shares in pharma, john after the nickel take a hit after an initial results from clinical trials find that its coated vaccine is on average, only 70 percent effective. also this hour, a texan man with a rare muscle disease comes to russia for treatment. after being told back, he would never walk again. alan spencer shares his story exclusively with our team . you see this is all the time that it was necessary. are

going to go and hit squads of nerve agents and exposing the regime to new york times job for their moscow correspondent. sounds like something straight out of a spy thriller and reveals the outlets. predetermine narrative on russia you're watching are to international for your global news update this hour. welcome to the program. the race to get a covert vaccine to market is heating up with british pharma giant astra zeneca. becoming the latest to publish initial data on the effectiveness of its job, developed with oxford university clinical trials established that on average, it works 70 percent of the time. here's our tuesday and hawkins with more astra zeneca are the latest company to join the front runners in the code 19 vaccine race, analysing an efficacy over 70 percent after concluding their phase 3 trials. you

know, these preliminary results may sound humble compared to other vaccines. the company's c.e.o. is optimistic, same as you will be highly effective and will have an immediate impact with the u.k. having already preordered 100000000 jobs. boris johnson is more than happy with the result. incredibly exciting news. the oxford vaccine has proved so effective in trials. there are still further safety checks ahead, but these are fantastic results. well done to our brilliant scientists at the university of oxford and astra zeneca and all who volunteered in the trials. so why the relatively low efficacy of developers say that 70 percent figure is an average of 2 doses. regimens to high doses gave a result of 62 percent with a high dose following a low one raising efficacy to 90 percent. now this 70 percent average figure is therefore lower than trial results announced earlier by madonna at 95 percent also

provides a 95 percent though that company to raise their efficacy from an initial 90 percent result with a russian sputnik vivax seems standing at 92. now these figures are crucial, given the highly competitive nature of the market, and it's been a bumpy road for astra zeneca. today, as these results were published, the company's shares actually fell on the back of the lower than expected average efficacy, even as european stocks rose on the good news of another vaccine entering the market. now the vaccine trials had to be halted in september because of a serious suspected adverse reaction in a participant. and in october 1 of the volunteers in brazil died, causing uncertainty about its future. why the advance trial of a promising vaccine was suddenly passed? astra zeneca has caused its trials after an unexplained illness in a participant in the u. . as one company makes use try in the vaccine race and other drug giant hits the

possible option on its late stage trials volunteering where the most at vance to corona virus vaccine trials in the world has died. and despite the news, astra zeneca is testing continues. well, those adverse effects were investigated and though the company and the brazilian health authority refused to comment in detail on the case, the trial was deemed safe to continue. though in the united states, the delay lasted several weeks. and today's results don't include data from american trials, where despite the lower efficacy, the upside of this vaccine is cost effectiveness. while the estimated price of the pfizer vaccine is around $19.00, the modern a job between $25.00 to $37.00, those prices go up to over $40.00 and as high as $74.00 respectively for the total treatment of the cost of the sport mcvie vaccine is estimated at $26.00 per treatment the final costs are yet to be announced. the astra zeneca job would not only be easier to manufacture and store,

but the cost for both doses could be as low as $8.00 for the race is now on to register. these vaccines, astra zeneca states that it would seek to merge and seek use listing from the world health organization with russia saying they've already begun the sputnik registration process. despite the good news, it's too early to say. we've seen the back of the pandemic, even with these promising trial results, doos is not the time for complacency. while we continue to receive encouraging news about 19 vaccines and remain cautiously optimistic about the potential for a new tools to start to arrive in the coming months. right now, we are extremely concerned by the surging cases we are seeing in some countries, particularly in europe and the americas hold workers. and the systems are being pushed to the breaking point. even with several vaccines hitting the market in coming months with the world in the grip of the 2nd covert, 19 wave, still

