on contacts with other people but there are some areas when i can't do anything anymore and that's when the health care system in the burden they have because this is another factor and i've been discussing this all the time they're calling it's always looking up because it's number one even if the older people this in years the very very high risk group aren't quite as much at risk because there are limited and immunized but ultimately we have to look at how many of our i.c.u. beds are busy or are being used more than if we're seeing that before easter we got with our measures for the easter lockdown the only people who welcomed what we proposed when the i.c.u. specialists that tells you how weary there are wanted about the situation because we're not going to see the very old people going into the i.c.u. they said just restates it's going to the people of 60 plus and many expert tells us quite apart from this age group now suffering there will be long term effects and we need to and it is worth doing fight for every single person so that nobody

gets this virus so yes we want as much more manageable so for everyone we also want to take as much care as possible so we don't have thousands of people dying this is what has to be our objective for the next few weeks. doesn't even begin the opening that only the colony the sick obviously vaccination is the way of the crisis we're getting successively more vaccine and then when i tell you open it openly other centers are doing a good job in fact i mean i'm at least and so it will be tough but that's the nations and if you can't get it at your boy and there is a vaccine and nobody goes there then that's not all right we have to get better at the federal government needs to say well we can improve the federal states need to say where they can improve and so do the local authorities and minister barnett if . we need them that's a nation that is are doing a grand job i want to make that clear but. we can get faster and more flexible some

ways and we have to be where necessary but after easter peace will also be involved there $50000.00 xandra is that will be supplied with a vaccine i'm gradually from maybe also going to talk about the company doctors but it will be dramatic if we wouldn't actually use the next an email about now the legislature the months of the pandemic even those have opened grave weaknesses in the way that our state where it was whether we're talking about digitization at the federal level whether we're talking about connectivity based on digital i'm just talking about 400000 so we as a federal system we need to get better and we need to get faster we are aware of it and we are working on that as you can shout over your lungs or whatever else we need to do something it doesn't help to spend the day criticizing. the federal

government is doing something like ok we have taken a lot of effort and make sure not most of the federal states to have it of course but still they have joined this is then we go to code good morning what which nobody ever says a good word about image and. but i can tell you that 17 with european countries are using this right warning out and. it works then the german as it is not known as being totally inflexible in finland virtually every citizen has joined got a particular warning out but it can only turn to the citizens they use it this is such i fully understand the moment made in which there is a bit of a mood when we see what's going on and so before it comes to the end let me say once again there are millions of people. fighting all this spending every day doing everything are you talking about health care i'm talking about nurses doctors and parents and i'm talking about volunteers i'm talking about teachers. and the

people who work in the faction nations and as many people who want to find new jobs suffering me serious disruptions change and i'm not hard it is for many. of them an image you can achieve anything nice if you only harp on what. you think and no one said brightly it's important when the glasses off the only offer empty fuel is going to cover half of the glass then you will be developed strength as a country which we need to get out of it i'm going tell you with vaccination we don't have the tools and may not know and he will tell you some whole months but there is a light at the end of their tongues we will than quit is us and them we will manage and that is why not now it's important to the bundle strains to look at things in a positive thing however difficult situation is now that's what i want from every single one of us.

and that was chance but i'm going to addressing the bundestag just before an e.u. council summit that you counsel somebody is going to be dealing with turkey digitization and the e.u. and of course the pandemic pandemic took up most of her speech which just went on for a little more than 25 minutes so she did get some applause but you could also hear some criticism coming from the opposition members of parliament particularly when she was talking about the government's handling of the crisis with me in the studio is our chief political correspondent lyndal crane she's been listening to the chancellor's speech and she's going to break it down for us we've also got our political correspondent thomas sparrow he is at the bonus talk will be joining us in just a few moments let's start with you melinda the chancellor of course talked about that european summit digitization and. relations with turkey but obviously the

question on everyone's mind is the government's handling of the pandemic here in germany there's been massive criticism of the chancellor of her government she personally issued an apology for decisions she made on monday and then withdrew regarding a hard shutdown over easter we just heard her defending the government's policy and also the european approach to vaccine procurement which is also been getting a lot of criticism what are your main takeaways from what the chancellor had to say well if we start with that last point the fact is she said at the outset of her remarks germany had contributed enormously to the availability of vaccine by virtue of the fact that by and tech is based here and that biotech in fact was the innovative company that helped to put together the the vaccine with pfizer and that leads many people in germany as you know to pose the question and so why don't we

