the nature of the border has grown grows. on the sludge in the river hard to lure good ones trudging over that i don't agree is major ground against long. island. easy. as coping 19 continues to take a harsh toll many are pinning their hopes on vaccines developed in record time and yet in many parts of the world they are rollout has been patching at best with deliveries from some manufacturers falling short of what was agreed europe is squabbling with the pharmaceuticals industry over who's to blame someone for a country's find themselves shut out all together in the vaccine scramble many of their citizens may have to wait as long as chile years to get the job the world health organization warrants no one is safe until everyone is safe but how do we

ensure access for all the race for covert vaccines rich against poor. g.d.p. . the. uk. welcome to to the point it's my pleasure to introduce our guests beginning with some economists he is head of migration and diversity at the high risk bush diff tone and he says what this pandemic demonstrates once again is the global epidemic of injustice that we never manage to bring it under control. and i'm very pleased to welcome to the program from co-feature montgomery he is president of the world medical association and he thinks the vaccine was developed in record time supply chain bottlenecks are perfectly normal vaccines for hundreds of millions of people isn't. thank you just from thin air. and we're very pleased to have.

joining us from brussels on the. studio there and she says with the scrambling to vaccinate its own citizens and the us absent as a global player china and russia are winning the vaccine diplomacy. so let's start right here in germany germany has just decided to extend its lock down although in fact in fact infection rates have been dropping and vaccine availability is on the rise is that caution on the part of the government justified . a very important question very much justified because. drop the drop too slow and we know that if we start from a too high level to go back into normal life we will be up very quickly again and

the 3rd wave of the disease will be much worse than the 1st of the 2nd so i think it's a good policy let me come back to that w.h.o. motto that i quoted a moment ago that no one is safe until everyone is safe the fact is that a number of germany's neighboring countries are easing restrictions so will germany's tighter lockdown really be effective under those circumstances it will definitely be effective but it could be even more effective who would have a sort of european solidarity by all doing the same things but. i think it's worthless to discuss that at this moment now because. it would help a lot and we'll come back to why it's not there in a few moments but let me 1st go to misc and ask you. about the situation also in terms of global equity germany's chancellor frequently points out that we. are all in this together essentially that w h r o

o motto once again and last fall she appealed to the g 20 to do far more to ensure fair distribution of the vaccine are you seeing any evidence both here in this country in europe and internationally of real action to mitigate what your statement referred to as an epidemic of injustice. when i truly believe that there is the intention to work more on the dirty and also to have a better distribution practically i don't see any actions on the ground because since lasts march many of the african countries in asia and latin america has been fighting on the soil groaned without any sanitation with no lack of resources. let alone which with other developed flexi and so on so what i see is the ease and intention to always think of.

the poor within the context of. sherry the resources we have but looking into what has been done so far i don't see any encouraging actions or. so far i've pretty much pessimistic again we will come back to dig a bit deeper on that let me go now to brussels and alexandra as i mentioned even in europe there are disparities both between the containment approach and in the vaccine rollout the e.u. commission has repeatedly pledged that the e.u. must act as one but the reality on the ground is pretty different isn't it. yes you're right it is different how member states are handling the pandemic what measures they already introduced or are about to introduce the problem is that as

we can see now with you know the scrambling to get enough vaccines for each member state that's of course something that you can understand that they see the problems and how they dealt such a united europe can really handle depend so i think that's that's a real issue and it's important now to make sure that the european union will get in there vaccines for each member state to make sure that everyone is on track to vaccinate its citizens so that's a member states now again will believe that the right way to do it together and to show solidarity because we are in the together indeed pointing out the enormous importance of political trust and confidence there again something will come back to in a moment but let's 1st take a look at where things stand in europe at the moment as we've heard this need with which the coded vaccines were developed is