a very long and difficult road ahead. until we see a return to at least some semblance of normality. public health expert believes that any a vaccine is entering the market will have to be at least 90 percent effective. $62.00 person efficacy at one particular door surgeon of course, a tweaking of the n.t. . personally, i think we should be there for looking at something coming into the public domain only. well as its overseer, 90 percent, or higher. anything lower than that, i mean not the most effective way for us to look at how we're doing. finding this by level, what we really need to look at is that we have a lot of 7000000000. people do backs in need, then rising should not really be that critical. accessibility will be what they were. the reports coming in is shown that it really would not really have an impact on the vaccine in the final cost of any vaccine will be

a key factor in how widely it's distributed. creating fears that poor countries will be priced out. that's just the director of the international vaccine institute in the latest edition of our team is going underground. the gates foundation, their research suggests that global cova debts will double if high income countries buy up the 1st 2000000 doses of any successful vaccine. do you agree with? that's a great study and we've been using it to advocate for something called kovacs. kodak's intends to purchase $2000000000.00 doses, and those doses will be provided to everyone and what cannot escape or the gates foundation paper you quoted says, is that if the 1st 2000000 doses are taken without any consideration of equity, then there will be a doubling of go global covert deaths and the reason why go back needs to be successful, needs to be fully funded, needs to be funded beyond the 1st year into the 2nd year. i think the one thing that covert teaches us is that this virus, like all viruses,

will find those weak points in our defense. and we really need and should be working together in this global pandemic to help each other. whether it's, you know, masks and gloves, whether it's a vaccine solution, whether it's, you know, reaching out to countries to help them understand what the burden of code is. and once we have the vaccine, it's taking that vaccine from wherever it's manufactured, to wherever it can be, wherever it's needed, in a way that will reduce the global burden of coat. that is the most important thing . and while the world awaits rank of a jab, china has come up with a way to limit the viruses spread is calling for a quote, global firewall and a form of a global system of q.r. codes that would allow cross border travel to resume china has proposed a global mechanism for the need to recognition of health says if it's based on nucleic acid test results in the form of internationally accepted q.r.

codes. we hope more countries will join this mechanism. china has been using q.r. codes to prove health status since february. this is them has been question in the west on data privacy grounds, although europe has proposed similar schemes including the idea of immunity passports in the u.k. . saskia taylor discussed the issue with a panel of guests. these tests can be a lot of false negatives. a lot of false positives and you are now better track and trace me weren't going in terms of this town or that this incredibly dangerous. it is not only for my safety and your seeing in the united states as well as across the globe. the people are starting to rise up saying enough stop, protecting me. i wouldn't live my life the way i'd choose. we not only i was reading today at heathrow airport, used to be one of the busiest i had seen. 82 percent fall and passengers. what's the way that to get wheels out into the, if not a set, a similar system to this reason that travels collapse is not the pandemic. it's the

lockdowns. i mean, since march 12th, europe has not been able to fly to the us. and europe retaliated and we can't fly there, and now we're living under the situation where yeah, we once believed in the right to travel, but that's been denied to us. so many people have been locked in their nation states right now. the answer is to is, liberalism is to liberate, travel and liberate and recognize human rights. again, do you think that we do need a cohesive global policy in order to try and move on somehow to try make 2021 better than 2020? there have been studies that show that the virus respond differently in different regions, that there are different conditions and different places based on climate and so forth. so, you know, we don't want a lot of all standards because global standards means mark down a fact. this is just leave about, i really don't care about cases. i care about the death rate and the death rate is

very slow. and again, we have to be very cautious with technology because once you turn the saw, it's very hard to turn off. they will never relinquish it. i mean, passports are doing a texas man suffering from a rare muscle disease has come all the way to russia for treatment. alan spencer was told back at home in the u.s. that he'd never walk again. but since arriving in the russian city of perm in october, he's been up and about it shared his story with us in an exclusive interview. i had to use this everywhere. i went when i was going, when there was a new partner, she couldn't what without it, i had to go walk with allan spencer could have been dead by now or in a wheelchair or bad bound. that's what doctors back home in america told him 5 years ago. i used to use this all the time, but it was absolutely necessary. i'm going to go now into scary people walking in. an incredibly allen has escaped all those outcomes when i started to notice

