the new silk road. china wants to expand its influence with this trade network also in europe. china is promising its partners rich. but in europe there's a sharp morning whoever exception one is from the new superpower it will become dependent on it china's gateway to europe. starts feb 19th on g.w. . operation vaccination a huge task unparalleled in history and the challenges involved a massive. many pastoral nations are already secured the vaccine doses to be to live in the shia but what about the poor countries. i think this idea that you know

really it we will protect ourselves 1st and then we would worry about others it is of course sensitive spent more than that and food is and it doesn't but it is abundantly is the pandemic won't be over until it's over all around the globe i just. need to control the coronavirus pandemic this year with the vaccines that are available. in. the german city of maine it's an homage to the course of a family up until a year ago a few people outside the medical field headed off. the start up a biotech was known for developing innovative drugs to fight can something. in january 2020. when the corona virus began spreading around the world company

founded in halted ongoing research and mobilized all forces to focus on a new goal on developing a vaccine for the virus last fall we were among a few camera teams allowed to film the company. behind must see the right to find 3 goals firstly we needed a back scene that triggers a powerful immune response and for then we needed to conduct clinical trials that prove it's affective and safe and thirdly we knew we'd need sufficient quantities of the vaccines of the for food. with many countries now proving the vaccine production is being ramped up the demand is huge it's a new type of vaccine known as messenger r.n.a. it contains the blueprint for a virus protein cool says the body's cells to develop a small amount of the virus so that it and then produces antibodies to fight it to develop the vaccine quickly and by on take introduced

a 7 day work week and supplied regulatory authorities with joshua's clinical trials progressed to speed up the approval process. or they called it our lightspeed project life we knew we had no time to lose this year but we were also very clear that we didn't want any short cuts and that's that we wanted to work best not overlook anything i think on the show to make even while the vaccine was still mean developed my own take was preparing for mass scale production joining forces with american pharmaceutical giant pfizer and chinese conglomerate photos on. the model rise a good amount normally you wouldn't focus on production until later in the 1st test whether you have a viable back same on it but we moved forward with both things at once and we built partnerships with other companies that would allow us to manufacture the back same and make it a bailable anywhere on the planet i walked into. some 200 other research groups

have also been working since january 2020 to develop a vaccine scientists in the u.s. and europe as well as china russia and australia locked in the race to fight the pandemic. normally it takes years to develop a new vaccine but this time she managed she couldn't quite that long wealthy governments around the world poured billions into research. will pick up. drugs still. and so it's our responsibility to work together globally. national pride and propaganda played an increasing role as the international race for a vaccine gathered speed we're almost there going to be announced very soon will be ready before the end of the year. medical research became the focus of the

international community as never before and the pressure on the scientists group as the political rhetoric increased there was coming concern the rush to have a vaccine might lead to compromises on safety and adequate trials rushing a preliminary approval to expect st before it had gone through the all important phase 3 clinical trial with a vaccine is tested on thousands of people packed contravened international procedures. china also began to ministering to vaccines to members of the military and medical personnel before critical trials were completed. in the us the trumpet ministration pumped billions into its warp speed program to produce that saints and situate us manufacturers the pole position. like anything our country. has seen

since the manhattan bridge. in the end it was biotech and find it was the 1st to have a vaccine approved at least in the western world. in early december after britain issued emergency approval for the vaccine 90 year old margaret keenan became the 1st to receive the bio on tech chap. done it. out of the paper. can ensure in the united states also prove the biotech finds a vaccine. companies have pledged to deliver 200 meakin doses to the us by may.

