factions. of the highly contagious variants. also on the program. direct talks with russia. so.

i'm still. friends. m b look at how technology. some see. the program. brazilian president says his country will remain open even as its death toll from cope with 19 approaches world record levels i mean factions variance and the slow vaccine further complicating the situation critics of the. government inaction don't warn that brazilians will pay the price with their lives . health care workers pushed to the limit this makeshift hospital in brazil's

largest city san paolo is struggling to cope with covert 1000 cases. experts have warned the district lockdown is necessary to slow the virus one of brazil's leading public health institutes cruz said without lockdown measures the country's health system faces collapse. but the president disagrees. the work was we are not going to accept this policy of staying at home of closing everything down the virus will not go away this virus like others is here to stay and will remain for a lifetime it is practically impossible to eradicate it what are we going to do until then. the country is registered more than 13000000 covert 19 cases since the pandemic began it is now at risk of overtaking the united states with the world's highest rates of infection and deaths the president's opponents know where

to point the finger. i didn't but as you know brazil is a time bomb a breeding ground for corona virus creating new strains variants because there is a total lack of control of the pandemic and of life for this reason at this moment we are ashamed not about people but about government especially both scenario. without measures in place to control the spread many health experts fear brazil will hold back global efforts to contain the virus brazil lags behind much of the world in buying up vaccine doses and the rollout has so far failed to significantly slower the spread of the virus with no lockdown in sight brazil will continue to vary thousands every day or countries around the world are ramping up their covert vaccination programs using a variety of drugs north america and europe have a number of options to choose from wild russia and china have each developed their own but the kovacs distribution program which is backed by the world health

organization relies heavily on the easily transported and stored oxford astra zeneca vaccine $92.00 of the world's poorest countries rely on the kovacs to supply and help coordinate the drugs distribution and much of africa including nigeria kenya and rwanda as well as asian countries like india afghanistan and bangladesh are all using kovacs and the astra zeneca vaccine well the ongoing dispute over possible side effects of the astra zeneca jobber have prompted more and more european countries to place restrictions on the drugs used in these here is the biggest kovacs country to have suspended its use though at least one province is now using it again but more countries may follow potentially leading to major delays in vaccinations in some of the world's hardest hit areas. now. i shall probably campaign for better access to medicines and vaccines he set

up a project in india brazil and south africa and joins us from bangalore in southern india welcome to the definite let's start with the astra zeneca vaccine how is this uncertainty around it affecting the roll out in poorer countries there's a lot of funny inversion that's happening between europe and india as a whale in your parts of europe like in germany there is a perception of people that size american sort of the astra zeneca vaccine which is seen as inferior of the other choices at the moment and then you go back scene which is if there's a western european vaccine and go back soon which is an indigenous vaccine which is perfectly fine but suffers from an unfair inferior perception so astra zeneca is really in india at least it's our pfizer vaccine right now you've written this month that india has effectively been put in charge of the well being of every poor

country on the planet through deals to make vaccines for western pharmaceutical companies and you say that this isn't working just explain why not there simply because the deals will meet badly and short sightedly without enough vaccine doses in mind so firstly the deal for astra zeneca and assume it's to do it in india it's got $500000000.00 people to be vaccinated but those 500000000 are set up around 4000000000 people together in the 92 countries who live here so when you just list a little bit 10 percent of the vaccines necessary to a group of people of course there's going to be a fight in syria to get those rights into theirs and that's exactly what's happening now. and there's a massive irony isn't there india is a massive producer of vaccines for the western world and a recipient from the kovacs program. this is an irony as well as something that's rather sad so the cool next facility is filling

in a multiple has been one of the ways it's being isn't simply delivering them there was a promise to last year around the same time when it was set up big promise to deliver $2000000000.00 by the end of this year we have 4 months into this year and the number of dollars is there because that's what the leadership from india a $28000000.00 didn't 1000000 of those as went right back to india. so what's the problem the problem is stretches back to the conception of the goal x. program which fundamentally put its faith in the pharmaceutical business model which relies on very powerful monopolies around the intellectual property as one of the technology of these vaccines themselves this was a situation of absolute extraordinary nature and the good experts of the dea and by this i mean the government who the vaccines alliance and said be the coalition but