have enough vaccine here and there once again she was absolutely adamant in saying germany never could have nor should have gone it alone we needed to act within the european context to do vaccine procurement and she absolutely defended that and in fact i think she's right on that point nonetheless the fact is germany could have and should have as europe's biggest economic power thrown the full weight of its expertise and its bargaining power behind brussels put it at brussels disposal in those negotiations with the big pharma companies and it did not do so it essentially left brussels to do that part a loan and the result as we know is that there simply is not enough vaccine available because brussels acted too late and looked at criteria like liability and price that perhaps weren't. important as time in adequate crisis management both in

brussels but also in berlin because germany didn't do enough on that point other things that she said that i think were very interesting you know a lot of us were waiting for her to explain we have taken back the decision about the hard lock down at easter so where do we go from here i don't know about you i did not hear a clear answer on that point what i heard her doing basically was saying that until there's enough vaccine available testing is the main pillar that the german pandemic management in this new wave with the new mutation that is rising exponentially testing is going to be the main pillar that germany relies on and then she said and that will depend on our federal system on localities doing enough testing of citizens who want to shop for example schools and businesses so in a way handing it back to the states. let's cross over to the buddhist tog where

the where our political correspondent thomas sparrow is standing by he's been listening of course to the chancellor's speech and picking up on some of the reaction there told us what did you make of what the chancellor had to say did she offer any words that may help the nation feel that it is on the right track. well she certainly tried to do that at the end of her speech when she stressed that if you only focus on the negative aspect of politics you will not be able to advance very much she highlighted that right at the end of her speech stressing that despite the fact that germany and europe had faced many problems and not everything had been carried out appropriately that there were elements with which germany could have hope she stressed once again as she has done in the past that there is light at the end of the tunnel and she stressed also that despite the fact that we're talking here of a new virus she repeated that idea that it's a new pandemic she also mentioned that there are elements of germany's disposal to try and fight this virus melinda already mentioned testing and vaccines and i'm

going to michael also stressed that once again that cautious reopening plan that was agreed on by federal and regional leaders earlier this month which was very critical by the way very controversial here in germany but which angela merkel has defended once again here in the parliament as a way forward in this pandemic as a way in which federal and regional authorities can work together to try and fight this coronavirus 3rd wave which is affecting germany very badly we're we of course are or already heard melinda talk about the with the chancellor had to say regarding the e.u. back soon procurement but let's listen to what the chancellor herself said exactly about that but the dismantling of the symbolism drawings through the science to the joint inquiry it was about extremism and we see there are some really nice differences in the distribution and huge debate about this but my god how can i

love and leave some of the name behind this is the vaccine others did not i cannot imagine it because it would shake the very foundations of the union and. just america there defending the e.u. approach to vaccine procurement in the pandemic munda we are witnessing a scramble to get hands on vaccines around the world here in europe as well germany is facing a massive shortage germany looks to the united states to the u.k. not to mention israel or peru countries that have huge parts of their population already vaccinated in germany it's below 10 percent of believe at this point people getting their 1st shot her arguments defending the e.u. procurement approach do you think people are going to buy the i think there's an enormous amount of frustration and we've even heard tuckey you mentioned looking elsewhere for vaccines we've even heard the health minister speculate about possibly importing the russian vaccine the chancellor didn't seem eager to do that

at least on a national level saying once again that would need to go through europe but i do think there is enormous frustration and people do ask themselves you know we have biotech company that came up with the innovative recipe for the pfizer vaccine here in germany why don't we have enough of there that scene now there has been talk about whether europe would look at export limits on a vaccine especially 2 to england and that is something that may be viewed as a kind of a placebo for frustrated e.u. citizens going forward but the fact is i think at this point people simply want to see this process speed up and there are also logistical bottlenecks in germany this is not only about the sheer availability of vaccine but also about the way the

system works and the system has worked very bureaucratic lee to some degree that it is an area where improvement is needed it should be pointed out too and. terms of european vaccine procurement that there are european countries that are hungry for one that has decided to order vaccines from outside the european union namely from russia and from china and now we've also got slovakia the slovakian prime minister having ordered the russian vaccine as well thomas we heard the chancellor also defending germany's policy in terms of testing and tracing saying that the test centers are doing a great job she also referred to the app that is being used the mobile is being used for tracing infections as well as mentioning other countries using and she criticized germans who are being pessimistic about the way the company the way the country is approaching the pandemic management what it briefly what do you make of

