♪ anchor: another look at the top stories, india reports the highest daily tally of coronavirus infections for a second straight day, 332,000. hospitals have critical shortages of beds, medicine, and oxygen. we have more from new delhi. reporter: this is one of the biggest private hospitals, with the director said 25 people died in one day because of low oxygen supply. the family of a 39-year-old man passed away because his oxygen

was reduced without their knowledge, and his last words were "please, save me." they counted 45 bodies, and they say a catastrophe has been covered up. the hospital director denies they were a result of oxygen shortage. anchor: the u.s. regulators are lifting a pause on the johnson & johnson single-shot vaccine, after recommendation from the cdc that says the vaccine's benefits outweigh the serious, but small risk. many people in the u.s. have receded, 15 cases of blood clotting three which were fatal. new zealand paused its travel bubble after covid-19 outbreak in western australia. two regions are entering a snap three-day lockdown. australia had opened the travel

bubble on sunday, after closing airports for over a year. the search for a missing indonesian submarine has taken on urgency as oxygen on board has cap it have run out. it went missing with 53 people on wednesday. alexei navalny is ending his hunger strike after 24 days, supporters and doctors have urged him to end at the protest because of his deteriorating health. the british socialite ghislaine maxwell has pled not guilty to sex trafficking charges involving jeffrey epstein. maxwell appeared in the new york court in person for her first time since her arrest in july, accused of procuring under age girls for jeffrey. once again, you are up-to-date with the headlines on "al jazeera" and "inside story" is next. ♪

>> already at the scum of the european union wants to sue astrazeneca, accused of failing to deliver the agreed numbers of covid-19 vaccines, but will legal action work? who benefits? and how much is about politics? this is "inside story." ♪ anchor: hello and welcome to the program. the eu is the biggest exporter of coronavirus vaccines, yet within its own borders, the rate of inoculation has been

disappointing. the who morning that could prolong the pandemic. major member states such as germany, france, and italy are coping with another wave of infections, while vaccination campaigns are hit by delivery delays. the european commission is reportedly weighing legal action against the vaccine manufacture astrazeneca. the firm was contracted last september to deliver 180 million doses to the eu by the second quarter, but cut its deliveries by two thirds due to what it's calling manufacturing issues and obligations to other buyers. this was reportedly discussed among ambassadors on wednesday, though most said they would support suing the pharmaceutical giant, but germany and france were raising concerns. the european commission spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the reports. >> whatever steps are taken or

would be taken, these decisions will be taken by the commission together with the member states. this is a strategy that we implement together with the member states. for the time being, we are looking at all options which help us to ensure timely delivery of doses. anchor: a spokesperson for astrazeneca said the company was not aware of legal proceedings, but says it would continue regular discussions with the european commission and eu #'s about supplies. we will bring in our panel shortly, but let's look at inoculation campaigns across europe. the vaccine rollout has fared poorly, compared to other developed economies. only 10% of the 900 million people up so far received a single dose of vaccine. the situation changed with germany doubling the pace of vaccinations, following a boost in supplies, and has decided to

let general practitioners administer the jobs. france, italy, and spain are expected to follow that lead. ok, let's bring in the panel. we have simon clark at the university of reading in new delhi, and the chairperson at the center of social medicine and community health, and in copenhagen, the head of health systems at the barcelona institute for global health. gentlemen, welcome. jeff, coming to you first. what is to be game for the people of europe if the european commission goes to court? jeff: i am not sure there is much to gain. this is a diversion from the real problem, a lack of doses. we need to focus on increasing production. i don't know if the eu is

looking to recover funds or divert doses from where astrazeneca vaccine is being supplied elsewhere. if that is the case, i understand, but it does not make sense because it is a global pandemic, and as long as the doses are being used, that is the top priority. the eu is producing and very few countries, so we need to up the production capacity. anchor: simon, is this political point scoring? simon: it does seem to be, yes. you have to ask yourself after efforts to discredit the astrazeneca vaccine in terms of its efficacy, safety, why parts of europe are so keen to get over it. germans, for instance, are looking to obtain more vaccine more quickly, and they're going to the russians for that. anchor: in delhi, from where you

are, is this a particularly acute issue, in as much as there are issues of procurement, and procurement specifically in india, because you are going through a vicious second wave of coronavirus deaths. ? >> it is a layered set of issues , as far as india's vantage point goes. the first is that beginning in april, india expanded the vaccination program for those 45 and above, then beginning in may in a more recent decision, it is open to all adults 18 and above, which has led to an enormous increase in the demand for vaccines. at that point, india only had the astrazeneca vaccine and the other one, the covax vaccine, and only recently, this was

given the authorization to be imported. what this means is there was a report as early as late march that the indian government has decided there will not be expanding the export of vaccines over the next couple of months, and that is what we are witnessing now. it is also the case that this will affect the contribution to the covax initiative, which incidentally, which will happen in india. anchor: is the nub of this debate, whether it goes through court or legal system, then agree and get beyond that, there is an issue of contract, because coronavirus covid manufacturing is here to stay, procurement is here to stay is a global issue,

