just ask how does this season i know how much love gets poured into those christmas stands and i'm sorry from the bottom of my heart but if we have to pay the price of 590 people dying every day that's just not acceptable in my eyes and we must take action and. accept. this i've received. medical also condemned the protest movements casting doubt on the science behind the so-called lockdown light currently in place she made an unusually personal reference to her background as a scientist and her earlier years living under a regime with no respect for the truth to that university nice gemini i decided to study physics i probably would not have done that if i had lived in the west i did it because i realized that many things could be undermined but not gravity or to speed of light other scientific. was for medical the facts are clear

a tighter lockdown is needed right now her next challenge is to persuade not only parliament but also the german people and the only important leaders of each german state without their consent tougher actions won't be possible but if today's speech is anything to go by merkel is ready to put all her political power on the line. if you use a chief political correspondent a crane followed that speech in the german border certainly not just how unusual is it for the chancellor to make such an emotional appeal. it's unusual and i think it was prompted by her very real very urgent concern after all she is a scientist and she understands the data and secondly perhaps it was a response to a jab that had been made by the speaker before her the leader of the right wing in f.t. party who called on the chancellor to quote unquote get out of her ivory tower and trust the citizens with. the facts so in her appeal the chancellor. of

listed a whole set of facts that show the very disturbing developments both in infection rates in the death rate and in the shrinking of intensive care capacity in this country and then she said i believe in the power of reason and of science and she cited the recommendations of germany's council of scientific experts the lay opal dina council which said yesterday that the country needs much stricter rules going up to perhaps even an extended christmas vacation where shops would be closed and social gatherings much more strictly limited so this was the mix the sober earnest real ism and almost maternal and courage meant and urging that we often saw from the chancellor during the 1st wave of the pandemic and that in fact makes her crisis communication when she doesn't gauge a net so effective as so much on the line for the chancellor chancellor merkel has

many demands on her at the moment doesn't she. absolutely she will be heading from berlin to brussels to head what is perhaps one of the most important e.u. meetings of her entire time in office germany is currently the president of the e.u. council it's faced both with a still unsettled breck's it and the question of a trade agreement whether the e.u. and britain and britain can come to terms on a trade agreement plus the 7 year budget for the e.u. is being held up by poland and hungary which refused to accept a rule of law clause so that in turn both determines the amount of money the e.u. would have at its disposal next year and even to terms whether the e.u. can begin to meet its climate goals because these 2 countries are also holding up those all of that in america's hands over the next 2 days so she's got

a lot of skin in the game germany is also considering taking on a sizable new debt to help aid the economy how is the chancellor justifying. indeed today's debate here at the bundestag was a debate about to the next german federal budget which would see the country take on the psych 2nd highest level of debt ever 180000000000 euros now she said she realizes this is a massive sum and that it is a burden on future generations that it will be paid back and she said the government has a schedule for that repayment and she said she also had heard other parties appealing that that money needs to be wisely used for a future that will truly take this country further so she listed a whole area a whole different number of areas where there will be significant investment ranging from artificial intelligence to the health care system to new renewable

forms of energy and said that she intends to make absolutely sure that this debt is put to good use the government's chief political correspondent linda crane reporting and. and in our peers at the european union standoff over its 7 year 1.8 trillion euro budget may and stresses may have been resolved poland and hungary were standing in the way but seem to have come to a preliminary agreement with germany on the future spending plan that's at least according to poland's government germany currently holds the rotating e.u. council presidency the 2 eastern member states have previously blocked the long term budget and coronavirus recovery fund the country's disagreed with the rule that funding could be withheld its member states did not respect and abide e.u. rules of law and democratic standards while some skeptical e.u. states including the netherlands will still want to review today's deal.

and turkey has reported more than $33000.00 covert cases in the past 24 hours that's one of the highest daily counts in the world after months of pressure by health experts and opposition politicians the government has changed the way it reports cases and that's now brought to light a much worse situation than previously thought our correspondent you leon filed this report. he leaked it was that it was a celebrating her birthday she turns a today for 2 biggest wishes harry potter cake and meeting her best friends. the latter is more difficult to organize since stricter coronavirus measures have come into force in turkey young people under the age of 20 are only allowed to leave their homes for 3 hours a day did i know that like i used to be able to go outside whenever i wanted it

that was much better i also miss school now everything is done why assume and it's so annoying i could make a. good theatre says mothers trying to organize life as best as she can between work and curfew she's often surprised how quickly the children have adapted to the difficult situation. to time must you know you don't know the kids where their math without complaining even when they're playing they got used to it only when we look at old photos of the do we notice that a masts weren't always there and you're making me then you're going to get all the . curfews for children are not the only new anti coronavirus rule in turkey those older than 65 can also only go outside at certain times public transportation is forbidden for young and old people and on weekends everyone with few exceptions

