u.s. regulators force astra zeneca to admit its covert job is less effective than previously claimed and pointed inconsistences in trials. joe biden gives the 1st media conference of his presidency and is already voicing plans to run for the white house in 2024. republican party to run against. and a special report we travel to one of the world's 1st places to scrap tough covert curbs and announce it's officially free of restrictions it's russia's republic of chechnya.

low life and worldwide this is r.t. international from moscow welcome to the program here's what's happening u.s. medical regulators have forced astra zeneca to admit its covert shot is less effective than it claimed the authorities revealed the may have included outdated information in vaccine trials. reports. well astra zeneca is hardly out of the headlines these days and now with its in them because its drug is said to be less effective than originally thought the data and safety monitoring board expressed concern that astra zeneca may have included outdated information from the trial which may have provided an incomplete of the efficacy date us regulators questioned the efficacy of the astra zeneca job forcing the company to publish additional data to show what happened in its trials as a result of that we now know that the astra zeneca jab is 3 percent less effective

at dealing with symptomatic cases of covert 19 however it is still 100 percent effective at dealing with severe cases including those that require hospitalization this is what astra zeneca has had to say the primary endpoint maxon efficacy at preventing symptomatic of its 19 well 76 percent occurring 15 days or more after receiving 2 doses given 4 weeks apart well astra zeneca has had a pretty bumpy ride in the e.u. after they were all humans about whether it was a feeling it's contracting delivering the required number of doses he was also accused of the right thing to seize from the e.u. to go to the u.k. which has caused a huge storm between the u.k. and the e.u. then of course we had jobs of astra zeneca being suspended last week after a swathe of european countries are concerned that they were possible links to blood clots that led to the european medicines agency this is the may have been to really

review all of the data and they came to completion again last week that it believes that astra zeneca is a safe vaccine she says the benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread throughout of kovi 19 continue to outweigh the risk of side effects the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots and those who receive it however the. i may said it would now be adding warnings to the medicine to let people know that one of the possible side effects could be blood clotting a warning that's already in place in countries such as canada but despite those reassurances from the e m a there hasn't been fully convincing all the european countries some european countries like france finland iceland have decided that they will start giving astra zeneca again in fact some of them already have however they will only give it to populations of old age groups and that's because when the evidence was things

they said in their press conference last week was that the case is that they had seen a blood clotting that could possibly be linked to astra zeneca. in the younger age groups now trusting us it's just seneca has completely gone off the edge of a cliff across the european union a recent survey by new girl found that the majority of people just didn't think that this vaccine was safe so this new information about the fact that it's not quite as effective as we previously were led to believe may seem like a very small thing but it really could erode trust even further. in this case a more medical inside talk to lawrence young who's a professor of molecular on quality and also director of the white cancer research center professor young welcome back to r.t. this isn't good news for astra zeneca is it how hard is its reputation going to be hit do you think. when i don't believe what this is about the obviously been some mistakes made and we will see some of the day so some of the interim data which is

what unusual actually for us to have to say that together with their colleagues at the university of oxford all the way through they've been quite transparent about data and published a lot of data more data the many of the other vaccine developments so i don't know what's going on here but clearly this id to some of the concerns that were raised in your last week is not good. for this vaccine it is not good for the confidence about all that city so what do you think astra zeneca should do that or say it's rare for this company to make this kind of mistake but the reputational damage can be swift and deep it's difficult to dig out of that isn't it you know as a sale i think is interesting as to why this is happening you might be worth a little bit as to why astra zeneca find themselves in the situation when they have been so good at publishing data when they have a vaccine that they're rolling out which is really effective you know this blood clot issue or

a very very rare consequence of of vaccination far far rarer than any other you know than than than than the side effects that you'd expect you know it's just not a big deal really compared to the benefits of protecting against it and it's interesting because if you look at this type of vaccine it's very similar to the johnson and johnson vaccine is very similar to the sputnik vaccine so it's interesting that you know i don't think there are any false safety issues with this but i think it's about rebuilding confidence in vaccines generally particularly in populations where there is a degree of vaccine anxiety or hazard and soon as a particular issue in continental europe but in terms of the wider effect on the inoculations bearing in mind that politicians listen to scientists but it's trust that they deal and if that takes a knock do you see nations maybe suspending astra zeneca again think that it before

