03/11/21 03/11/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> many of the covid deaths coulhave been avoided if there were a government who did their job. this country is disorganized and falling apart because it has no government. amy: as brazil's covid death toll soars, former brazilian president luiz inácio lula da silva attacks jair bolsonaro a

day after a judge cleared lula to run again by annulling questionable corruption charges against him. we will go to brazil to speak with one of lula's lawyers. plus, we will look at the global fight over covid vaccine patents. the united states and other wealthy nations are backing big pharma while the world health organization said patents rights should be waived. >> this is unprecedented times. we believe this is a time to trigger that provision and waive patent rights. amy: then the biden administration is struggling to find shelter space for a record 3500 migrant children recently detained at the u.s.-mexico border. >> this is not kids be kept in cages. this is a facility that was open that will follow the same standard as other aged --

facilities. it is not a replication. certainly not. that is never our intention of replicating the policies of the pastor administration. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the house of representatives has approved a final version of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. senate majority leader chuck schumer called the bill a historic turning point that will restore americans' faith in government. >> help is on the way. you will receive $1400 checks by the end of march. help is on the way. vaccines will be available for more late to far more people in a shorter time. help is on the way. our schools will open safely and more quickly than we thought. help is on the way.

half of america's children who are in poverty will not be in poverty because of this bill. help is on the way. amy: the legislation passed both the house and senate without the support of a single republican. it is overwhelmingly supported by the u.s. public from about democrat and republican alike. after the passage, mississippi republican senator roger wicker tweeted approvingly -- "this funding will ensure small businesses can survive the pandemic by helping to adapt their operations and keep their employees on the payroll." again, senator wicker voted against the bill. president biden will sign the legislation at the white house on friday. he and vice president kamala harris are planning a nationwide tour to promote the legislation beginning next week. this evening, biden will deliver a prime-time address to the nation marking one year since the world health organization declared a covid-19 pandemic.

during the past ye, more than 118 million people have become infected, with over 2.6 million deaths from covid-19 worldwide. central europe is currently the worst-affected part of the world. the czech republic, which has one of the highest per-capita death rates from covid-19, has begun sending patients abroad, after intensive care units filled to capacity. some czech health officials believe as much as 45% of the population has become infected over the past year. meanwhile peer-reviewed study in , a the "british medical journal" found a coronavirus variant first detected in the u.k. is likely more deadly than earlier variants of the virus, causing up to twice as many deaths. another recent study in the journal "science" finds it's significantly more transmissible. the variant accounts for an estimated 1 in 5 new coronavirus infectionsn the u.s. this week. the u.s. reported nearly 59,000 new coronavirus infections

and over 1500 deaths wednesday. president biden said wednesday the u.s. plans to order anoth 100 miion doses of johnson & johnson's covid-19 vaccine. white house medical adviser dr. anthony fauci said that if vaccinations continue at their current pace, the u.s. could reach herd immunity by early fall. in texas, republican attorney general ken paxton is threatening to sue the city of austin if it enforces a city-wide mask mandate. on wednesday, texas officially lifted all compulsory public health measures, including limits on public gatherings and mask requirements, though individual businesses can still require customers to wear masks. amnesty international has called the deadly crackdown on burmese anti-coup protests a killing spree and accused the military of extrajudicial executions. meanwhile, the united nations security council has condemned the violent response to protests over the last six weeks but

stopped short of condemning the actual february 1 coup or threatening sanctions. a burmese rights group says at least 60 people have been killed and over 2000 detained since the start of protests. u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres is urging an end to the war in syria as the world marks 10 years since the start of the deadly conflict, which guterres called a living nightmare. hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions displaced, and the u.n. warns some 60% of syrians are at risk of hunger this year. this is the secretary-general. >> is impossible to fully understand the extent and hysteria which people have endured some of the greatest crimes the world has witnessed the century. and the scale of the atrocities shocks the consciousness. their perpetrators must be held to account if there is to be

