little nar, davinci is mysterious masterpiece. ah, this perhaps the greatest leonardo masterpiece in the collection of the louvre and no, it is not the mona lisa. it is the virgin of the rocks, 2 versions, multiple copies, and a hidden drawing. was there another symbolic meaning to this beautiful painting that perhaps we just don't understand? the search for answers starts july 7th on d. w with it's summer in europe, and people are spending a lot of time outdoors. few are worried about getting coven now. almost all of the health restrictions and safeguards have been lifted, but in many places,

cases are on the rise. again. what stage are we at in the pandemic? that's the question will be asking in this edition of our coven 19 special, the head of the world health organization certainly sounds concerned with continued transmission. decreasing testing and sequencing, and 40 percent of the world's population is still unvaccinated. the fund image is not, is not over. it's vital that old countries continue to vaccinate, especially those most athletes, including held workers and people aged over 60. we began with a look at new corona virus studies on long coven, and we'll meet a mexican researcher who's working on a new treatment for cove in 19. but 1st to germany. very few restrictions remain here in everyday life. politicians are debating the possible introduction safety

measures for the coming fall in case the country is hit by another wave of infections. what the people on the street think we canvassed opinion and berlin in the evenings when it's cooler and the sky is still light. people spill out on to prevent streets and into the parks. on the longest day of the year, the fates de la music always offers free outdoor concerts. this year the events took place without any restrictions. for the 1st time since the start of the ban, demik, no proof of vaccination or negative, coven test was required. there wasn't a mask in sight, and no way to socially distance. many have simply had enough precautions. they want to party together again and leave the pandemic behind them. it's wonderful. it's just 3 alive with though not every one is so completely care free. it does feel a bit strange,

but it's ok outside. when i go indoors i do where mosque. and that still important on public transport, but it's nice to be able to be here at dogs with had a mosque again. but despite the nice summer weather, the number of covered cases is rising in berlin as elsewhere. the 7 day incidence now stands at over 430 per 100000 people and the actual number is likely to be far higher as few people are getting tested now, zuba cuts and shine is a g p in berlin, who's been treating covered 19 patients ever since the pandemic began in recent weeks, she's been seeing more young people in us. many find it scary that their performance is impaired for many weeks, that they feel pressure in their chest. so self protection is still important. you can't prevent it completely. if you get it, you get it, but it's not as if i'm

a con doesn't cause an unpleasant enough. i'm quite protracted illness. with mozilla whistle now. each day between 30500 people come to this chest center and central berlin. it's operator says on average 20 percent of them are testing positive till now the rapid anti gym tests were performed for free. but as of july, most people will have to pay for them. and emily mistaken, since i haven't been poor districts, it's extremely hard for people to pay 20 euros or something for a test. which means that once again, the things a split into those who have money and can get tested. and those in more disadvantage areas will be left behind and catch cove. it more often we like to prepare for the expected rise and infections. the german government plans to enact to new measures before parlance summer break. 2 years ago berlin's 1st coven 19

patient was discovered in the mid district, almost by chance. ever since the head of its health authority has fought for better equipment and more personnel. yet in september, the contracts of most support staff are set to expire, verified everybody who knows what kind of variant is coming out, which i once again to reach out to people who don't have the g, p to vaccinate and advise them. as i said, it's high time to start planning things less the one the current omicron variant has even caused staff here to take a more relaxed approach. still dr. lucas morita cautions that any one who feels ill should stay home. the bullet had been goldens along, monreal bo groups should get vaccinated, wear masks, and enclosed spaces that can't be aired out. must otherwise have fun them and having fun is certainly what berliners are doing. oh,

lately. oh, boy, you know not. and what does the situation look like in south africa? the highly infectious alma khan variant was discovered here 6 months ago. it's now winter. and yet the situation seems very relaxed as of africa is exiting its 5th cove, it wave and restrictions have largely been lifted. no manatee is returning to downtown janice, back let's go on your mendoza's boss. the sun is shining. we're taking some pictures. it's a good day read. i'm happy with that to probably bits over now and there were 2 things are coming back to normal. only a few months ago, the 1st global epicenter of the on the cranberry and was right here. this area of this deep beaker academic hospital became be immediate response center for the spike and hospitalizations at the beginning of the countries full waive late last