has to stay at home. it looks pretty bleak these days in istanbul's usually very busy neighborhoods restaurants bars many shops closed. until recently the turkish government only publish the number of call that 19 patients showing clear symptoms and that's why many people here thought turkey was surviving the crisis relatively well but now the authorities have started. released data on the number of all new infections every day and many are realizing turkey is one of the worst affected countries in the world. but the government now reports about $30000.00 new infections per day. many of us are angry about how the government is managing the crisis but there's nothing we can do to refute the government is concerned with its reputation they want to look good that is why there is no transparency almost publishing the need to but they should have informed people

much better right from the beginning then everyone would have known what to expect and how to act if you could read it. and i could in the deals with many covered 1000 patients he's a family doctor and belongs to the turkish medical association he says the authorities are still hiding the truly extend of the crisis. we still have a lot more cases than the government says according to our estimates we have about 50260000 new infections per day while our doctors and hospitals are at the absolute limit we have to urgently take radical countermeasures. oh. yeah those things the current restrictions are already plenty tough the party's over the kids have to go back inside next year she hopes for a birthday with out the coronavirus.

a small indian town in the state under the dash is swarming with investigators after a mystery illness but hundreds of people sick including children officials and allures say blood tests on some patients every field the presence of nickel and lead they have now identified possible sources of what appears to be in this poison. more than 500 people many of them children have been hospitalized with the mystery illness since saturday patients have reported a wide range of symptoms including noisy and headaches some had convulsions on the street others just collapsed with no warning. and then another. my father asked me to put on a news channel on his mobile phone while i was doing that i fainted i only regained consciousness in the hospital. and bob you are on we got our daughter admitted last

night that she was vomiting had diarrhea and was shivering we were afraid to end up there so we brought her to the hospital. medical officials have been baffled about the cause of the illness they struggle to find a link between those taken ill but now traces of heavy metals including nickel and lead have been found in the blood of some patients tests on the water supply and food such as rice and oil being carried out one scientist said the source could be pesticides. home grown a blood sample we have collected more than 70 blood samples we have collected 70 food samples water samples milk samples and all samples for analysis and so on to analyzing we will be able to conclude and find the reason behind this disease analysis that neugebauer that we are suspecting that it could be metal toxicity and pesticide toxicity. the majority of people appeared to have recovered within hours and was sent home but doctors warn if heavy metal such as lead are confirmed as

a cause then this could lead to more health problems down the line. and right now of our top story this hour in an emotional address to parliament driven shows ongoing medical has demanded tougher holiday measures as for never fail to drop. in record deal the high 598 leaders are considering a strict law down to the sister cities. around it for our covert 19 special show original. idea. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection in developing what does the latest research. information and contact. on a virus update. on t w. how does

a virus spread. why do we have it and when will. through the tax and weekly radio show it's called spectrum if you would like to move information on the growth of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast. your podcast you can also find us and. just how many people are dying from. as it stands more than one and a half 1000000 people have died of. the world but official figures can only tell one part of the story that's why scientists are calling for certain types of data to be used to get more reliable numbers to help us better understand mortality in

the corona virus pandemic. first off we take you to the russian city of where the discrepancy between the official coronavirus death toll and how many more deaths there are compared to last year is too wide to ignore. with a steady stream of corona virus dead speed is of the essence that the most every morning the team from the funeral agency. comes here to collect new victims of the pandemic 29 year old toure has been working in the funeral business for 12 years but he says he's never had to bury this many. people but for fortune one time there was a huge line of hearses standing in line outside the morgue it was only then that people started to understand the death really come to. call the relatives of the body

that. this movie in the city of is only for people who died of corona virus or had contact with an infected person the bodies have to be sealed in plastic the coffins closed. many russians feel that dead should be treated with more respect for explains. their relatives are often more tense than usual because their dead are handed over to them and plastic bags. allowed to open the bags so i tell them that right away some people cry and demand that we open the bags. and i have to explain that they could get infected themselves this virus is no joke. it. has been in the business for 7 years today he's in charge of the team of undertake he says since the 2nd wave of corona virus there have been at least twice as many deaths in the. funeral agencies have had

a tough time keeping up. with we work a lot more work over a 1000000 people live in the capital of the republic of. government statistics say that only around 90 people in the region have died of the corona virus since the pandemic began but the official numbers also show that during that time of a forced. 1000 more people died the nost year corona virus infections are spiking across russia but insist the situation is under control. the undertaker so sure today unicode slover and his team are in tearing a 92 year old woman she didn't die of the coronavirus that means her relatives can say their final farewell with an open casket which is the tradition in russia usually funerals a big family affairs in russia but the pandemic has changed that people are often

worried about getting infected and stay away. so far no one in your research team has caught covert he can only hope it will stay that way. and russia people say if it's decided up there that your get run over by a street car you won't drown fate is fate if the coronavirus is my fate it will pass me by. or with me will produce. the next day the team prepares for 4 more funerals and his colleagues hardly have time to worry about their own health at the moment they're just too busy. the last of us are guard joins us now he's the project coordinator of that of course stands for european mortality monitoring welcome to you we've just seen a new daily record of coronavirus related deaths here in germany totaling 598 why