peace and in syria. amy: syria has also been faced with a worsening economic crisis due to the pandemic over the past year, exacerbated by sweeping u.s. sanctions. earlier this week, president bashar al-assad and his wife tested positive for the coronavirus. former brazilian president luiz inácio lula da silva has made his first public appearance since a judge annulled all convictions against him, clearing his path to challenge far-right president jair bolsonaro for the presidency in 2022. in a major speech wednesday, lula blasted bolsonaro's handling of the covid-19 crisis. >> many of the covid deaths could have been avoided if there were a government who did its job. this country is disorganized and falling apart because it has no government. i will repeat, this country has no government. amy: more than 270,000 brazilians have died of covid-19

over the last year, the second highest figure in the world behind the united states. after headlines, we will go to result to speak with one of former president lula's lead attorneys. mexico is poised to become the world's largest marijuana market after lawmakers approved a landmark bill wednesday legalizing recreational use of cannabis. the legislation, which is backed by president andres manuel lopez obrador, is still being finalized but could bring major shifts to a country that has been plagued by drug-related violence. some critics have warned a legal market for marijuana would favor big companies, while low possession limits would still penalize consumers. activists also say the new law should address the harm caused by years of militarized anti-drug policies. the biden administration may use a vacant nasa research center in the san francisco bay area to temporarily house unaccompanied migrant children. it's one of several proposals under consideration as the administration faces a growing crisis at the u.s.-mexico

border, where it is holding some 3500 unaccompanied children in detention cells for longer than legally allowed. the top white house adviser on u.s.-mexico border policy roberta jacobson said wednesday the biden administs tion is reinstating the central american minors program, which allows some children from el salvador, guatemala, and honduras to reunite with a parent or parents living in the u.s. but jacobson declared repeatedly, in both english and spanish, that the "border is not open." >> i want to be clear, neither this announcement or any of the other measures suggests that anyone, especially children and families with young children, should make the dangerous trip to try and enter the u.s. in an irregular fashion. the border is not open. amy: we will have the latest on the crisis on the u.s.-mexico border later in the broadcast with aura bogado, senior investigative reporter at "reveal."

the senate has confirm marcia fudge as secretary of housing and urban development, michael regan, to head the environmental protection agency, and merrick garland as attorney general. regan will be the first black man to lead the epa, while fudge is the first black woman to oversee hud since the jimmy carter administration. in iowa, reporter andrea sahouri was acquitted wednesday following her arrest last year while covering a black lives matter protest. she was pepper-sprayed and put in zip ties despite telling police officers she was a reporter. freedom of the press foundation welcomed the acquittal but said it "doesn't fully lift the shadow this prosecution has cast over one of our country's most core values." here in new york, human rights lawyer steven donziger is waiting to hear if he will be freed afr nearly 6 days of house arrest after an appeals court last week threw out a key contpt finding against him donzig won a historic settleme for $9.5 billn

against chevron in eador for dumping oil and toxic waste in the amazon, but he has been facing contempt charges fr a private law firm which hasies to chevron and the oil industry. chevron s yet to pay compensation or clean up after the catastrophic damage it created. last month, amnesty usa and a dozen other groups sent a letter to merrick garland asking him to review donziger's case. and today marks 10 years since japan's trouble disaster when a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami and a nuclear meltdown at fukushima power plant. nearly 20,000 people were killed. japan marked the day with a moment of silence, prayers, and anti-nuclear protests. ahead of today's remembrance, anti-nuclear protesters rallied in front of japan's parliament. >> no matter how nuclear plans are stapled, they're inappropriate as power generation because they ravage the foundations of local peoples

living. i came here to voice my opposition. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined remotely by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, nermeen. nermeen: welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: former brazilian president luiz inácio lula da silva has been cleared to run for office again after a judge annulled all convictions against him. three years ago, lula had been considered a favorite in the lead-up to the 2018 presidential election until he was put in jail for 18 months and forced out of the race. the jailing of lula helped pave the way for the election of the far-right former military officer jair bolsonaro. lula is a former union leader who served as president of brazil from 2003 to 2010. during that time, he helped lift tens of millions of brazilians out of poverty. president barack obama once called him the most popular politician on earth.