a little something with my hands, they were going to go on like this. so that some sound right, but i didn't have any problem with strength, so i didn't think i heard anything wrong. 2012 came, i had a fall and i was like where that was unusual. 2014 i came again and i had a really bad fall. it was like, ok, there's something wrong, something wrong happened to be a rare inflammatory muscle disorder known as inclusion, body myositis, between $5.70 people per 1000000 habit. they said there's nothing we can do for it's completely untrue. what did you feel when you were in that will i wasn't as disappointed as you would think. my father had died of a form of a.o.s. and so i thought, well that's as a doctor said, good news and bad news. the good news, these are not going to die. the bad news is you're going to be totally respect for the vice president of time warner cable for west texas as successful man allen had

to quit his job in 2017. he simply wasn't able to work anymore. that his ease was eaten away at his muscles, stealing his abilities and his life. but then he heard from a friend about a clinic in perm russia that could potentially treat him at 1st. he didn't take it seriously. my friend andy had said in, in february there's going to be a wedding, are about this clinic that i think by be able to help you are you interested in this kind of like, well, not really. i didn't tell him the way to be perfectly honest with you, you know, i don't, i think is an american you're, you probably have a stereotype of what the russian hospital looks like. if mayo says that nothing could be done. probably nothing can be got the sentiment e-mail gave my e-mail interest. the next day i got a, an e-mail back from the director. the c.e.o. actually of the clinic in the government touches me all winter and said if you come, we think we can help you. we are not sure to what degree,

but we do believe that we can actually help you a glimmer of hope was born. but coming to russia in the middle of the college, 19th and jamming with borders shot and planes grounded. it seemed like mission impossible. back in may one of the gals from marty called dandy and said, hey, how's your medical tourism, but building business doing, he said not so well that started the process. it took 17 months to finally come to russia and it was worth every single day of trying. he says, so they started me on this treatment of injections and infusions. and the neurologist put the magnetic field on my hear pulsing through. and what it does is it wakes up the neurons in the head, so they started to move in the wake of the muscles, my eye could actually swallow better, and i could talk a little easier if i would, you know, world, this is starting to actually work what turned out was we were getting this world class held help in this clinic in perm russia. if we can get

travel to open up, i really intend to work with india and others to get people here from america. it's a wonderful thing. i mean, it's, it shouldn't be a secret. here you go. wow, good job. russia has condemned the u.s. decision to pull out of the open skies treaty calling it an act of hypocrisy. a fact has been in place since the early ninety's allowing the 34 member states to observe each other's militaries, their unarmed surveillance flights and to share data has accused russia of breaking the terms of the agreement. they claim russia denies. my colleague, neil harvey discussed the story with artie's in the trunk of moscow, is disappointed to say the least about the decision by the us administration to kick the legs from under the treaty for which as the russian side is putting it. the us has no legitimate reasons whatsoever. moscow maintains that claims of

violations on the part of russia. of the treaty that has been in force for 18 years, have all been made up, plus no one seen any proof of that. moscow has blamed washington for violations to the other side has denied it, but the question is whether that is a good enough reason to get rid of the agreement. the answer from moscow is no. among other things, the russian officials believe that the u.s. government was lying when it said that it was considering the option to stay a part of the deal under certain circumstances. the assumption here in the russian capital is that the u.s. is destroying the greyman deliberately, and that was all part of an earlier plan. in recent months, washington has hypocritically stated that in the keys of a change in the russian position, it could reconsider its decision. in fact, no one there had planned to reconsider anything that was again for the public

designed to mislead foreign governments and the public of european states that were urging washington to come to its senses. it's very important to point out that moscow believes the u.s. government wants to seek some kind of ban by european countries of russian flights over u.s. military sites in europe. but at the same time, moscow believes that the u.s. wants to continue receiving the information from european countries from its flights in the russian air space. moscow says that it will continue putting pressure on the other signatories to the open skies treaty to make sure that they remain committed to the terms and abide by it. but in a case, the message from moscow is that this decision, why the americans heavily damages international security and transparency. you mentioned, european countries involved there. and there will be european countries among the, the many dozens of other signatories to the treaty. how do they feel about the u.s.