what she was saying there towards the end. so terry one of the things important about these kinds of speeches these government speeches ahead of european summit is that you're not going to usually get something very new it's about the broad elements of policy here and one of those broad elements of policy at least to me the way to germany has dealt with the pandemic in particular when it comes to its track and trace policy the german government and in particular the german chancellor defending once again that corrodes war an app which has been very criticised here in the country which many believe is not actually helping the country a lot but on the other hand she has stressed that other european countries are using the corona war not telling germans that if possible they should try and use of themselves as well thomas thank you very much i was our political correspondent thomas sparrow down the bundestag and here in the studio. we're going to create our chief political correspondent commenting on our go machall speech to the ball to start today you are watching d.w. news just

a reminder of our top story german chancellor angela merkel has defended her handling of the pandemic and germany's parliament she said the e.u. was right to procure a vaccine strongly despite growing frustration over the slow roll out and she urged germans to take a positive outlook and to take up the offer of free testing. i'm terry barton thanks for watching. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and contacts the coronavirus update 19. on t w. n u you mean yes yes we can you can have the last year's gentleman's time so that we bring you back or as you have before surprise yourself with what is possible who is

mad cool really want. and. we talked to people who followed her along the way my runs and critics now is the world's most powerful woman shaping how they can join us from eccles last stop. the fight against covert has been immense but it's setting back years of progress in the battle against other diseases pandemic appears to be reversing the global gains we've made in the fight against hiv aids tuberculosis malaria malnutrition and maternal and child mortality the crisis is seen in 25 percent decrease in diagnosis and treatment of tb in south africa indonesia and the philippines health officials say it's time to find tuberculosis again. where the disease is usually

transmitted person to person through the air and thrives in crowds it primarily affects the lungs can also occur in any other organ the world health organization says more than 10000000 people develop tuberculosis every year deaths amount to about one and a half 1000000 and sadly that's often ju-ju in adequate treatment the problem at the moment is access to health care jus to lock down supply chain disruptions and recruiting of global health resources into covert countries like mexico of paying the price. here in dr alberto medina's private practice they used to vaccinate babies against tuberculosis but since september new government rules means they have been able to get a new batch of b.c.g. deliveries. but it won't. because they've begun when you ask the people who are supposed to deal with importing vaccines they say a date hasn't been set yet they told us it would arrive in january but now some

articles are saying they won't arrive until spring. there has been a public sector shortage of t.v. vaccines since the start of the year in 2019 the shortfall was between 76 percent and 96 percent the number of tb cases jumped from 17245000. health specialists estimate the lack of tb vaccines will affect 2 tween 200300000 newborns. mexico isn't the only country where tb is still a health threat around 85 percent of all newly infected people live in africa and southeast asia with india indonesia and china particularly affected. in mexico the vaccine shortage is mostly down to the current government changing

the system of how medicines that are quired and distributed but vaccine shortages began under the previous government. this prompted the reemergence of diseases such as measles which went from being almost wiped out to $60.00 to $200.00 cases annually. this is according to a study by the mexican association of facts and ology which also reported complaints against the current shortage. so look at all of my ticket. let's look at the news we've had a shortage of some vaccines for the last few years limit their. witness referring to vaccines like b c g m or the double vaccines. the living. according to dr medina young families needn't lose hope because the tuberculosis vaccine can be administered during the entire 1st year after birth not just the 1st 10 days.

but the extended vaccine shortage continues to increase the overall public health risk. by khan is medical director i d global and international health n.g.o.s active in asia and africa what impact would you say to have in 1000 as had on the diagnosis and treatment of t.v. so thank you ben for having me here i it's been a journey for tb it's been devastating 2020 gend we recently had data that came out and which showed that about 20 percent decline in t.v. diagnosis and and treatment which is huge when you look at infectious disease which has similar you know as a respiratory package and just like over it but however who's so versus what rebook was because of. all the you know infrastructure was started to get used to fork over it as well whether it's a lab infrastructure a service delivery

a community work everything so there has been a huge impact and no doubt the lockdowns really affected the service delivery so you know you crave it back all you hear is covert covert covert in a lot of young people i guess would never have even heard of tb would you say though that this setback for tuberculosis has been a fair trade off for the inroads that have been made in the fight against that. not at all and i think it's not a fair tradeoff at all or the we're going to see further decline if we don't do something you know something quickly adapt as well for the new normal whatever that is and i hope i just do hope that we're going to realize how similar the 2 diseases are in domes of you know some of the case finding as well as in other strategies and so that we can find synergies and optimize you know you can use you know things like contact leasing and other workforce as well so that we can back of both