year. dr. reed abdulla runs the hospitals cov, at 19 board. his team published the 1st paper on the severity of on the kron with only current. in our 4th wave, we saw a deep coupling of the cases and the dix. you know, although there were lots of cases, we had fewer hospital admissions, less civility of disease. and then with our, of 12, with the be a $4.00 and $5.00 barriers. we had even a continuation of the most of the response, bullets at the hospital being decommissioned beneath the mildest wave as a result of immunity from prior infection or vaccination, or both which provides enough protection against on the cron and others. sauce covey to variance a survey of blood has

indicated that about 98 percent of some african population has lucky been exposed to the virus in some form. though the disease could be becoming endemic, dr. do this as managing it spread is still important. testing that's completely up in south africa, most people don't test if they have suspected any those people who severely ill come to a hospital who, who get tested. so we can't really measure our cases by testing interpreting trends in this new phase and determining the appropriate public health response requires alternative covered 19 indicators. and that's the aim of the south african medical research councils, wastewater surveillance program. we visit the waist. what's a plans? every monday we will collect up to 9 samples, and we use or to detect, did our, a, ne, in order to get an idea of the spread of coven 19 in

a community. the lab receives the samples, analyze as them and reports results on this dashboard. these electronic maps depict are in a trends for over 80 sites and some of the countries most populous districts falling at another the borrow tree. genome sequencing surveillance continues, though immunity to the highly mutated, highly transmissible army cranberry, and as likely to grow among the population. scientists advised caution if always a possibility few varied. we don't always know what drives it, but it seems to be re tysons in the news. please, patients also do avoid immunity, but it's also possible that the b maybe any movies of water that dr. additional mutation research is agree. vaccination is the best line of defense

vaccination drives. like this one aim to raise awareness and improved. take up curtailing the spread of the virus is harder and the cramped living conditions of many south african townships was really hard because really yes, was good. what if some would get infected? yeah, so how is green tricky fortunately, so it's a small house you might use it if you did, you do it. but despite increased access to vaccines and boosters, oh, the countries vaccination rates, dance are just 31 percent in this community where we, when we see that people have to not be actively taking the months in because most of all they don't see the numbers as the so the interface to with the one in about and citing fixing. and they will say that those who have taken them. and the last one is because they don't trust them. governments, city,

different contexts affect how cove it develops. loss of africa appears to have got off likely in the 5th life. the same might not be the case for other countries. do you have any questions on coven 19 or science correspondent? derrick williams has the answers. based on the latest research and analysis. send an email to covey producer at d, w dot com. this week's question is from e and such, he asks, how soon can we expect vaccines that target the owner, con variant? from the early days of the pandemic, experts have talked a lot about a big strength of messenger r n a vaccines, which is that it's easy to tweak them to respond to fast changing pathogens. when the highly mutated army chron variant hit the scene and late 2021, it seemed like it was time for them to really finally start fulfilling that promise

. manufacturers announced that they could adjust and shift vaccine production by march. but that promised delivery day past months ago, and we're still waiting for our microns specific boosters. so what's taking so long? well, it's complicated and the experts that i read say that there are several issues. but really, the central one seems to be that clinical trials with our micron specific m. r. ne vaccine so far have returned kind of a mixed bag of results. our microns pacific vaccines did do better against our micron than older ones did, but not really significantly better. and if they're not significantly better, then it'll be a lot harder to convince people that they need and i'm a cron booster. and if people aren't convinced that they really need them, then they just won't get them. which of course lowers

a pharmaceutical companies incentive to produce them. madonna now wants to provide what's called a bi vaillant booster this fall, which is a mix of its old vaccine against the original virus and a new i'm a chron specific one, pfizer and by on tag also just announced results with an army chron update vaccine, that look quite positive, but health care authorities are still looking at all that data. this issue really boils down to how health care authorities define the goals of vaccination. are they to prevent infection completely, but maybe only for a short time? or are they to build up more long term protection, but only against serious disease or hospitalization or death? because so far, at least existing vaccines appear to still be doing that quite well against amazon,