pulling it? there are 33 more signatories to would that include some very important european, players, like the u.k., germany, france, etc. and they've been critical of the decision by the us administration as well. we deeply regret the united states has decided to take this step and is now implementing its our own position on the treaty remains unchanged. we consider rich to be an important part of the arms control architecture that contributes to building mutual trust in the us to greater security in the northern hemisphere from the tivo stuck to vancouver. we have heard voices of concern across the atlantic as well. the administration's decision to withdraw from the open skies treaty is reckless. i strongly believe that president trumps decision to withdraw from the treaty is a violation of domestic law. president trump brazenly ignored the law and is unilaterally imposing a politically charged withdraw even after losing

a presidential election. the open skies treaty was initially proposed by washington that happened back in 1955. though then the room, it only came into force in 2002, but still it was out there. and because of donald trump, because of his strategy that we've actually gotten used to, we remember that he left many important international treaties in different fields in the field of security. for example, most notably that was the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty. perhaps this is a step from him that we could have expected and has been doing what has been up to pretty much in the past 4 years. political analyst, chris bambery, believes that washington's decision to pull out of yet another treaty will create more uncertainty. as united states withdraws rule the streets, it creates for the uncertainty. it won't just months for some reason should at

least guarantee peace. these flights were put in place that reduces russia, have access to american skies, to look at what's happening in terms of military preparations and so on and face. of course, you know, having withdrawn from the russians will not have that ability. and what they are worried about secure is that is that while other american allies such as britain, if you continue to fly over russia, do to trust britain or other states not to handle pictures, information and data over to the americans. by other means. the new york times has been accused of rissa phobia over its latest job and for a moscow correspondent, successful candidates are expected to deal with hit squads, cyber agents, and shadowy military figures. and that description of russia might sound like more of the plot twists by movie. but as it goes on, that explains fact. and fiction can often be confused. what you're about to hear

sounds like it's been ripped straight from the blog buster screenwriters playbook. vladimir putin's russia remains one of the biggest stories in the world. it sends out hit squads on with nerve agents against his enemies. most recently, the opposition leader alex in nevada, only it has its cyber asians so chaos and disharmony in the west to tarnish his democratic systems while promoting his phone version of democracy. it is a ploy, private military contractors around the globe to secretly spread its influence at home. it's hospitals are filling up fast with code patients as its president hides out in his villa. i mean, add some dramatic music. do a call video, add it pepper the whole thing with a few explosions here and there, and you've cooked up a trailer for the next hit limited series on netflix. but no, it's not that not by a long shot. it's actually the opening over the job. adverts for a russian reporter with the new york times page searches for an buyers to impartial

or balance. come a blank, no results found in the text. not that it's much of a secret though, that the new york times isn't that interested in covering a happy russia. but some readers weren't that impressed with the sudden spasm of honesty from the paper did the see any right. new york times new russia crisp on in job at these job for a new york times correspondent in moscow is telling and not in a good way screenwriters wanted for a new james bond film. imagine yourself working undercover in moscow. the capital

of law to meet putin's evil empire. if you think you have the creative writing skills to turn the monday into juicy narratives of horror and suspense, contact the new york times, we've been in touch with the new york times for comment. you know, both sides of the story and all that. but we've yet to hear anything back from them . cynically speaking, it makes perfect sense. positive stories from russia don't tickle the fancy of pulitzer prize. judges allegations lacking evidence. or though, do just believe in the boogeyman. pulitzer prize winning journalist and former new york times foreign correspondent chris hedges says the ad exposes the real russia angle of the paper. i honestly thought it was satire. i didn't think it was real. and then i went on the new york times website and read it. and it's really kind of an obituary journalist. the role of a foreign correspondent is to be bicultural. it is to get into that culture and

explain how they view reality. and here you have this narrative, pre written, narrative, demonization, really of russia and vladimir putin. and i have to say that there's nothing in that description that the united states doesn't do in spades and far worse. and so why even open a barrel in moscow? why have somebody spend hundreds of hours studying russian and reading russian history and literature and, and culture? why not? why not have algorithms do it? it was absolutely appalling, but it's part of the siloing of the american press to serve a particular demographic. in the case of the new york times, it is a democratic party based readership. it's a way to make sure that whoever they send to russia feeds back to them what, what they want. that's a wrap up of the day's top headlines for now,