a startling advance and it sparked hopes that we'd soon put the pandemic behind us but those hopes of giving away to anxious competition and envious recrimination. the u.k. is vaccinating people faster than any other country in europe on december 2nd 2020 it became the 1st country in the world to grant emergency authorization for the cold in 1000 vaccine from biotech and pfizer the u.k. government signed deals for the vaccine last july the e.u. didn't manage that until months later it waited for the normal authorization procedure before starting inoculations in january in order for 300000000 more doses was placed the e.u. backs in action rate has been disappointing despite newly approved jabs from austria and went down a. little too late the e.u. commission faces harsh criticism for its vaccine roll out orders in the name of the $27.00 member states have been placed with several companies but only a few of them can deliver and eastern european countries seem to want to save money

and france wants to prioritize its own drug companies. the commission blames pharma companies for delay deliveries. the companies on the other hand claim limited production capacity is responsible. who is to blame for the e use vaccine dilemma. let me put that question straightaway to dr mchenry coupled with a question or a criticism that we're often hearing at the moment in regard to the negotiations between the e.u. commission and the pharmaceutical companies some critics are saying that the e.u. prioritized cost over speed of delivery do you think that's right and even if it did would there be some justification to that. i would say we know today it wasn't right but it was justified moment because countries poorer countries in

the european union couldn't pay the price which was called up by companies like pfizer and also the just background of litigation etc it was very. heavily on the side of the pharmaceutical companies so at the time when the negotiations went on the european union the had to discuss prices and delivery schedules with the companies today we know that it would have been much cheaper to invest more money in vaccines and save money on the lock downs which are so harmful to our economies until industries so but. as. those 2 no one said i always like to talk to profits 3 years later and i think that is the problem we have now we are past the stage it has been a mistake now we have to make the best of it. what dr newcomer just described mcmullen is a bit of that dilemma of damned if you do damned if you're to help what some

critics say the e.u. should have been more aggressive competed harder against countries like the united states others say europe is too selfish prioritizing e.u. interests over those of poor countries what's your take well the idea of solidarity is the right track i think europe did actually the way how it's has been dealing you know as a common region and also thinking of the poor ones and those who have and who have not i think that was the right track but we should extend this globally as well the other thing is of course now we have you know like we did eat each of us like i'm surprised cherries on a daily basis and that's they were actually hoarding yeah exactly that's exactly what's happening when we see into the number of vaccines which has been ordered it will outnumber us in any way ok europe has ordered around 2300000

vaccines for 448. citizens and the population which is one to 5 u.k. has over 400000000 vaccines for its 68000000. population which is around 6 vaccines to once it's in and this is exactly what troubles me when we look into the global situation where we have regions where they don't have even just a vaccine proceeds and or let alone. twice and so on so i think. the idea of sort of dirty you that is the way how we should also handle on a global way although i know that some countries has been more aggressive like the u.k. or trump or the. right and also how they dealt to beginning with the price of politics and so on so there are so far successful but when we think oh no more regional and

global weight national. solutions were never the best way to deal with spending make alexandra staying in europe just for the time being would you say that brussels and e.u. member states have done enough to ensure equity of distribution of a vaccine with in europe. i think yes that's what was the goal of going together and procuring click scenes together and this was rightfully go because now we are hearing from poorer countries within the european union praising this approach and saying we are happy because otherwise we wouldn't have had vaccines at all on the other hand we have to say that death was of course a reason for the european union to move slowly much slowly or than the u.k. for example or israel and mistakes were made that was e.u.

