also, you know, that are also shown to anything coming close to prevent transmission. to normality will be very there's still a long way to go, different for very different countries around the world. the race is not over yet. david, the more vaccines there are, the lower the price. is that the kind of thinking? not necessarily. i think the answer to the question is, actually, that no single company or even two companies or three companies could provide the needs for the world. we're going to have to have as many companies as can produce safe, effective and affordable vaccines, and that's our best chance. ivana, does that going back to hannah's answer your question? question, if countries are not it does to a certain extent. able to get vaccines to take on my way here, the taxi the hardest edge of this driver told me, who gets pandemic, that is to protect which vaccine? those at greatest risk of dying, then we're going to see a much, much slower return to normality how do we decide if i get in most countries in the world a vaccine from company a or company b? and that does have an impact

on countries like the uk, here in europe. because, of course, people travel — want to travel all right, so, are we going all over the world, to be spoiled for choice, then, because our economies david? are interdependent, and because our diplomatic relations with other countries. so, there's a real moral imperative as well as a strong self—interest argument is there going to be a lot that we have to find a solution of working out of which vaccine and make vaccines more available to everybody. is best for who and take you very much indeed. in which country? that's all from this edition i think there are going to be of global questions. difficult decisions that have but before we go, i want to get to be made, but they will be a quick indication of what my made, you know, really in line audience here think of this question. with the amount of vaccine so, do you think now we've got that we can have in each the covid—i9 vaccines country, the quality programmes being rolled out, of the vaccine that we can get, first one here in the uk, do you think that's — the contracts that are in place, either done that's it, it's a silver by our countries on behalf bullet? put your hand up if you think of our countries. the jab is the silver bullet. oh my goodness, just i don't think we can one solitary person. pick and mix here. so, who thinks it is i think it's going to be not a silver bullet? a matter of getting what we can my... get, adapting it to the best circumstances so that we have got the best vaccine in use well, professor davis salisbury, you said your family for high—risk people, tell you not to be so gloomy. we may not need, necessarily, you've clearly got some the same vaccine for lower of your family members in this people at lower risk, and we've got to adapt room here with me, to the circumstances. if you're in a country that's because they are also saying cold, that is quite different, that the jab is not going it's different than if you're to be the silver bullet. in a country that's hot. well, thank you very so, we will wait and see and hopefully the best choices much indeed to you, professor davis salisbury will be made on our behalf. and suerie moon, and,

all right, let's go to our next question. of course, to you here in my this is from ang lee audience at the royal college from wuhan, china, where of course covid—i9 of physicians and, of course, was first detected. to you, wherever you're your question, please, ang lee? watching or listening to this programme. hi, my question don't forget you can be part of our programmes is the following. in the future. will people constantly be submit a question. please e—mail vaccinated, since the immunity globalquestions@bbc.co.uk. but for now from me, from the coronavirus zeinab badawi, and the rest will diminish eventually? of the global questions team, it's goodbye from the royal thank you. college of physicians here in london. until the next time — professor salisbury, seasons greetings, stay this is a question troubling safe, and goodbye. an awful lot of people, what's called the durability of the vaccine. so, you may get your vaccination but then we don't really know how long you're going to be protected for, do we, really? no, it's a great question. we simply don't know how long these vaccines are going to last, and we don't know whether the lesson we learn from one vaccine will necessarily be the same lesson that we learn hello there. from a different vaccine, tuesday night started on a dry because there are quite note, but it's turned different sorts of vaccines increasingly wet and windy in development. during the early hours of wednesday courtesy of this deep area of low pressure moving up from the south, the centre of it moving they range all the way across the republic of ireland. across the board, from these rna vaccines that are totally new, to long—establishd a swathe of rain and gales techniques, we just don't know. we have to follow really spreading across much