on wednesday, lula blasted bolsonaro's handling of the covid crisis. >> many of the covid deaths could have been avoided if there were a government who did their job. this country is disorganized and falling apart because it has no government. there was a president who invented chloroquine, one who said those were scared of covid are sissies, dad was just a little flu, that covid was something for cowards, that was a former catholic and it would not affect him. that is not the role of a president of the republic in a civilized country. amy: more than 270,000 brazilians have died over the past year from covid, the second highest figure in the world behind the united states. on wednesday, brazil reported nearly 2300 new deaths -- its highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic. lula also criticized bolsonaro's skepticism over covid vaccines and brazil's delays in obtaining

them. >> the question of the vaccine, it is not a question if you have money or you don't. it is a question of life or death. it is a question of knowing what is the president of the republic to take care of because a president is nonelected to spread fake news. amy: in his speech, lula also compared bolsonaro to donald trump. >> this country is disorganized and falling apart because it has no government. i will repeat, this country has no government. and with fake news, the world looked at former president donald trump. and with fake news, the world elected bolsonaro. amy: we go now to brazil where we are joined by valeska martins, one of president luiz inácio lula da silva's lead attorneys. co-author of "lawfare: waging war through law" and founder of lawfare institute.

thank you for joining us. can you talk about the significance of the judges annulment of theharges against lula -- for which he already served time in prison -- and what this means for the future and this major address that lula gave yesterday? >> thank y, amy, for inviting me to come over here today. what is now being called as the biggest scandal -- dicial scandal on earth. lula was wrongfully charged, wrongfully prosecuted, illally prosecuted by the carwash operation, which we now know ask in collusion with prosecutors and the presiding judge of the case. i think it means, first of all, the rule of law itself came out

they winter. that democracy came out winning because lula, as you mentioned, in 2018, should have one prident. he was illegally removed from the race. he was in jail for 580 days. during that period, he lost his brother, he was not allowed to even go to his brother's funeral. he lost a grandchild who died of a disease at an early age. he could not go freely to -- he lost his political rights. he lost all of his rights, not only financially speaking, the presumption of innocence --

so after five years, which came in a delay, he was declared not innocent -- actually, the procedures were overrun. but all of the procedure since the charges come not only conviction, but all the procedures against president lula in the carwash operation have been annulled. this means he can n for president. he has all of his political rights. he is a citizen that should be presumed innocent before everyone's eyes. nermeen: could you explain, as you mentioned, the annulment was a procedural decision not a substantive one. so lula could still be tried and will be tried in federal court.

do you know when this retrial will occur and what the implications of it could be? >> actually, because we were fighting in a court that had a clear bias nature and a clear unfair trial which did not take in any of the numerous, numerous evidences, overwhelming evidences of his innocence, we believe if a new judge comes to preside over any case, retry this case, it is imperative that he does not respond to any charges arriving from the carwash operation. we had the trial and pretrial situation regarding the cases and they are all known -- annulled.

the law has to come into force for this case. lula is not about the law but nobody is above the law. in a major conflict case, we have come across overwhelming evidence of collusion between the prosecutors and the presiding judge of the case, from judge moro, which has described in unheard messages that have been filed now before the court that -- which meant create enough charges to overwhelm dissent, to occupy the defense's time in order for them to convict him and reme him from his political life. amy:, go to lula in his own

words. in 2018, we spoke with brazil's former president luiz inácio lula da silva, popularly known as lula, when he was running for president. at that time, he was facing a possible prison term, on what many believed to be trumped-up corruption charges tied to a sprawling probe known as "operation car wash." this is wh he said. >> i was not accused of corruption. i was accused because of a lie in a police investigation, a lie in an indictment by the office of the attorney general, and in the judgment of judge moro, because there is only one evidence of my innocence in this entire trial, which my defense counsel explained in a magisterial manner.