. you know i think it will be a really thought thing to do because this is a very very effective back so you know the data albeit you know that these 3 percent margin that people are questioning is 3 percent in terms of overall symptomatic infection. so the protection is very high 76 percent for symptomatic infection that's across all different levels of infection and almost you know 100 percent in terms of very severe disease there's a very effective vaccine and what we've got to do i think is just encourage people to realize that the side effects or impact of not having the vaccine far outweighs the effects the clinical effects and consequences of having code itself so that is an issue about just building confidence again but i'm and that alongside some of the manufacturing problems that we're experiencing across the world with this and other vaccines is leading to a lot of concerns obviously generally about vaccination. calmer heads undertaken

making a prevail on this ok professor lawrence young thanks for joining us on r.t. . so. next a school teacher in yorkshire in northern england been suspended after showing people a cartoon of the prophet mohammed during a lesson protesters are gathered outside the school calling for the teacher to be sacked as the salad i report. a religious studies teacher at a school in west yorkshire in the north of england has been suspended after showing his pupils a picture of the prophet mohammed during a class now of course when it comes to the islamic religion any depictions of the prophet mohammed is considered to be. due to a backlash by a number of muslim parents of some children in that class the school took action and the head teacher gary kimball releasing a statement apologizing to the local community for any offense caused the school unequivocally apologizes for using a totally inappropriate resource in

a recent lesson the member of staff has also given their most sincere apologies we have immediately withdrawn teaching on this part of the course and we are reviewing how we go forward with the support of all the communities represented in our school . letter didn't deter at least 100 protesters from turning up at the school when it was due to open in the morning now those protesters stood outside the school they called for an investigation in to the teachers some of them calling for him to be sacked but they were also addressed by a local a mom who said that he was in contact with the school and dialogue with them and calling for an investigation to be carried out what happened here we are disgusted what has happened is totally unacceptable and we have made sure they are aware the teacher has been suspended they can't just sack him they need to do their due process we've asked for an investigation and investigation to be independent we are

going to work with the school to make sure things like these don't happen of course those protests by those parents peaceful but of course disruptive but in the past we have seen the issue of the cartoons of the prophet mohammed sparking wide debate particularly in the wake of the charlie hebdo attack and so incident is like. these will only serve to continue to spark that debates whether one does have free speech to draw pictures of anyone offensive as they may be or whether there is a line that can't be crossed when it comes to not offending people not just in terms of religion but also the wider sense of safe spaces and other issues to do with free speech that we've seen rising up not just in the u.k. but also across europe and the west. talking to us earlier on r.t. the head of the ramadan foundation in the u.k. says no one group should be allowed to exploit this issue for their own ends it's

a very delicate situation and that's why we shouldn't be in this situation you know it's absolutely right that the school have apologized and taken responsibility there's a gym process that has to be followed to anybody who's advocating any sort of violence towards a teacher or anybody else and i would condemn that and i would do absolutely everything in my power as a last him organization based in the united kingdom to whatever we can to protect the teacher because violence is an acceptable at that moment you start using violence you know you did trouble what people want is to fall into and we're not going to compared to do that you know we can maintain a peaceful response and we can use the due process but we mustn't allow anybody on the right or anybody within the muslim community to try to take advantage of this. has been a while coming but u.s. president joe biden has held his 1st formal press conference since taking over the white house he touched on vaccination rollout foreign policy and the migrant crisis

on the united states southern border among other things as well let's cross life now to our teams kind of open voting across there's a record late press conference by an american president was it worth the wait. indeed joe biden as the incoming president did not address a joint session of congress and it's been until now that we finally have a official press conference an official press conference finally happened from joe biden where he spoke with members of the media now a number of issues were discussed i had been long anticipated and there was a lot to talk about one particularly interesting moment came when the issue of whether or not joe biden would run for reelection came out it was pointed out by a reporter that joe biden had not yet formed a committee for his reelection and here's how the exchange went very interesting words take a listen personnel he also just made some news by saying that you are going to run