to green lighting. and alma kron specific vaccine that just incrementally improves on that is not going to be enough to set off new mass vaccination drives, especially when most experts expect sorres' co be to, to continue to mutate. and we have no idea what possibly vaccine resistant variance might pop up next. so long and short on the kron specific vaccines could be available by september or so at least in, in, by vaillant booster form. but ultimately, now it looks like they'll only be one piece in the corona virus vaccine puzzle. ah, to respond to the changing course of the pandemic researchers world wide, are not only working on coven vaccines. they're also developing new medications to

help reduce the severity of infections and minimize the symptoms. the efficacy of these drugs against new variance needs to be tested continually. we went to mexico to meet a scientist who's working on a new treatment and has some hurdles to overcome in the process while many of us were confined to our hands. during the pandemic, paola kasteel was also locked up. in this laboratory, the microbiologist is developing a via pharmaceutical that's designed to stop soft covey to from entering the cells and multiplying in the body. it focuses on sequences of the virus which have so far remained unchanged, meaning it should work for any variant and dances. if some was jaron, the processes are testing the drug on all the variance that have emerged so far. i think that if we're expecting it to show 90 percent effectiveness against all the

variance to see have nothing on top of him. book isn't a separate exam, that would mean that in 90 percent of cases, the drug prevent sause covey to from replicating in human cells. but this still needs to be tested on animals and later in clinical trials. developing new drugs is a lengthy and expensive process. and one of the biggest obstacles will paula castillo is work is finding the funds, because mexico's government has cut the budget for science and research, getting where he grows when it comes to developing research project. and getting financing in mexico's difficult project organ. mr. garcia, her budget from the public funding that we get for our institute projects is generally very limited with hers as a bottle. young female scientists like her steel, have a particularly hard time in mexico's male dominated science community. where the researcher was even urged to abandon her career after becoming pregnant. but she

refused to give up. the bio pharmaceutical she's developed has already passed the 1st phase and is due to undergo animal testing scene. but new cove at variance are slowing her down because she has to test her drug against each one on top of already dealing with a slash budget. see a kettle assisting one. if i want to do 50 trials, i need to remember my budget and restrict myself to what was planned at the start at me for originally i expected to be done in a year. now we're up to 3 years because there's not enough money for what we need and he said he took in 2 months. she hopes to publish interim results. however, one epidemiologist at unit the largest university in latin america has expressed doubts about the real potential of this by a pharmaceutical. he points to the lack of reported evidence and the haste of the polytechnic institute in publicizing its findings, in the same only clinical trials which have to be the publisher,

can show whether or not a product is genuinely effective. if it gets you bid, i can hear they assume in advance that it must be effective because they're so convinced by its molecular structure on this other than that if, because yet, but despite the doubts and lack of funding, it could ultimately be the need for effective ways to combat cove at 19 that gives a 1st to paula castillo work, and now science update the cobit studies making the news this week long cove risks after vaccination and how stress impacts mortality. some scientific studies have titles that are really hard to decipher, but this one is pretty self explanatory. you know, straight away that it's about long cove it and whether it can affect anyone, even someone who's vaccinated. one of the most important takeaways is that the research is found. that vaccination does lower your chances of getting long covered

if you end up catching the disease despite being vaccinated, a breakthrough infection. it also lower your risk of dying from the disease. he is a breakdown of some of their results. first, how probable is it that someone with a breakthrough infection will end up later with long cove its symptoms? to answer that question, the scientists compare the group of 33000 breakthrough patients with a range of different control groups. in total data from around 13000000 patients flowed into the study. so it was quite a large 1. 1 of the authors interpreted the articles long covered results in a twitter threat compared to unvaccinated people who got covered 19 he said, vaccinated people with breakthrough infections where 34 percent less likely to die . and 15 percent less likely to develop long cove its symptoms. so in summary,

the study helps clarify an issue that's long been on the debate. it indicates that although vaccination does indeed lower the risk of developing long cove, it, it does so less than experts, had hoped. it's not a silver bullet against the condition. stress is bad for you. every one knows that, right? the authors of this new study, however, a lot more specific, they say they've shown it's bad for the immune system and can cause diseases like covered 19 to be more severe and potentially deadly. the researchers looked at the distribution of immune system cells called lucas sites, and how they change in situations of acute stress, and how that process is tailored in guided by distinct regions in the brain. also known as white blood cells. lucas sides help defend the body against pathogens like south covey to, by the way,