moving forward in the continuing fight against coronavirus, so whether the contracts were flawed is the central issue, what was written into the conference that the eu signed up to, or was it the procurement for the european commission, who has critics, and did not spot the contracts were not as good as they could've been? >> given the contracts have been redacted and we have not been able to read them in-depth, the issue is astrazeneca probably overpromise. the world has never been in a situation where we had to produce so many vaccine so quickly, so other companies have probably overpromise, but there vaccines are not necessarily or had been approved yet, so we don't know if they would be able to deliver, but astrazeneca promised more vaccines than they could produce to different

countries, so i think there are some errors made on the part of the eu, definitely on the part of astrazeneca, but the issue is how do we increase the production, and since the eu was making such a large purchase, what kind of oversight was there during the production process at the end of 2020 and early 2021? it was not until astrazeneca made it known that they would not be able to deliver all the agreed-upon doses that the eu reported they were sending a team to look into the production. for me, that was too late, and four months later, we are still facing this production shortage. as was just mentioned, countries like denmark but an outright ban on astrazeneca, then reverse that. spain is only using that for age 60 to 69, so we are hearing that

there are concerns in europe with astrazeneca, even to the point of starting to discredit it, then we hear we will possibly take legal proceedings due to failing to meet contractual obligations. there is a disconnect that is a bit of a distraction. anchor: simon, staying with oversight 2024, would we not be in the situation if everyone, either astrazeneca and or the european commission had from the get-go gone for complete 100% total transparency? one does get that sense, that astrazeneca doesn't really like to talk. it does not like to come down from its ivory tower. the european commission does not really like to discuss its procurement process or its contractual process, and that is why the u.k. has ended up four months ahead of the rest of the european union. simon: yes, there is a lot that

smoke and mirrors around this, it seems. you are right. the phrase "redacted" was used for the contracts. we don't know what was promised or expected from either party, so until we get a better window, review on that, it is difficult for those of us watching and commenting on this, and of course the general public, to form an accurate view. in fact, it is almost impossible. both sides, i think, you have gameplaying from a pr manipulation going on, and it is not helpful. anchor: if jeff lazarus in copenhagen has this right, then this is nothing more than a slight detour, and politicians and bureaucrats passing the buck.

is that something you are aware of at ground zero of a very bad second wave? politicians want to talk about what they're doing but don't want to talk about what they haven't done or what they haven't achieved, and they would always like to turn the angle to the inquiry somewhere else? >> yes, it depends on whether politicians are looking for counsel or collaboration. the astrazeneca is one commentator put it has become a political football, and despite all the controversies, the stop/start in the countries, the fact is that the astrazeneca does remain, for many countries, including the contribution for covax, remaining the major supplier in india. as far as the domestic commitment goes in india, it is

only in the last few days that the government has made an additional purchase order, which is a commitment, a $400 million -- of $400 million, and $200 million to pre-book vaccines for the next couple of months, and that will certainly have a bearing on what its international commitments and deliveries on those commitments would be. anchor: jeff lazarus in copenhagen, how much of the book should stop with the european commission president, in as much as she was not doing something as she was moving through german politics, that is why angela merkel abstained on her appointment as president, reportedly it has been claimed in certain areas of international media that the french president emmanuel macron actually quite like the idea of

having a bit of a rubbish european commission president, because he could filter through her lack of traction as president his desired goal for the european union, and then along comes coronavirus, along comes covid-19? jeff: well, nobody benefits from the failings of the european commission. the president is ultimately responsible for everything that happens, but she has a large team, and while it is true we have not procured this before, making joint procurement reality in the eu, this is a large commission with many experts, and we would have expected there would have been oversight during not just the contractual process , not just the hundreds of means of dollars invested in developing vaccines, but also in assuring the production so i

would reiterate that we are where we are and we are facing a shortage, and if the european commission sued and it was resolved quickly in the courts, and if it meant more doses were provided to the eu, and for example, in a country like india, and were taken from a country like india, i don't think that would serve anyone, given the current state of affairs in the massive transmission going on in india right now, so i am not really sure what they are trying to achieve through the court case, and again, i would be investing the money in production sites, because we know there are production sites that could be producing the vaccines in the eu that are not being used, and that for me is still a great mystery why we are not seeing the astrazeneca vaccine or others, i know france will start producing the pfizer vaccine, but there is more capacity in the eu and elsewhere to produce the vaccines, and it is in the

discussions between companies, patents, licensing, but no one is saying were not going to pay for the doses, it is just how to increase production. anchor: simon, does this feed into the understandable anger in france? 365 days after lockdown number one, france went into lockdown number two, and french people, even paris, even left-leaning labor supporting the french capital paris, people were saying hang on, we have been here before. we have been here frozen for a year and nothing has changed? simon: yes, i think the french population are perfectly within their rights to complain that there hasn't been enough, particularly if they were to look at the channel and see how quickly things are moving here. i think though that there has