just before christmas the 2nd vaccine came to majid see approval in the us made by an american company modernity like the one from bio on taking 2 is an m r an apex st. the violent taken or dana vaccines was shown to be 95 and 94 percent effective into an equal shot. and as fair vaccine has now been approved to a so-called desirable vector produced by up speaking of a city and the british swedish company astra zeneca it's thought to be up to 70 percent effective against the virus back to a higher rate than required to be approved for usage. bought despite this encouraging development it's been clear all along that to begin with there wouldn't be enough vaccine for everyone. so you should get it 1st like many countries

germany is prioritizing the elderly and sick. the books who heads up the genetics council help to drop the guy a chance for distribution effects same. damned as i did when you didn't select the elderly for preferential treatment as if to play the different generations off against each other that's your gain and ours. is tied so it's just the case that the data showed very clearly that old age is the greatest risk factor accidents occur fucked up. on disk and there are some groups especially very elderly people in nursing homes for many 100 times more at risk than say someone like myself. but is everyone in germany willing to be inoculated. radical opponents of the vaccine have been protesting for months fearful that they

could be coerced into getting inoculated it gets they will be. represented in surveys last change the number of people in germany willing to have a kind of a 19 vaccine truck is the most cost while in april 70 percent said yes they would get enough elections by the end of november that number had dropped to just 57 percent. experts say between 60 and 70 percent of the population needs to be inoculated to achieve that immunity. and the willingness to be vaccinated dropped in many industrialized nations last year including the us. on the safety of the vaccine i am not sure but i wouldn't want to be one of the volunteers to try it i wouldn't be to care about safety but if that's something i have to do it's something i have to do. surveys in the u.s. should 66 percent of those asked in july were willing to get vaccinated. that

dropped to 50 percent in september but then runs back to 63 percent. how is it possible to protect a global population of nearly 8000000000 people. on the public or the pandemic that seems need to be accessible and affordable for every country yes this is this it's important that we consider a vaccine as a global public good bit tough that they're. found its next in a long won't be enough to end the pandemic deepen the mean and the kind of work of endemic doesn't care which countries have rolled out a backs a nation program of what's important is that we achieve a blanket immunization all over the world in our name nunchuck.

no one company can cover that kind of demand is that i need to work together and we need to help each other so that we're all in a position to make a vaccine available as soon as possible absence of. one solution could lie nearly 7000 kilometers away from biotech's german headquarters. tuna in india. a city of 3000000 miles southeast of hmong by any indian state of maharashtra. gunas times the world's largest banks a manufacturer of serum institute of india. the pharmaceutical company says it produces of a one and a half 1000000000 doses of various vaccines every year. specialized in supply in the developing world and emerging economies who can't afford the vaccines produced in the west. this same

institute says its back scenes are used in 170 countries worldwide. after months of seeking to contact the institute out team was finally graduate from mission to film pia last full and speak to the head of research and development challis ground. 0 or to the minister for india we are putting a lot of your 1st story you. helped end out of globe to supply a large volume of vaccine seagram is normal to really take care of but this is where that action in the low income countries poor countries and making it quit able access to all the people. normally these by reactors are used to produce vaccines to guard against tuberculosis polio recently and other diseases now the company has reserved a large part of its capacity for coated 19 vaccines.

so the major challenge is when such a pandemic comes hope everybody wants large while you a least 5 to 7000000000 losses are needed to be manufactured in short time. to meet the expected to man to the same institutions county convention one of its new factories was built to manufacture the drugs but now produce coronavirus vaccines. generally lot of people live in there is a pandemic they start from the scratch so by the time they have wolf resolutely which can be were billions of those is pandemic probably sees don't so nobody is interested in the program beard this is a big plus of cinema's to india we always expanded and created large festivities in anticipation of global new gulf several of that since as of a lead pandemic we can't really handle such kind of bread.

5 kinds of 19 vaccines of can even produce tearin to know. if. one of them is the vector vaccine developed by office for university and astra zeneca in india it goes under the name of kofi shield. the same institute has signed a contract with astra zeneca to manufacture 1000000000 doses of kovi shield the doses of testing to expressly for developing countries and india. right now we already know roughly a boat going to a very good 30000000 doses of what sort of acting is already manufactured by us at risk and we are continuing doing that. is to 60000000 doses someone. who in fact sane has now also been given emergency approval in india. but only on condition that in the initial months at least the

serum institute only sells the vaccine to the indian government. thanks to a cinder india has been able to start a large scale vaccination tries to but what about other emerging economies in the developing world. the manufacturers of astra zeneca by on take 5 2nd or turner said together they will produce 5300000000 doses of vaccine in 2021. in theory that's enough for 3000000000 people so over a showed of the global population. but the majority of those doses have already been reserved to 27 member states the european union and 4 other industrial countries have already precluded heart those doses. the supply and their populations will be generous canada for example has to. nearly