amy: that was about a month before he was imprisoned. now in this major address that looked like really a campaign rally at his union, the workers union where he had also gone right before he went to jail, he had banners climbing justice and jobs for brazil. is this the beginning of his presidential campaign? can you talk about particularly covid and his attack on bolsonaro around the pandemic dealing with? >> the importance of lewis registration of his political lula political rights, if he decides to run, he will be able to run. that is our job as his attorneys. i can speak as a brazilian citizens point of view that it is overwhelming --

overwhelmingly difficult to be living here at the time when not wearing masks, authorized social gatherings -- even encouraged by the present administration, and where you cannot even go to the nearest hospital because of occupation. there are many in that situation for so long -- reliving in science, as resilient and not his attorney, believing in science, believing vaccines, since yesterday has actually been positive. everyone has been wearing masks, which is a major turn of events, and talking about vaccination -- can thank democracy four.

what we have to understand is there is a plan in this, which we have uncovered which means cash this has been confirmed through hard evidence in the files presented to the supreme court, that that the car wash operation and certain members related the carsh operation had a political plan toreat teams of politicians, conservative politicians, that were approved of the carwash operation and removing everybody that was related to former president lula from their political life -- which came as a surprise and shock to evybody. but it confirmed what we had contained since 2016 when we took this case to the united nation's human rights committee

and said lula, even before he was charged, that he was going to be convicted in spite of any evidence that we could come up during the trial because there was -- there were not grounds for any charges that all. so there is no fear of retrial. absolutely not. all of the evidence produced during the trial and with the evidences that have been collected and are still been collected by the defense, which prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that president lula was a victim at the highly aggressive and complex law, which is now being called not only by the defense, but even mentioned by others, academics, as well as by one of

the supreme court justices, as the biggest judicial scandal on earth. the magnifications of this procedure will mainly reach switzerland, united states, brazil -- arising from the carwash operation which was used as a political hub by the conservative politicians to overtake other governments. and i am saying this not in a hypothetical point of view or hypothetical sentence, it is what is written by the prosecutors of the audios that have been gathered, the

conversations between the prosecutors -- which also relate to the judge's -- contest schemes since planning how to put supreme court justices against the wall to make sure they only judge according to what they wanted and how they wanted and how all of these plans have come to be executed, the attacks on the defense -- even by attacking or mainline from the law firm, tapping phones, controlling my migratory movements. that means they planned to have all airlines passenger list to make sure they knew where all the defense attorneys were and who they were talking to.

nermeen: i'm sorry to interrupt you, that will have a minute left. i just want to say that lula's forehead in the pole that was conducted earlier for next year's election. is there any possibility the retrial could prevent him from running as some have expressed concerns might happen? we only have a minute. >> from the evidences presented in the files with the law is impossible he will be convicted. amy: valeska martins, thank you for being with us, one of president luiz inácio lula da silva's lead attorneys. co-author of "lawfare: waging war of law" and founder of lawfare institute. as we move on next to the biden

administration struggling to find shelter space a record 3500 unaccompanied children recently detained at the u.s.-mexico border. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. president biden is struggling to address the overwhelming flow of migrant children crossing the u.s.-mexico border without their parents, many fleeing extreme violence, poverty, and natural disasters in their home countries of guatemala, honduras, and el salvador. documents obtained by several news outlets show more than 3500 children were detained at the border in just the first nine days of march. on monday, cbs news reported some 3000 are still detained in crowded cells at border patrol stations. many are being held longer than the legal limit of 72 hours as the government waits for beds to become available in shelters run by the office of refugee resettlement and department of