been a historic ele reluctance to accept vaccines in france, but it doesn't help people like emmanuel macron, who called the astrazeneca vaccine quasi-ineffective. there is nationalistic politics being bandied about. france should ask themselves whether they were well served by that. i contend that they were not. anchor: we can't know for sure at the moment whether the european commission or various european leaders are learning their lessons with the relationship to the supra-national organization such as the european commission, but where you are, what are the lessons that the politicians at a federal level and state level

have learned so far, particular as they go into wave two? >> this is an important question. india is grappling with this question now. the various states, and particularly the high-end incident states in the second wave are in a contrarian position with the high courts of six states, who have taken the view on how things are going, and whether there should be a lockdown, so there are completely contrarian views between the court in the state governments on bottom decisions. at the same time, the supreme court has stepped in and made a case that this is a national emergency. the point therefore, is if anything, that the lesson from the last year is in the is across the world, but this does require central planning. this does require central

coordination, but also requires local leaderships to be able to for those to play out on the ground and up coordination seems to be wavering in many parts of the world, as analyses come out. anchor: jeff lazarus in copenhagen, are we seeing a time now or are entering a time when european commission bureaucrats have to read the writing on the wall and be aware of what is happening in the world? one of the davos summits, the one before that, covid has hit, and it was not talked about. the american delegation in davos did. they said there is this pandemic coming, and we have to deal wit it together, but according to the european commission president, she was not going to talk about it. she gave a speech about libya and the small migrant crisis on

the border with turkey, and that was it. has the time come for the european commission to start behaving like politicians, instead of job-for-life bureaucrats? jeff: those are harsh words, but clearly europe and many other countries dropped the ball, both in terms of pandemic preparedness over the last decade, but also in terms of responding strongly to this pandemic. we have seen a lack of collaboration around the world, and also within the eu among the member states. we have seen a lack of solidarity, and when we see mistakes being made, we see they are not being rectified very quickly, so i think it is a warning signal to the commission that the population expects them to be more responsive, more organized, and globally that we are probably going to need some sort of super organization in terms of pandemic preparedness.

the who did a great job morning the world, and they were and continue to be criticized for the role, but the who inform the member states in early january 2020, and it took a long time for eu member states and other countries to respond. anchor: simon, does this expose a certain hypocrisy on the part of the drugs companies, astrazeneca, and also the commission? it seems to me what they should be doing is fixing covid, fixing covid from the fixing covid, and instead of going to court, where primacy seems to be that the european commission is a bit ticked off because the contract was not what it should have been, whereas if they fixed covid, they could then go on to help other countries, such as india, which are really headed into a bad place right now? simon: this is really a political question, rather than

one for the pharmaceutical companies. it is not a business question, because they are producing a quite a great, as much vaccine as they possibly can. you can't just flick a switch for these things. it takes months to produce these vaccines. they can't just be churned out in the next few days. so, there is only so much they can do. they have invested in production facilities, and of course you have to remember that the investments in those production facilities, when they have no idea that any of these vaccines work. now, they would have taken some government money for that from different governments, so it seems really that they should have had an agreement in place as to what was going to benk produced and when. even when you have agreements like that, you have to accept that producing these things is vital to the process, and things

do go wrong, so the needs to be some flexibility in this to understand that you can't always get what you want, and sometimes things go wrong so i think there needs to be grown-ups on the both sides about expectations. anchor: does this add to a pre-existing narrative, and i guess, one wants to condemn bureaucrats and politicians? the take away for people who are living through coronavirus and covid-19 is mitch management -- mismanagement, mis-selling of a message, confusion, and anger, and his legal process fuels that even more? >> yes, the legal process may end final analysis may be superfluous, but something that gets overlooked in thisontext is this magical figure of 60% that india provides,

manufacturing 60% of global vaccines, recent analysis points to the fact that while in the aggregate that may be true for childhood vaccines, but as far as influenza in this group of vaccines is concerned, in the contribution to the global pool, and the market that is my has been 20%, and therefore, it begets the question that was it overestimated to bin with? in other words, whether the assumptions were misplaced? that requires deeper analysis. anchor: jeff, last word,ow did they come out of this? jeff: they collaborate more. they find a quick and effective resolution to the current situation. they scale up production and also discuss how they will work together moving forward to end this pandemic and prepare for future pandemics. anchor: gentlemen, we have to

leave it there. thank you to our guest. thank you for your company. you can see the show anytime on the website and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. from the peter dobbie and the team, thanks for watching. we will see you very soon. bye-bye. ♪ çççññññññññññññññññññ

[shouting] ♪♪♪ [firecracker popping] [shouting] [woman shouting] [shouting] [gun fire] [shouting] [woman shouting] [shouting] adam harvey: it's february on the battle-scarred streets of downtown beirut.