9 doses for every single one of its residents followed by the us with just over 7 percent of population. with nearly 5 and india with just under 2. the problem is these countries who have secured hard at the vaccines to be produced in 2021 only account for 13 percent of the population. who are countries that means there won't be much left at least not for the forseeable future research is that you couldn't face it in the us a calculated that most people in these countries will have to wait until 2023 or even 24 more to get the vaccine. german business journalist reka hammon is skeptical about the behavior of wealthy nations in the current crisis. that's not true so initially of course that the pharmaceutical companies needed money risk capital to push ahead with the whole production's of

understood and so it's logical that governments want vaccines in return but let's be clear there's a certain amount of nationalism at play here and this will get indian economists jayati ghosh wards of the dangerous consequences of vaccine nationalism this is exactly why i called it a vaccine about it because it means that the countries with better reach made sure that their populations have the best access they will be the 1st story cover not just from the pandemic but also economically and the countries that are already poor already devastated by the health conditions they will wait so they will go through another year of economic devastation and illness. and the impending lack of vaccines for the global south is not in any commission. dividers has no respect of the borders so the idea that you can protect your own for british. the

idea of up to the best and that you were there for the safe is very foolish and it is a consensus but more than that it's food is it doesn't work it's banksy nationalism sent to increase the inequality of our world. but it's not even in the interest of the industrialized nations to behave this way according to german economist bank right now. as this is guns it's very important to understand that in addition to the medical and moral arguments there are also strong economic arguments for not just focusing on our own market is a macho man was i'm just saying this globalized capitalism really doesn't need a virus like coke at 19 in the help because there are global supply chains and our entire economies are based on people being able to travel eyes open on the hundreds or trade partners are economically on their knees because of the pandemic of countries that supply wrong materials as well as the countries that import our many

factored goods that cannot be in our interest. to kill try to risk of poor countries not having enough vaccine the world health organization created an instrument back in april 2020 called kovacs it aims to ensure equal and fair access to coverage 1000 vaccines for the young participating countries spain to a joint fund which the w.h.o. uses to purchase cost facts aims so the wealthiest states financed the poorer ones . we now have the largest most died there of course back. anywhere in the world we expect we have countries that cover 90 percent of the world's population that are agreeing to work together to get the best possible prices the best possible values the best possible timing for the road out of these vaccines around the world. the w h o's distribution plant comprises 2 phases. in the 1st phase when participating

countries receive fax hands to inoculate them medical personnel and unfundable groups. then in the 2nd phase vaccines are supposed to go especially to countries where the situation is most urgent it sounds cool to them a problems were 1st quite simply body we need a substantial amount of money a bit over $5000000000.00 to be able to buy the vaccines that are already been needed especially for lower income countries. the 2nd challenge that we have of course is we're seeing a big 2nd waves of disease especially in the northern hemisphere it will be a huge political pressure use the vaccines there 1st and to move back from the commitments to equitable rolled out across the world. politicians could face a difficult balancing act. because we're off to 2000 so often in the world of politics there are different rationales at play here firstly politicians ask how do

we fight this pandemic worldwide but then there's the more in the biju of wonder what do voters want from a. fundamental problem with the kovacs initiative is becoming increasingly obvious it depends alternately on the goodwill of the tone of nations if domestic politics dictates they can just move through their pledges and that's not all. well i think there were 2 fatal flaws with kovacs one is that you know some important countries didn't join then the other concern with gov acts is that it didn't prohibit the country select joined from doing the side deal that should not be allowed because that goes against the whole spirit of facts. but there are alternatives to the model of free will to nations. on october 15th the w.h.o. discussed a proposal put forward by india and south africa and. then again was to achieve a temporary way thought of the so-called trips agreement which also protects the patents. the pharmaceutical firms the agreement contains closes the commune vote in