health and human services. "the washington post" reports the shelters received 450 new migrant children per day on average the first week of march. most are between 13 and 17. the centers for the disease control and prevention cited the "extraordinary circumstances" friday when it said the shelters can to return to pre-pandemic capacity if they implement enhanced coronavirus protections. biden's top adviser on u.s.-mexico border policy, roberta jacobson, said wednesday the administration is trying balance a humane response to the children with the message that they should stop coming. -- stop crossing. >> i think everyone at this stage were doing everything we can to make sure children are well cared for and moved into facilities that are appropriate for them. but i want to make a point again that it is really important that

people not make the dangerous journey in the first place. amy: during jacobson's press briefing, she broke into spanish several times to say "the border is closed" and announced the revival of an obama-era policy that allows central american children to apply for admission to the united states from their home country. this comes as the biden administration recently re-opened a shelter in carrizo springs, texas, that was used by the trump administration and plans to hold some 700 migrant teenagers there. white house press secretary jen psaki defended the move. >> this is not kids being kept in cages. this is a facility that was opened that is going to follow the same standards as other hhs facilities. it is not a replication, certainly not. that was never our intention of replicating the immigration policies of the past administration. amy: as the biden administration looks for more space to house the record influx of migrant children, it may move to house them on military bases or even a nasa airfield in mountain view,

-- or even a vacant race in the san francisco bay area. for more, we're joined by aura bogado, senior investigative reporter at reveal, who has long covered immigration and the conditions of detained migrant children. last year, in a series titled "the disappeared," she exposed how the u.s. was holding migrant children far longer than previously known. welcome back to democracy now! can you start off by sandwich to call this a surge? would you call it the crisis? what needs to be done? >> there is an increase of juncker most essential american migrants at southern border. we could call it a crisis, we can call it a surge, which is a term usually more associated with the natural water phenomena. we should not call it a surprise. the biden administration long new there would be an increase of children at the southern border and had a long time to

prepare while he is only been in office less than two months, he had been elected prior to that. he campaigned on specifically changing policies and practices that happened under the trump administration. some of that has happened but when it comes to the number of children that are in certain facilities, whether they are cages or shelters and how long they are being kept for, we have not really seen that much of a change. nermeen: explain what you think needs to happen. what should the biden administration be doing now so there are not so many children in detention? >> as a reporter, i would like for the biden administration to be transparent, something the biden administration when he was campaigning was both complicit and tested about in his promises. i was on a call but several reporters yesterday that the

current commissioner to a miller and he would not tell us the number of children that are in these cells at the border. they're really cold cells, how kids and adults describe them. he would not tell his number. he said he could not share because it was law enforcement sensitive. he was pressed on this and he to us that multiple agencies were involved. that does not explain why hugh could not tell us the number of children that were there -- what he could not tell us the number of children that were there. a number of reporters have gotten their hands on internal numbers so it seems to be about 3200 children are in these cell. i cannot imagine the reason why this would be law-enforcement-sensitive. as a reporter, i can think of the reasons why people would want to know. at very basic level, we should

at least know the numbers of children that are being kept in different facilities, both at the border and also in shelters. that would be a great start. i would love to see the biden administration give some really basics transparently. nermeen: can you explain how the pandemic has been impacting the ways in which unaccompanied minor children are being held? i mean, is it taking longero release them as a result of the pandemic? let explain what title 42 is and how the trump administration made the cdc invoke this title. close to 42 is a public health title, a practice that keeps the public health -- it centers the public health of the current u.s. population so the idea is

you don't see people coming from the outside that might bring something like covid into the united states. we know covid is already in the united states. that was under the prior administration. the cdc felt the need to close the border for that reason. that is still in place. that is not to say no one has entered the border even during when trump was still in office, but certainly now that biden is in office. but people are still being barred from entering on the premise that there is a public health concern -- and there absolutely is. there is a public health concern. people are still unfortunately dying from what is now a preventable disease because we do have a vaccine. so people are still being barred. yes, sometimes things do take longer. you want to make sure that no one is in the type of situation