for reelection and i said that is my expectation so is that a yes that you are running for reelection. i don't know where you guys come from man i've never been able to travel i'm a great perspective fate had there very much planned for and i have 3 and a half years ahead for certain and dave believe he'll be running against former president trump oh i don't even think about i don't have i have no idea. i have no idea who the republican party do you i know you have tension my question but i mean you know do you. now in addition to that and as a number of issues were discussed it seemed like a consistent theme was blaming the trumpet ministration or the dismal state of affairs whether it was afghanistan whether it was the ongoing situation with china or whether it was the issue of immigration and the crisis at the u.s. border the situation regarding migrants and unaccompanied minors took up quite a bit of time at the press conference as joe biden you know reassured that everyone

that it was not simply due to his presidency that we've seen an upsurge of migrants crossing the u.s. border and this is what he said in response to reporters kind of pressing him on that issue. people are coming because i'm a nice guy that's reason why it's happening and truth of the matter is nothing has changed as many people came 28 percent increase in children of the border in my administration 31 percent in the last year of 2019 before the pandemic in the trumpet ministration and i started to deal with it back when i was united states senator for i mean a vice president putting together a bipartisan plan rover $700000000.00 to do the root causes of why people are leaving what do trump do he eliminated that funding he didn't use it he didn't do it and in addition to that when he did he dismantle all the elements that exist to deal with what had been a problem and quick and has been continued to be

a problem for a long time. now there was also a lot of discussion about media access or lack thereof of media access to the facilities where migrant children are being held in addition to that there was some discussion of the filibuster and the rules of the u.s. senate which enable you know the filibuster to be used to block legislation there was talk of concerns of new voting laws and voting restrictions across the country so on it was quite a moment to finally see joe biden address the press or the formal press conference so many were highly anticipating it and joe biden seemed to reassure everyone that he has the situation under control when it comes to things like the vaccine he's he's handling things a very calm tone certainly from the white house already out there and didn't suddenly seem to be enjoying his maiden press conference ok thanks for taking us through that catapulting. apparently you are never too young to

be progressive in a washington post article experts have guided parents to books websites and companies offering woke up material for children the feature titled social justice for toddlers talks about the importance of equality racial and gender education for kids the article highlights materials like a drag queen website books like anti racist baby and woke baby and a firm selling toys and learning materials to dismantle bias however many have found the advice divisive and some even harmful. can we just teach children to walk talk or play before we start hoisting our deal to neurosis on them indoctrination is wrong washington post this conversation is one that divides us universal identity is what should be centered not race not gender this generation of kids is going to need decades of therapy after going through this critical race theory one half of them will just crumble under the white guilt pushed into them

and turn into fragile ghosts barely resembling human beings the other half will just get radicalized we call reaction to the washington post piece from talk radio host john gongs and wayman benefits from unite against fascism. can i just check the calendar he said a prove the 1st this is a complete and utter joke listen when kids are 3 or 4 they want to play with each other and they should be encouraged and we as modern parents or grandparents should not be reinforcing prejudice our prejudices if we have them on to the children of course it's important to show kids by example that you're not racist or homophobic or sexist i would agree with all of that but produce him pox for 3 year olds talking about arm awoke baby it's just absolute nonsense the whole of america has laughed at the washington post 3 year olds don't

buy books john parents buy books because what we're trying to do is to try and develop beings to respect each other it's not automatic i will with the what the washington post are trying to do is have a discussion about how we develop people and that included parents so parents can be parenting they don't fear alone they label it start to try and bring up a better generation in the previous generation that we have to do something. instead of being like evil out that happens as moses tried to instill and key races where equality treatment or nonsexist behavior whatever it's not society is going to be very very difficult job we have to start somewhere you don't started 3 years old with a drag queen or whatever they used new term is reading them bedtime stories at 3 years old the washington post have been ridiculed this is the wont sector the work sector trying to push their agenda on to 3 year olds well i'm sorry it's not needed