but don't forget, you can always had time website r.t. dot com for the details on all of those stories. and many more with nothing really settled, some of trunks enemies for the president and his supporters to be a price for the past 4 years. and rumors of wars as strong tries to bring troops home some say the start of the war. it's been decades since the fall of spain's fascist regime, but old wounds still haven't healed in the us at the source mean older than us. and i think ultimately, you know,

thousands of newborn babies were torn from their mothers and given away and forced adoption that only feaster to this day mothers still search for grown children and hope for their birth parents. we're going underground 24 hours after voters headed to the ballot box in bikini the 1st of its presidential election amid i.m.f. reviews of its economy that could see its country's future pegged to a biden presidency coming up in the show. as neoliberal nations look to a coronavirus vaccine to save their economies from potential collapse. we asked the

director general of the international vaccine institute about the global efforts to vaccinate the entire world, including africa, where the corona virus has been far less deadly than in europe. and will a global mental health crisis be the next pandemic? we'll ask c.e.o. of the center for mental health about a surge in mental health issues as a result of coronavirus and why it's just proportionally affecting the poor in society. all the more coming up in today's going underground a 1st it's been a whole year since the 1st identified case of corona virus was reportedly detected in who, a province in china. and for many months big pharmaceutical companies have been racing to find a vaccine. now, big pharma companies, as well as some politicians and from them are arguably set to cash in big as the long awaited immunizations. start to roll out. joining me now via skype from seoul is one of the world's leading vaccine experts director general of the nonprofit international vaccine institute. dr. jerome kim. thanks so much room for coming in on. are you going to tell me what is the international vaccine institute? and why it is that nonprofit institutions like yours have failed to find the vaccine. and it's the big multinational,

big pharma companies like pfizer that have been so successful companies, i should say that to be in the hit by scandal. well, so you know, the, an international actually mr to be is an international organization kind of like to be a show you're $36.00, signatories not a single g 7 signatory, but our mission is to discover, develop and deliver safe, affordable and effective vaccines for global health. and actually, what we did during this pandemic is to say, we're not going to compete, have our own back seen. it makes kind of companies uncomfortable when we tell them it's, we're working on our own back, seem to say what we decided was to support companies which every company came to us for assistance, helping them with assays with animal studies, with clinical trials, with regulatory pathways, anything that we needed to do in order to advance a vaccine as quickly as possible. so in a sense, if the world wins that i.b.i. wins, and that was our strategy, that big advocates of free market, big pharmaceutical companies will say, and your, or your

a strategy failed it is pfizer astra zeneca, those big multinationals that create the vaccines no, into your a un mandated vaccine institute. so actually, you know, our vaccines institute is, is funded really by, you know, the governments of korea, sweden, india, and finland and the gates foundation. the welcome trust. and our goal is really to get vaccines over the finish line. i mean, we don't think about it that vaccine is being our vaccine,, our oral collar vaccine is given to companies to make without any benefit i.d.i., our goal is to impact global health. and. and if we can do that in any way possible, then we've accomplished our mission. well, you mentioned the gates foundation. their research suggests that global cova debts will double of high income countries by up to the 1st 2000000 doses of any successful vaccine. do you agree with so that's a great study and we've been using it to advocate for something called kovacs. the

kovacs societies is an organization under the leadership of the world health organization set b. and gavi $192.00 countries signed on to get 2000000000 doses of vaccine w.h.o. approved vaccine by the end of 2021. and it will be given to the countries that are part of the facility, not agone, 192 of them roughly 20 percent of their needs for now. and that's actually really important because it's never been the case before that innovative vaccine technology has made its way from the laboratory, through the clinic, through a big multinational corporation or a chinese company or an indian company. and then out into global health it at roughly the same time that it's available in the united states, u.k. and europe. so in a sense, kovacs is a victory for those people who believe in multilateralism in transparency, you know, unfortunately there are 2 big standouts from kovacs. it's the united states and this and russia. unfortunately, they should join. well, it's interesting that neither of those 2 countries do,

and both of those countries obviously have those vaccines. but if you know.