in which they may possibly be spreading the disease. again, there are ways to prevent this. there are ways in the last year we have had a lot of time to figure out how to socially distance. that may be something that is taking longer in ordero ocess chdren through, but it doesn't really go to the heart of the question which i think for a lot of people there is concern at the sheer number of children that are being kept at the border in these border patrol facilities and also shelters. amy: i am goingo go back a number of years when you were a reporter for colorlines in 2014. you spoke with a migrant girl from honduras named mayeli hernández, who described what it was like to be held in a "hilerera" when she was 11 years old. >> it was really cold and they

had us inside. we were there for a long time. we did not sleep. we did not sleep in our eyes re really red. we did not shor. we did not brush our teeth. we hardly did anything. they do not give you a bed to sleep in. it is really cold. shivering from the cold. there was only one bathroom, one room. amy: we are talking about an hilerera, what is known as an

icebox. this was 2014. are they experiencing the same thing today? if you could just briefly address that. >> yes, that is what children are still describing because they are still in the same facilities being used under obama, continued under trump, and continuing und biden. amy: i want to ask you in the minute we have left, congratulations on getting a vaccine. can you talk about your journey in getting better? kid is great to see you -- it is great seeing you. >>, cancer survivor almost two years out. i was able toet a leftover does a couple of days a. my arm was a little sore yesterday but i think i pretty much back to normal today. i am very, very grateful i was able to get that vaccine and cannot wait until i can see you in person and also all my loved

ones. it has been a very long year. amy:aura, so great to see you. aura bogado is senior investigative reporter at reveal" and has long covered immigration, including the conditions of detained migrant children. next, the global fight over covid patents. back in the big drug companies while the world health organization says the patent rights should be waived. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "libre y serena" by diana gameros. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. the united states and other wealthy members of the world trade organization have blocked a propos to waive intellectual property rights related to covid vaccines. south africa a india had pushed the proposal as part of an attempt to increase the

availability of vaccin in poorer countries. the people's vaccine alliance recently said that while rich countrs are vaccinating one person every second, the majority of poorer nations have yet to administer a single shot. that is over 100 nations. some nations, including many in africa, may have to wait years before getting enough vaccines to protect their populations. the world health organization has also joined the call for big pharma to waive vaccine patent rights. >> many countries with the vaccine manufacturing capacity can start producing their own vaccines by waiting intellectual property rights as provided for in the agreement. those provisions are there for use in emergencies. if now is not a time to use them, then when? this is unprecedented times.

and we believe and the who believes this is a time to trigger that prohibition and waive patent rights. amy: on wednesday, senator of bernie sanders addressed an online rally organized by a coalition known as the people's vaccine ahead of a global day of action that is happening today. >> i believe that a very good way to demonstrate that american values are back is for the united states to plaa leading role in facilitatg the production and delivery of these life-saving vaccines and in sharing the innovative technologies for producing them. and that is why today i'm sending a letter to the biden administration to support the proposal to waive vaccine -related intellectual property rights at the wto so that we can rapidly expand supplies of vaccine. amy: earlier today as part of

the global day of action, south african protesters rallied outside a johnson & johnson facility in cape town and pfizer's headquarters in johannesburg. we are joined now by two guests. fatima hassan is a south african human rights lawyer and hiv/aids and social justice activist. she is founder and director of health justice initiative. she served as special adviser to south africa's former minister of health. her recent piece in foreign policy, "don't let drug companies create a system of vaccine apartheid." and joining us from bangalore, india, is achal prabhala, coordinator of the accessibsa project, which campaigns for access to medicines in india, brazil, and south africa. recently co-authored an opinion piece in "the new york times" headlined "it's time to trust china's and russia's vaccines." we will get to that in a minute but i want to go to fatima hassan. you just finished a major news conference and address in south africa. talk about what you said and what this day of action is about. what has the u.s. done?