do you think that number has gone up so sharply considering were in the 2nd wave. i think the most what we are seeing is a very widespread transmission of call it 19 in germany and in many other european countries but it is now reflected also in refugee increasing. mentality. but how do you think the numbers will develop further or have we already seen the peak and they're really good question so if you look at what we experienced in the 1st wave in in march in europe we saw a very rapid increase in much healthier within a few weeks and a very very decline after the lock downs then we saw a very quiet period during the summer in most european countries but since around september october in the in europe many countries have seen. gradually increased in transmission not only in small focal areas but widespread in the country and this

is now reflecting in a gradually increasing access mortality and you not sure yet when this will peak exactly exactly because i hope that with the increased restrictions we're now having in many countries in europe we will also see in our. cline again in what else but we're not sure yet can you please clarify for our viewers what exactly is meant by excess mortality. yes oh except not hell it is more that than you would expect normally from previous years of of mortality so you are you calculate the the expected everett's rate and previous numbers and you can adjust for seasonal variations and then you see the difference from what you observe in the current time current week and you compare what we would you expect and that is what we define as an excess morality and under situations when you have

public health events that that excess must help so you can keep it to that event which is now 1000 and we don't have actually other public health events always been asians that quick spain this mentality so what we see is really a true picture of the original much healthier from 1000 europe now we've borrowed a graph from the organization showing that signature up from 2017 to 2020 we're noticing in particular to market peaks one from a severe flu season in 2018 and one in the 1st wave of the corona virus earlier this year this means corona virus is definitely deadlier than the so it doesn't it how deadly is it exactly according to data yeah certainly we see normally during the inference the season in europe we see excess mortality and the example you show is from live very bad flu season in 1718 we was quite

bad but the p.p. saw in the 1st wave could be 19 are many times higher the most healthy is is minute and higher than in the west. in fact this is the scene so is particular the group of. 65 years ago. it is it is at least $44.00 times worse than in the bad $1718.00 season and it is more than 20 times worse than the might influence of seasons so it's very significant extra mattel's you see john could be 19 compared to a normal winter season. now the pandemic has gone on for the better part of a year we've all changed our behavior in a way to prevent more covert 19 deaths we're all wearing masks and social distancing has that had any impact on the number of deaths for other infectious illnesses like the flu yes i certainly have seen

a very dramatic decline in other respiratory infections. influenza and then examined denmark we have seen a steep decline in 1000000 judges cases so that will last to reduce motel from those of the victims. thank you dr loss of us or guard he's the project coordinator of euro momo or european mortality monitoring we appreciate your analysis today thanks very much welcome up next our science correspondent derek williams answers one of the questions you've sent in. what is the distinction between a vaccine efficacy and its effectiveness. every branch of science has its own vocabulary and these 2 words from pharmacology have been used confusingly and often interchangeably in the last few months although they mean different things for the

general public efficacies is the less familiar term it describes how well a drug or a vaccine works in a controlled environment that's been designed to give clear answers that's because in the best of all possible worlds an independent team should be able to take an efficacy study conducted trial in the same way and reach the same results so some trials like the covert 1000 vaccine candidate trials will have some baseline parameters for example they do things like exclude test subjects with preexisting medical conditions the fundamental questions are does the candidate work in healthy people safely in the dozes that we're administering and if so does it also appear to protect at least those groups of people from contracting the disease effectiveness on the other hand describes how of the same vaccine will perform when

it's released into the wild if you will out there in the real world when it's given to people on a much wider scale this aspect of vaccine performance is also monitored of course after approval is granted but they did takes a lot more time to gather and to study effectiveness numbers for covert 19 vaccines will almost certainly vary from the efficacy numbers we've been hearing about lately in the news they'll be different in people in different age groups for example. and although we're optimistic that current candidates will indeed protect a high percentage of people in the general public who receive them don't forget that calculating both efficacy and and effectiveness requires a sort of statistical sleight of hand because after all you're trying to figure out

how many people didn't get a disease because they received a vaccine or or to flip that idea on its head what might have happened had they not been vaccinated and that's a pretty slippery concept. now if you have a question for derek just send an e-mail to feedback taught english at the w dot com and type expert in the subject line thanks for watching.

me. in the art of climbing tree. for christmas or. what's in store. for the future coming. up comics for the major cities to get in such a clear picture. i'm not laughing stock of the day well i

guess sometimes i am but most often when the research i mean thinks deep into the german culture of looking at stereotypes aquatics put in here think the future of the country by not playing. p.s. needed to be picked for this groundhog day out to me it's all about a new i'm rachel join me for me if you haven't funded up your. post. this is d w news africa coming up on the program if you are fires of the u.s. . government insists they do not need a babysitter in my region the humanitarian crisis in the tikrit region also coming out. of defiance in the freeze of a crackdown on our planning there was traditions on their state to demand that time

when conditions on the un says the death was the formal protest on. conscience spills on pump and i'd be.