commission president or that i funded lie and said repeatedly we were too little too late granting also ization we were too optimistic with regards to mass production of vaccines and we were also too naive maybe to believe that everything will arrive in time but still i think this approach to to procure vaccines together for so that everyone will have eventually enough of them to inoculate its population was the right step for whites decision to do. dr mcgovern your opening statement says that supply locked supply shortages are standard their normal and you're essentially cautioning everybody to just be patient and in fact we do hear that there will be a great more vaccine coming online in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of this year but the question is how much time do we have how quickly do we need to get the vaccine into people's arms in view of these new mutations should have done the. months ago but

we're not talking of a of a cookery rests recipe somewhere we are talking of a highly complex the chemical product which is produced sometimes it takes more than 3 months to produce a single molecule of this vaccine and there are a lot of things can go wrong during the production and i remember a year when the whole range of influenza vaccines. were destroyed for a simple technical mistake and therefore we must be fair with the companies as well and we must also realize that some of the the very prominent factories that produced in the past like sun newfie haven't is totally failed on producing a vaccine up to now so they are now offering their production plans to the other producers to produce more vaccine but it is not but it's not like a switch which you turn around and one day you produce vaccine a and the next day a vaccine be it takes up to 3 months to build up

a production line and this has mia technical reasons so if you buy vaccines 2300000000 doses of vaccines to imagine that they're all there in the 1st quarter of 2021 is an illusion do you ever worry that we are relying too much on the idea of a vaccine as a kind of silver ball that the bullet that will solve all of our problems given those mutations the chancellor has said we could be looking at a situation where we have to vaccinate people anew every year as we do with influenza i have no other silver or gold and bought it in bullet in my gun it's the only thing we have there is no direct therapy against the corona virus so there is a coming vaccination and we have to be quick with the next edition because the more people undergo the infection the more mutations will form in these infected people so our chance is to get as many people. they did as fast as possible also to avoid

beauticians and of course it can happen that that is a coming out of there and variant that is more dangerous than the present variants and then we have another problem but we solve problems when they are there. and that's that's why i think we need you know an urgent global strategy even we cannot leave permanence walked out on even if we vaccinate every seats in the here and outs one point. you know like open everything and in the sorts travelling and so on so if we have this injustice if we have the imbalance globally the new and full down again to the same situation that's why i think not only or no known debases of the nation but on the basis all for keeping all people safe. i think this is another approach why we should think you know like and then the far far of far sighted politics rather than you know like we vaccinate every seats and then we are

out of the public just our politicians in europe are under extreme stress from the public. so once we have started real vaccination campaigns and have a sufficient amount of people vaccinated then sure we would just send our solidarity towards other countries but it is over expecting politicians in the european region if you think they would sort of handed out for us to other nations of solidarity they have to look after their own citizens as well let me come back to that in just a moment but take to alexandra the question of vaccination becoming a political football because indeed it's become a very political issue both within europe and beyond now we are seeing some european countries actually turning to china and russia for vaccines serbia hungary is this simply good health policy on the basis of this the supply

shortages that are currently there or is there more more at work here. well i think it's fair to say that china and russia are of course watching closely what's happening in the european union and how the e.u. is struggling to get enough it seems and they started last year offering their vaccines to africa to asia to south america and now even in europe's neighborhood you have countries like serbia for example who are more than happy to. get russian and chinese made that seems because there are so desperate to inoculate their citizens because they were promised by the european union that help would come but there is nothing to see it and even within the repeal of the union with hungry for example who approved the chinese vaccine one of them and who also is

using. the 5 you see that china and to russia with their strategy of presenting themselves as a savior and see as saviors of the word they are quite successful even in the european union hungary of course is an outlier in other respects within the e.u. at the moment as well is this a political statement on the part of hungary that it's looking to these countries for support on vaccines and what do you think are the implications for relations within the e.u. briefly if you would. yes so we have to of course consider the tanguy has always had good relations with moscow historically speaking but this is very embarrassing for the repeal of the union because it also shows that it was not as successful at it claims to be securing enough it seems for the rippin you know. let me take the same question to mccullen china is also offering to supply vaccines

widely across africa what would you say would be the long term political implications of that when i think that's part of the long term strategy of china expanding to african continent. a prolonged. strategy of its economy expansion as well china reacted already last year prelims sending cargo swears sanitation in mosques and so on to some regions they say and for example the number of car goes to hippie up to distribute. sanitation in the region and they did it in southern africa in western africa and so on so it's just a symbolic politics but however it's it has been there and it was at the time when there was nothing there. and that that would happen with the vaccination as well if there is nothing then people will take that's what they what they get and i mean