of wales, western england, carefully the people who have northern ireland been in these trials to see and into scotland. if they stay protected so, wednesday's going or if they can catch to certainly start very windy, with gales at times. coronavirus later. but the winds will slowly ease down through today. remember that, for the ordinary and there will be heavy coronaviruses, the ones that rain for many of us. cause the common cold, now, the heaviest of the rain we don't get very good immunity to them. will be across northern and western areas through the morning, pushing northwards across scotland. meanwhile, this band of rain so, let's watch, we must will spread eastwards, study, we must learn, exiting wales and western then we will know england and arriving towards the eastern side what to do next. of england late in the day, although not reaching the far suerie moon? south east and east anglia probably until after dark. i fully agree with what david was saying. i think on top of that, a windy day for all, this is one of the reasons why though not as windy as how the day will start. we need that next generation we'll see plenty of showers of vaccines to continue to be developed. pushing into northern ireland so, in addition to continuing and western scotland. some of these will be heavy. the trials of the vaccines that are already being deployed, temperature, on the face of it, we do need to bring newer and better vaccines, 9—11 degrees, which is fairly mild for the time of year, and one of the characteristics but when you factor in the wind, it might not that is very important is, feel quite as mild. how many doses do you need? because you can imagine, now, that rain eventually reaches the far south east during wednesday night. if people need to get immunised it clears away and then we're into clear spells every year, it's going to make and blustery showers. a big difference whether we can some of these will be heavier across some western areas. just give one dose or whether somebody has to go back but because of the strength of the wind and the showers twice, for example. around, it's going to be what we see with other a largely frost—free night,

vaccination campaigns is that if you need to give somebody with those lows of 5—7 two or even three doses, degrees for many of us. the numbers of people who really show up to do that, so that's wednesday's low to the north of the uk. they really drop each time. we're in between weather systems for thursday, thank you very much indeed. all right, we're going so a brief respite before to have two questions, the next system arrives one after the other, later on thursday because they're kind and into friday. of related. so, for thursday, we should see quite a bit of sunshine around, so, gloria akenyemi, some areas staying dry what do you want to ask? altogether across eastern scotland, eastern england. during the pandemic, most of the showers will tend it's been widely recognised to be across western areas that people from a bame and they could pep up background are more vulnerable to produce longer spells to dying from covid—19. of rain later in the day, however, they have not been considered in a higher category particularly in the far west, to get the vaccination. why has the focus been on age as this frontal system arrives. and not on the vulnerability and it will be quite mild here, of individuals? generally mild, but those values a little bit lower across scotland and eastern england. thank you very much indeed. then as we head on into friday, and you refer there you can see plenty of isobars to the bame community, which is what in the and active weather fronts united kingdom we call right across the country. the black and minority ethnic it's going to be very groups, bame for short. wet indeed with some 0k, thank you. heavy rain in places, dominic kemps, you have also and very mild, too, though got a kind of related as we head on into the weekend, slightly cooler air will push question to that? in from the west. so friday is very mild, very wet and windy, the risk of flooding in places. i do, thank you, zainab. we've seen the first we'll see sunshine and showers vaccinations this week in uk hospitals of those over 80 as we head on into the weekend.

and healthcare professionals. it'll start to turn cooler, but wouldn't it be advisable particularly on sunday. to also prioritise young people, 18—24, who are the primary spreaders of the virus at this time, in hot spots, even if they might be less susceptible to complications from the virus? professor salisbury, i'll start with you. they're both kind of uk—related questions. broadly, they're both asking, how do you choose which categories you start vaccinating first? these are two great questions, they really are good questions. and in terms of the identification of priority groups, it really is an issue that some people in some communities are at more risk than others of both dying welcome to bbc news — or getting very i'm mike embley. our top stories: serious illness. however, i think what we have a senior republican finally break ranks with donald trump. to do is come up with mitch mcconnell, the most a hierarchy that we powerful us republican after the president, congratulatesjoe biden can implement. on his election win. we know that age is a risk. safe and 94% effective — we know that having other medical tests open up a path illnesses is a risk, and clearly there are some for the approval of communities that are at higher risk. a second us vaccine. but when it comes to implementing the vaccine, days before covid restrictions we need to be able to identify are relaxed in england over

christmas, two leading medical the people who are in those journals say that would be a mistake and could risk groups, and for us in the uk, that means identifying them through their cost countless lives. primary care provider. and a royal deal with spotify — the duke and duchess of sussex now, to come to the second agree to produce and host question, and that is again a series of podcasts. a really good question, why don't we vaccinate young people to stop them transmitting? i think the answer is that we know who is more likely to die and if we can protect them first, then we can come onto interrupting transmission. i think there are two strategies that we need to implement, and the first is protect the vulnerable, and the second is to stop transmission between people. and that means vaccinating the healthy younger people, and i'm just not sure that we're going to get as high uptake amongst those groups of people that we will get among the higher risk people who know they are at risk. all right, suerie, how do you answer those two questions?