the study has so far been published under what's known as accelerated article preview. so it hasn't yet completed the full editing process. and another caveat, the study was also in mice. that's important to know because it means we can't be certain the same things happen in the same ways in humans. even so though the results are interesting, they reveal that levels of certain white blood cells fell when the animals were exposed to acute stress. exactly the cells that are able to recognize and neutralize specific pathogens. then the research is exposed the mice to this sauce covey to virus. and they observe that compared to the relaxed peers in a control group. the stressed out animals had higher viral loads and died at higher rates from the disease. in other words, in mice, at least, stress seems to play a role in both covet 19 severity and progression.

oh, despite progress made in the field of covey research, the virus has resulted in large numbers of deaths world wide. so far, the virus has claimed over 6000000 lives in london. those who have lost friends and relatives have organized a memorial site. a place to commemorate those who lost their fight against the virus. one quiet act of love, a collective cry of grief and anger. each heart mocking a life in the u. k. last to cove 19 inscribed by friends and loved ones left behind . the 1st hall i painted this, this one here, which is got steve naming. so steve is my partner for a long time and my husband for 3 weeks friend who lives among a group of bereaved volunteers who helped create and preserve london's co that

memorial wall. it's now groaned over 150000 hearts spanning a staggering 500 meters. it's just flabbergasted and say in this wall now, and how far it goes. it's just put into perspective. it allows me to remember my partner am and make sure that his old machine but will never forget these people. and obviously no one has. i really appreciate seeing this. but behind this official looking memorial lies a remarkable story. it's a renegade project created without permission. and on the day the 1st hans were painted, fran was risking not only a fine, but jail, i've never broken the law lovingly in my life. so, you know, there was a feeling of like, oh my goodness, i hope other arrested. but at the same time, those fearless, she's like, i don't care. the worst thing in the world has happened to me, and i don't carry, i don't care about anything like that anymore. behind the scenes they were being

advised by the antique of contact of his group known as lead by donkeys, who helped set them up with signs and sun, which bolts to appear as official as possible. over a year later, the wolf still stands, but it is not without its controversy. deliberately set opposite parliament, it's making a political statement. seeking to criticize the government's handling of the pandemic. but should a memorial, which aims to represent all, promote the political opinions of some. i think the beauty of the will is that it can be whatever you want it to be. if you just want the wall is a place of remembrance, then that is what the wall can be useful. if actually you feel angry at the government, putting a hole in the wall is a, is an act of almost the max of protests. but it doesn't have to be all those things . the government says it's planning to establish an official commemoration. but to create as like tom, the grass roots, origins of this memorial or at the heart of its power. we felt really strongly was right, that this act of memorial zation was,

was not in the hands of the government. this wall is, is a people's wall is a wolf for the people who lost loved ones that i think is the beauty of it. it's been installed by thousands of people over many weeks and it's still living and breathing. now if you like, for friends, every heart she paints is an act of love for her husband, steve, and the many others who were last is wallace. absolute to learn, grief and loss, and theory and rage and confusion. how has this happened in our country that this many people have gone through that, that ordered? and and this, this symbolizes that last, since such a powerful way in the years to come. it may be hard to memorialize the loss and the pain wrought by cove. it countless commemorations and countless countries, the countless dead, will seek to try in this wall made by those who can tell the story of the pandemic

best could be a model as we all attempt to process our collective grief. that's it for today. next week we had to portugal where the new oma cronsa barry. it be a 5 sa cobra infection sore. despite the warm summer temperatures, scientists are still researching the barrier, which also pushed up portugal overall death rate. we'll see you next week until then stay healthy. ah ah

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ah ah ah, this is to be a news coming to live from berlin. miss l strike near ukraine's port city of odessa . ukraine says 17 people are dead after russian aircraft fired missiles that hit a multi story apartment building and other targets. the attack comes a day after russia a band.