epidemic preparedness innovations believe that you could respond to an extraordinary emergency with 'd small tweaks to the system it turned out that that was not true so you needed to respond with extraordinary measures and part of what is happening is they're paying the price for it now by essentially running a program that almost sold legalized and not just the offer that's for that vaccine but supplies of that vaccine program $1.00 manufacture in one country and therefore 'd subject to all of the nationalist pressures right that we see europe subject with we thank you for joining us and having that tough for us at child are probably facts in africa and bank accounts. germany's health minister has announced that the government is planning direct talks with russia about purchasing it sputnik the vaccine bilateral talks would mark a break with the european union strategy of negotiating with drugs manufacturers as a bloc several german states have said that they have side agreements to purchase

millions of doses of sputnik v. though they won't be used until the drug has been approved by the european medicines agency and germany would follow austria and slovakia in ordering of a russian vaccine hungary is already using it. let's get more from t.w. political correspondent to thomas spargo welcome thomas does this german announcement mean that burley and has now given up on the notion of the european solidarity when it comes to fighting this pandemic. no i don't think that this means that germany has given up on the idea of european solidarity means probably that germany other german government at least is trying to be more pragmatic when it comes to the procurement of vaccines in this particular case and it's also a very controversial one the german government stressed that it would enter into bilateral negotiations with russia simply because the e.u. commission had told 'd different countries at a meeting this week that it was not going to sign the e.u.

wide contract with sports make as it did for example with other vaccine producers like biotech so that's the reason why germany decided to go it alone as i stress feel it is something that is indeed controversial there are people criticizing this move by the german going on but the german government has stressed that as long as the sport nick is approved at a european level then germany could certainly enter into those bilateral negotiations with russia to see how many vaccines and wind could be delivered to this country so just to just to some clear about what you're saying there the european commission says it doesn't it doesn't want the vaccine although europe wide level but if countries want to very can still try and get it and it will be. adjudicated separately by the european medicines agency. well germany is not the 1st country to negotiate with russia bilaterally it wouldn't be also the 1st country in europe to to have this vaccine and use it but that it depends

a sensually on whether it is approved by the may the european medicines agency does some of the german health minister stressed today in an interview that is the precondition if germany is going to enter into those negotiations and also stress that for that to happen russia has to provide complete data to the european agency in order for the european agency to evaluate whether the vaccine can be approved if that happens in germany were discussed all the details with russia other german health minister stressed that some of the key elements that it wants to discuss to discuss with russia is when and exactly how many dollars it could deliver to germany the german goal here as according to the german health minister is to have vaccines by russia so that's put the vaccines in the next 2 to 5 months but once again and i want to stress this the important element there is that it is 1st and foremost approved at the european level by the e m e thank you so much thomas thomas spare of political correspondent

take a look at some of the stories making headlines around the world now of the european court of human rights was ruled in favor of government mandated vaccinations for children in rejecting a case by czech parents who were fined for failing to locate their children against various diseases this is the 1st time the court has ruled on compulsory vaccinations. myanmar's ambassador to the u.k. has been locked out of the london embassy of course while millions stuff are being threatened with severe punishment if they don't comply with dorothy's meanwhile protests continue to see in the u.k. and in me and state media reporting 120 celebrities have been arrested for supporting the anti to protest monks that is planning a calm it was active on social media. britain has condemned me and most military rules for the action against the countries that ambassador diplomats loyal to the military seized control of the embassy on wednesday supporters of the ousted

ambassador called described the move as a coup and asked the u.k. not to recognize is that john to appointed replacement for a chair or lack of one as dashed hopes of a smooth meeting to reset relations between the e.u. and turkey are 2 of the european union's top leaders are fond of why i'm shocked michel i visited turkish president raja type one in iraq or on tuesday but as the 3 gathered for talks a problem with seating and diplomatic protocol soon became apparent what happened next was gone viral. it was a meeting that said hopes for a reengagement between the e.u. and turkey but spending time has got off to a rocky start. one of the e.u.'s most powerful female executives was left without someone to sit instead of being placed in equal rank according to diplomatic protocol arcilla fund a lion the european commission president was placed on

a sofa while the men took center stage it draws stark comparison to previous years where un turkish leaders were seated in equal standing whether the optics were intentional or not it may have added further strain to their relationship but the spokesman for the european commission says she wants to focus on the issues at hand . she shows that marriage ties substance over questions of form or per typical and that certainly what european citizens would have expected of her it is not my job to judge what was behind the fact that we often tell one type of seat over another . a key focal point for the e.u. was for turkey to improve its human rights record. and cry recently withdrew from a treaty that protects women against a fine and discrimination the country has seen nationwide protests against femicide domestic violence and murders of women are on the rise and the diplomatic focus has sparked outrage online. some called out the political strains between the e.u.

and turkey others say it reflects how women are treated in the country.