who do you protect first, amongst the vulnerable, or should you target the super spreaders first, the young people? yeah, it is a great question. and i think one thing we have to understand is, of course, what are the characteristics of the vaccines that are currently at the front of the pack? what we know from the way that those trials were designed is that we actually understand very, very little. we have very little evidence, if any, as to whether they block transmission. so, until we do have that data, i think it doesn't make sense, indeed, to vaccinate those who are most socially active, such as younger people. but if i may, i would like to come back to gloria's question, we know that in the us, for example, we have similar trends, black and minority communities who have disproportionately borne the burden of this pandemic. the government has actually said we should take into account, not race, but many of the things correlated with race, occupation, income, living conditions.

there are other ways to try to identify those who are indeed at greatest risk of getting severely ill, and that we should in fact try to immunise them first. one very, very last thing i would like to add is that i think this is an extremely important thing for people to track and monitor. we have to be able to look back and say, were we successful as a society in actually immunising those who truly were at greatest risk, including minority communities? or undocumented immigrants, for example? or, at the end of the day, did these vaccines first go to the elites? and this is going to be a key question for all of us to hold our own governments accountable. right, well, two very thorough answers there. gloria and dominic, both of you stand up. i want you to tell me what did you make of what our two panellists said ? gloria, satisfied? yeah, i am satisfied. i especially liked suerie's response, especially about the fact that america seems to be looking

at the different categories regarding race about occupation, job, and how that all counts towards vulnerability and, yeah, i appreciate the fact of both responses. all right, thank you. dominic. i think it goes a long way to satisfy mine. i think as we're now at the point of having vaccines and we're talking about delivery, it's a question of ethics in terms of — and maybe it's a different group of people we need to engage and the decision around who gets vaccinated, but also responsibilities in the population, that we don't become apathetic just because a vaccine's here. all right. let's go to my next question, which is from georgia chisnall. georgia. thank you. a lot of people are very unlikely or uncertain about getting the vaccine. in the uk, for example, it's about a third. why do you think, despite having months during exceeding development, that public concern remains widely unaddressed and what you think should be done now to reassure

the public that the vaccine is, indeed, safe? in short, where did they go wrong and what can they do to fix it? let's go to you, suerie, there are the anti—vaxxers who no matter what you sayjust don't want to take it, but then there are those who are a little worried and concerned and want to be reassured about the safety so how do you tackle that? i think it's totally understandable that people would be concerned because, of course, these vaccines have been developed in record time, which is something that we should, indeed, justifiably be proud of in terms of the scientific and health community. but i think it's reasonable that this would raise questions, and there's a huge variation among countries in how many people are hesitant. we have, i think, up to 50% just the border in france. and, according to different polls, you know, it reallyjust varies a lot by country. i think one thing we know from the research is that it does help and it does matter what are the traits of the specific vaccine?

what do we know about the safety and efficacy? and what we know from the leading candidates is that this looks pretty good. so, i think that will help convince more people to come forward. but what we also understand about vaccine hesitancy is it's notjust a question of information. it's notjust a question of providing the public with data. you have to be able to communicate and have sophisticated communication strategies so that people hear the message from those that they trust. and for everybody that might not be the government, it might not even be a medical doctor. it might be their teacher, a religious leader, a community leader. i think what's really important is that we have trusted authorities communicating the message to persuade people to come forward and get vaccinated. thank you. david? that was a good question. however, i don't quite agree that it's been got wrong. i think that people have been trying to deal with it, but with at least one if not two hands behind

their backs, tied there. 00:18:01,317 --> 2147483051:45:45,374 and the issue is nobody was 2147483051:45:45,374 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 going to tell you that these