a medical emergency the way it was to ply only to comfort 19 health products a similar move in 2001 relating to hiv treatment for example gave millions access to cheap life saving drugs. and. we learned from the hiv aids pandemic that where there are patents protecting drugs there is always the danger that hundreds of thousands will die. simply because they just can't afford the necessary drugs and they need to comment further so south africa and india wanted to have covert 19 paid suspended for the generation of the pandemic so that cheap generic vaccines could be produced for poor countries but the motion was overruled by wealthy nations unfortunately what we find is that multinational drug companies are able to lobby their governments very effectively it's very strong in the united

states government they really respond to the drug lobby but it's also unfortunately strong in europe. patients huge huge profits for the pharmaceutical companies and allow them to control prices but the facts in companies have received billions in public subsidies. just attend a few patents protect companies to protect innovations and so forth. but the fact is that a large percentage of the funds that went into developing these vaccines came from public coffers by. a physician cousin and. there are legal alternatives such as compulsory licensing with commission has given to patients to be used without the consent of the patient hold up a patient pooled could be set up to coronavirus vaccines and drugs to be shared but this doesn't support for our troops right now. by ontic confounder isn't keen on. an additional stage intervention i thought.

is this is a saw this as a pharmaceutical company is simply an organization that is involved professionally and making safe drugs it's not that it's over and that can only works when you have the companies get to the point where they're able to make a profit that they can reinvest in new research projects and developing new drugs when they are found that centric. the biotech spec scene is in any case not suitable for use in poor countries of the global south. they are by on taking the beyond tuck approach is extremely intelligent but it's also extremely complicated i'm a mentor or countries don't have the infrastructure to be able to store and transport a complex drug so you need a very robust vaccine that will also work in the heat hits it often affords a new. hope for poor regions could come from the very country with the pandemic 1st started china. questions remain over the efficacy of china soon of

a vaccine what's clear is the chinese companies have developed a number of facts scenes that are easy to store. if you mean fortunate chinese are developing vaccines that are suitable for the global south because they're not dependent on a cold chain they're also building up a kind of silk road for health products right off the ball on for months now chinese companies and politicians who've been active in africa latin america and the middle east. it does is that is another prospect that's a little uncomfortable for the west that in the not too distant future we're going to start seeing international vaccine diplomacy. and china's fact scenes are being welcomed to open arms at the end of december the 1st deliveries of effect since you know from arrived in morocco in egypt a gift from the united arab emirates in fact seen. since been approved for use in

china itself. the distribution of vaccines is a face value a medical issue but it's also an ethical one. dusty the prospect of some wealthy countries inoculating their populations a whole year earlier than poor ones violates principles of global solidarity and justice so i think it's only right that germany and europe are supported and they should haves that aim to ensure that scenes are distributed worldwide as fast as possible. this may sound cynical but because the virus is a threat to us poor countries do indeed have some leverage in persuading the north to show solidarity. with the data shows. by the end of 2021 it's highly likely that whole range of other vaccines will also be available.

will they help us get the pandemic under control. and will continue to control us. confidences i hope the vaccine will mean we can get back to normal we can come. back scenes will definitely help us they will help us to produce and the part of the job and the level of fear will go down we'll. see i think this this pandemic will probably. around never in one year the pandemic will look very different and still be a new normal because covert will still exist we should be able to resume much more . much more in economic activity if they're ordering foreigners everybody doing their cars single biggest barriers of that today a little choice about whether to find answers work which we have got to do.

casey did that without global cooperation you're never going to get rid of this problem and ok today to. me wendy some of the maybe a fine is it may be some of those or not in disease and maybe some other test as it were they haven't even talked about it. scientists have managed to produce vaccines in record time and now it's up to the politicians to come to a certain extent all of this to me fine on how we. keeping in mind to be could be challenged.

to call. dormant splitting issue. they were defeated prior to. their competitors being the memphis. the 5 for the top spot is in full view. 90 minutes on w. w's crime fighter are back africa's most successful radio drama series continues this season the stories focus on hate speech color of the mention of sustainable charcoal production. all of us so those are available online and of course you. share and discuss on africa's facebook page and other social

media platforms. crime fighters tune in now. this is a news live from. tonight the general and his justifications mars army chief defends ousting the civilian government in a coup. election fraud is promising to hand back power the international community has condemned the crackdown police used water cannon on peaceful protesters also coming up.