even in italy china was faster than germany and italy during its darkest time when italy was struggling with the pandemic last year so everything is a symbolic politics but there was and it was faked and it will have a sustainable. moment when when it comes to the economy and political expansion and so on so how does just one domino. within all these strategy of expansion. as the global scramble worsens some low income countries worry about getting left behind and are striking out on their own making deals where they can here's a report from 100. hundreds a country with over 9 and a half 1000000 people and more than 3700 kovac deaths so far few back scenes have been administered in march the country is set to receive 25000 doses of the biotech

pfizer vaccine that's thanks to kovacs or human initiative that uses money from rich countries to enable delivery of vaccines to less wealthy countries the goal is to immunize a 5th of their populations by the end of the year hundreds itself hardly has the means to place orders with this time i spend so that i mean. we have to go begging internationally. because one door is a poor country that has to use its money for other things unfortunately. so there's not enough to place orders with wiser people what it would be if the half i said look by you say. it's the rich countries that have practically monopolized this vaccine. developing countries are simply left behind without access to the coven 19 vaccine what are. these vaccines equity being hindered by the greed of rich countries. dr mchenry the devil's advocate question is it really greed rich

countries provided billions in support to the pharmaceutical companies to help them develop these vaccines is it not to some degree justified that they say hey we'd like to get 1st steps on the result well the justification all that has to be judged by all this but it is normal that people who invest a lot of money into the security of their own population of the 1st. we have to make sure that once they can they extend the solidarity to all those and i think w.h.o. is the right to deny zation to do that on the kovacs initiative is the right initiative to make sure to provide this in our own interest because this is something which we forget in in european countries that it's our own interest to be able to travel to these countries there is this one of the french would've called the tail which we have to have around us and i think senator kerry corden a safety a safety buffer around us so it's in our own interest to extend

a solitary solidarity to these countries let me ask you very briefly the aids model in which patent protection was lifted or to some degree modified in order to ensure that crucial medications could be produced and sold at reasonable cost in the global south do we need something like that here and if so who drives that. i mean the it's a very difficult question because at present time when we are still in the phase of scientific innovation you would immediately take out the incentive for homicide think of country companies to invent a new strategies. in aids we could lift up the patents and other things once the innovative of the scientific investment investigation was over so i i'm sure one day we will be able to do similar things but it's too early for that otherwise we'd lose the incentive of pharmaceutical industry and it would be worth

another another. full discussion like this just to talk on the incentives the pharmaceutical industry i think that would be very interesting i hope we have the chance to do that but right now let me go very quickly to brussels we're almost out of time if you look at the reality on the ground alexandra when you see this kovacs initiative that was supposed to ensure equitable access to all would you say it's just become a fit leaf. yeah i have to say it's really it's not going to help anyway it doesn't have enough money right now it's only providing vaccines to 182 countries that's not going to be enough we have to do better the con and last word to you our title asks whether the vaccine us all will continue a battle between rich and poor what do you think. while i'm in the. you already. agreed into that i don't think it's approved greed but i think there is

a lot of ego. a very nationalistic approach towards a situation and that is something which leads us to. next lock down perhaps no longer term so if you want to break out of the long a break down we have to open the strategy thank you very much thanks to all of you for joining us thanks to you out there for turning in. for. me.

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that's the state of the news wire from berlin donald trump's lawyers wrap up their case in his impeachment trial they insisted the former u.s. president holds no responsibility for the violence during the january 16th riots at the capitol look at the latest from our correspondent in washington also coming up on the shaft former bank chief mario draghi takes over as italy's new prime minister now the economist credited with saving the euro must provide nation ravaged by the pandemic and encrypt.