>> thank you, amy. good to be on the show. it is one year since the who declared, 19 would be a pandemic. in order to mark that one your is when you, organizations campaign in south africa basically decided to take our demands to the pharmaceical companies that at the moment are practicing what we call vaccine apartheid five refusing to give up their intellectual property rights and refusing to urgently scale up manufacturing capabilities and capacity for the global south. meaning millions of us are basically going to have to wait community, particularly in africa, at severe risk. nermeen: if you uld explain

when we discussed problems of vaccine access around the world, we speaking principally about pfizer, madrona, astrazeneca. he wrote a piece in "the new york times" headlined "it's time to trust china's and russia's vaccines." could you talk about what you believe the significance is, the importance is of those vaccines for the global south and what you think needs to be done? >> thank you, nermeen. in the situations we have seen are the utter failure of the western pharmaceutical industry to address the needs of 85% of the world. that has become clear. but also the failure of western philanthropy. the covax solidity, shipment to cover 300,000 people in ghana or less than 1% of the population of ghana. this is why countries like the

united arab emirates and israel have vaccinated between 50% and 60%, united states and you can have between 20% and 30% population vaccinated. the idea that philanthropy from the west would save us is turning out to be a false hope. in this context, one of the reasons it is so hard to negotiate with western pharmaceutical manufacturers, we have no -- we do not have generic drugs from india for aids that we could use as an alternative in 2000. the problem is we do have alternatives, we just have to acknowledge it exists. right now it is from china and russia, two leading vaccine candidates in china and one in russia, which have struck supply deals of close to 3 billion doses just for this year. they are a lifelineo middle-income countries all over latin america, the araborld,

some asia and pakistan india where i live, malaysia and indonesia. the problem with them is we seem to be in a state of denial that they exist, even though they have such reach both in terms of solving an immediate problem and at the pandemic but also serving -- to negotiate with western pharmaceutical companies to gain more access to their vaccine. nermeen: explain why you think it is there such skeptism about the russia and china vaccine. there are reports that people within russia refusing to take sputnik v and the response to your "new york times" piece from china and russia as well as here in the u.s.. >> i have to say that at the start you should be the entire world, not just the west, incredulous at the idea you cap

useful science and other places not the west. it is not just a fact in the west. it is a fact in india, southern africa, in russia and china. there have been many reports about this. one of the reports is to overcome this, we need to have better access to data and a better grasp of the facts on the ground. the effect incredibly rigorous literary authorities in turkey and brazil and indonesia have approved these vaccines come have done trials on the car somehow does not seem to matter or breakthrough into the dialogue aut global vaccine access most of this includes activists, unfortunately. i should say many activists were

blinded this and i think it is a kind of denial. not just russia and china. india has a vaccine that just posted the efficacy rate. already exporting it to brazil and other countries. in cuba and thailand, different countries. if we created a better infrastrucre to validate these vaccines or even just -- that would go along long way in increasing the confidence in science that comes out of the west and good science that comes out of bad states. amy: can you respond to that, fatima hassan? >> great. iw think achal is right, even te covid mechanism doesn't have any agreement with -- as well as sputnik. in south africa, it is slightly different. we do not have a single vaccine

registered for widespread population use yet because the dossiers a being riewed. in the case of sputnik, in the last few weeks, currently is under review. what we've been told is two have not been willing to share their data. particularly in the south african context, stringent. whether it is sputnik or johnson & johnson or moderna, they have to submit their data and are subject to the same review. even though there may be vaccines from china and russia, the issues we have our round the transparency of all of these companies come around all of the data, the dossiers still stands. the second issue is we also need transparency across all of these different companies because we are getting reports that in different countries we started

rolling out some of the sputnik or china or astrazeneca or johnson & johnson -- whichever vaccine it may be based on the authorization they have received, there is very little pricing transparency. the concern is that the syringe pricing structures within covax but also the bilateral -- it is true to say there is any overlooking of some of the vaccines that actually come from countries that don't normally -- western countries don't normally want to do with them or don't normally want to butheir ccines, but the issues we have around transparency and data sharing, around regulatory review and approval, i think applies to all of them. in relation to the chinese vaccines -- i just using that to basically cover both -- what our government has said is that until the data is submitted, they basically are having preliminary conversations. in south africa, that seems to have been broken at the chinese