diseases so that the threat to tb from cold is real but what about opportunities are there any opportunities coming out of this all of the research all of the focus on the medical fields absolutely still there has been agreement back like i mentioned but then there has been amazing amazing collective you know knowledge that we have now for infectious diseases as a result of this global collaboration which itself is an opportunity just learning that you can still be corroboree whether it's for vaccine development and having something in a year which certainly we haven't seen and then there is the data that has come out that's or some of prevention knowledge and dissemination of prevention the case finding started genes like using more bio health to you know drive through. it's a meaning to see all of these things also the screening having noise disease are so similar and you can screen it like i mentioned earlier so there's a lot of contact racing like i mentioned as well not to forget because there's so

much that you can learn in terms of what to do and what not to do which we can do with t.v. because we don't have a lot of resources is there more that we can learn from coding 1000 to improve care as well. absolutely i mean service delivery methods like there are there is you can have we've been using deli held for t.v.'s well but for. our whole you know showed us how to use some digital health platforms as well and dextro because one thing that's really important is to understand that countries have developed some of these tools and it's not something a global tool that is being standardized saw the lots of things that can adapt and use to local you know context so yes. iniquities have been uncovered through this covered 1000 pandemic which is a. it's a lot of inequities i mean everywhere in infectious disease is something that i have seen and i keep on you know as an advocate of the advocate i keep on seeing is

that we were is that you know it's an intimate a disease a farm you know it's an intimate disease our indians are far you know related to poverty and therefore it's all about human justice and. ethics around how you treat people with corbin we've seen the same thing on the t.v. is a disease of the poor but over defective everybody and then you saw that you know people who were at the most vulnerable who got it you know suffered and in domes of accessing gary having food support they don't nor what social distancing means and you know how do you do that when you're living in crowded you know homes so your last name is is there a message you'd like to get across on this well tb day just just in a sentence or 2 for us. so i think the borden message is to land back to the important learning is around social inequities and i would like to talk about

that too because when we talk about scientists and researchers and people nor everyone has of the knowledge globally we have a lot of tools and collective wisdom to what we don't have is we work in silos and i wish we would collaborate on these kind of infectious diseases that are borderless and whether it's in 4 countries or whatever it should it does help us reinforce the idea that it shouldn't take up and then require us to realize things and we should get our collective wisdom on for science as well as become advocates for people in point was a conduit to medical director at i r g global thank you very much for joining us today thank you very much. and time to hand you over to derek williams a science correspondent is still cooped up in his home study looking into your questions that. if one of the vaccines is less potent could it help to take different kinds. with vaccines still

scares and in high demand it'll take a while for this to to really become an issue but but let's take a theoretical approach for a minute say from the perspective of next year when at least in some places it's fair to expect that a wide range of vaccines will be available more or less on demand. but you've got to look back to look forward so a little history 1st in the last few decades the idea of mixing and matching vaccines to trigger a more powerful immune response has gained a lot of traction in the field of immunology it's been explored in experimental hiv vaccines for instance the concept is known as had a raw legace prime boosting and the aim is to capitalize on the fact that different vaccines can stimulate the immune system in different ways so so taking more than

one kind could help strengthen immune memory by causing your body to make a wider variety of defensive cells against the disease so mixing and matching back scenes might prove to be a good idea in the fight against hiv at 19 but it could also potentially have harmful consequences when it's been done in the past with other diseases the mixing and matching mostly took place with vaccines that were pretty similar but some of the covert vaccine. the proof so far are based on very different platforms so to rule out potential risks we'll have to perform controlled testing with specific combinations of products i think that we'll see a lot of trials like that in the long run some are happening already but they'll take time

a lot of time so for now even in places where mixing and matching do happen it's only in rare circumstances and authorities still try to avoid it as much as possible. eric williams there i've been fizzling thanks for watching stay safe and secure against it. they were mutated into a nameless mass their bodies near tools the history of the slave trade is of africa is history it describes how the move for power and profit plummeted and entire continent into chaos and violence the brutality of comun power it revealed and from sugar to rebellion our series slavery rounds. to 15 sponte juggling.

we've got some hot tips for your bucket list. magic corner chip. hot spot for some. and some great cultural memorials to boot. b.t.w. trouble for you goes. how does a virus spread. why do we panic and when will all this. time for just 3 of the topics covered and the weekly radio program. if you would like and the information on the chrono laroche or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast if you get it wherever you get your podcasts you can also find us at twitter dot com look forward slash science.

this is news coming to you live from berlin germany's chancellor faces lawmakers to explain her pandemic policy until a medical defense the european union's decision to cheer vaccines jointly despite growing frustration over germany's slow rollout and a 3rd wave in effect. another provocation from north korea japan says fired 2 ballistic missiles into the sea 1st such test since u.s. president joe biden took office. coming up a hotly anticipated eruption.