embassy. the irony in relation to how we are relying on western vaccines or the russian or chinese vaccines is that brazil is the outlier at the moment. it is opposing the waiver that they have been leading in geneva since last year. there has been a number of geopolitical considerations beyond just efficacy of vaccines that are actually playing out and are going to influence the final vaccine selection for a number of countries in africa. amy: i want to turn to the head of the national federation of pharmaceutical manufacturers loving group for big pharma. this is thomas quinney. >> everybody knows about vaccine manufacturing, the bottlenecks knew that ip is not the issue. the bottlenecks are the capacity of the scarcity.

it is about the know-how. amy: fatima hassan, can you respond to big pharma? >> some big pharma in the hiv/aids -- as was pointed out in the beginning, we were able to really challenge a lot of these claims from big pharma. we were even sued by the pharmaceutical industry in south africa. i think where there is a political will, specific operation to share the vaccine now in technology, capacity in the global south county dude two things. -- to do two things. when you ask what the u.s. government could do or what it hasn't done, a number of activists under the u.sand around the world have saido the biden administration, if you step in on some of the vaccines you have codeveloped to the nih, you could with a little

investment and over the next few months actually invest in a scaling up and expanded productions. i think it is disingenuous for big pharma -- it is not unexpected, but it is disingenuous for them to say intellectual property is actually not the obstacle. right now that is the current largest obstacle. if the pats were to be relaxed, if intellectual property were to be relaxed and they were either to be done on a voluntary basis or through a compulsory mechanism, then certainly, we believe we would be in a different situation in the next he was. the shameful thing in the moral question is, had this been sorted out and addressed in 20, i do tnk the people in the global south would have been facing a very different outlook and we would be in a very different situation. nermeen:p, can you talk about the bilateral agreements that many countries in the global south have reached with russia and china?

and also the development of original vaccines in many countries, including india and cuba and others and where those stand? >> to follow-up what fatima hasan, it covers patents and know-how the actual technology that you used to produce that vaccine. the industry is -- saying you don't just need patents in order to produce it, you also need our technology. they are beingno disingenuous in creating it that way. one of the significant things that chinese and russian manufacturers have done is share their licensing and their know-how and technology. they have done this with brazil, so they are manufacturing there as well as turkey and indonesia. there's a huge unit in the united arab emirates not just

for that country, but the allies for the arab world. the russian vaccine sputnik v as production and five pharmaceutical companies in india. agreements with a large number of places. one of the distinguishing things, not to lose money, but one of the distinguishing things is they seem to be much more what civil to enter into agreements if they can supply from china or russia, they will. if they can't in the vaccine can be made in countries they are striking deals with, they allow that to happen. that is an incredibly positive step we could take advantage of. the problem is government functions on a weird 20th century access with any regular system outside europe, canada, the united states to be suspect automatically. the process of these vaccines to

apply billions of dollars of donor funds to buy them is incredibly complex. they have been waiting in line for months to buy western vaccines. this is a really unfair structural problem that needs to be fixed. the african union -millions of doses of the sputnik vaccine will cover some of the most vulnerable people in halloween come countries in sub-saharan africa. -- vulnerable people in some countries in sub-saharan africa. the covax facility and others have to recognize these vaccines exist, that there are more vaccines coming out, and help them to get out into the world rather than into them. amy: we wa to thank you both for being with us. the points you are raising on this day of action. achal prabhala is the accessibsa

project, and fatima hassan. that does it for our podcast. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed

♪ thank you for joining us. from our studio in tokyo, this is nhk "newsline." we begin with the latest political crisis in myanmar. the military has levelled another accusation at the country's deposed leader weeks after her government was toppled in a