it's not necessary if you conference racism if if you come across and sexism and if there's a problem in schools let's address that but please for goodness sake let. heartless be told let's see trying to teach our children to illegally quality of only age it's never too early yet. lives are human beings behave and that's important. to generation doesn't carry the previous sins of the previous other generations since it's been so true this whole idea that i should feel guilty for the sins of previous generations well no i'm not going to pass that guilt on so the next generation i'm sorry i disagree completely. if you haven't received your parcel from abroad yet don't rush to blame the delivery guy your goods might be among those stuck in a jam right now in one of the world's busiest shipping routes the suez canal in

egypt a joint container ships run aground there and caused a major backup on the route the vessel which is 400 meters long that's around 4 football fields is wedged across the waterway trapping more than $200.00 other ships 12 percent of global trade passes through the suez canal and the blockage is halted almost $10000000000.00 worth of daily marine traffic egypt had to reopen the canals all the parallel channel to let some of the vessels through until the ground ship gets refloated and that's not going to be a quick task either shipping experts think the dislodging it could take days or even weeks. around the world to coronavirus pandemic has inflicted severely difficult times it's also been uncharted territory every countries quickly had to learn how to best deal with this massive new health threat now some have apparently fared much better in their efforts than others so now as we start to work out what lessons can be learned and how to move forward we've got a special report for you from the russian republic of chechnya often criticized

from abroad for its humanitarian record and strict regime has if out a way through the pandemic that could be a template for others our correspondent were there to see firsthand constantly rushkoff. yeah he tried to me up a bit personally i condemn these methods but it seems they've proven to be quite effective and i think. they took me to the police station a couple of times what for for being outside but seriously the let's start over. when you think of chechnya your mind will kind of some negative associations chechnya was one of the most frightening place in islamic extremism in chechnya to the horror that i've never witnessed the authoritarian leader of the russian republic of chechnya. has a bad reputation in the west violations and

a crackdown on the eligibility community the like of democracy the list goes on yet at the same time during the pandemic people here it's surprising is it might sound are in many ways freer than people in moscow and new york london paris you name it . highland church now and that means i can legally without breaking any rules or regulations get rid of this you see chechnya has become one of the 1st regions in russia to lift a mandatory mask wearing make and effectively one of the few places in the world without coronavirus restrictions because as local authority claim they've conquered the virus how common is formidable change now i know it's a democratic iraq that's enjoying the freedom of worship freedom of movement and the 3 basic right to live your life as you used to was it a chechen medical miracle or extremely oppressive measures taken by the local government. and brought in this largest place of gathering

the central mosque a new social distancing is required and masks are nowhere to be seen. more. of the. 10. 17. the division that's a supposed which is no the number of new infections is going down with a lot of people good sense and it's all recovered from cozy this is what you're seeing is to come possible because we fold older ships so thanks to all the smoke we can stand together and pray with us. in bras need the region's cabbage you can walk into any cafe and traveled back in time to the pre-code era it is still weird that i have to wear a mask staff they don't wear masks at all so i think it looks strange

after an year of that and that makes people around us seem to enjoy this newfound sense of freedom well though there is this one question we ask them that many appear reluctant to answer but i heard that they had a very tough like down here in chechnya. well yes mr modi you couldn't leave your house that it was very strict. yes but how shallow they were sick so i didn't get to know anyway come on they say all right now yes he's fine the girl was clearly uncomfortable talking about the lockdown later the same day i had another intriguing conversation with locals that followed showed us how do you feel about the quarantine and the lock down and said truck it is i know what they took me to the police station a couple of times what for the for being outside. without wearing a mask is that we weren't allowed to go outside at all but seriously let's start

over there is something about the chechen lockdown that makes people here very cautious about talking there were reports of force used against those who didn't comply with anti coronavirus rules allegedly several people were even beaten for sure when. up in public without a mask. i mean yeah in chechnya they used the special methods to combat the spread of coronavirus right in and out of my view to something like yeah you know the part of the north caucasus in general has seen anything like it seems to me now that the war in challis which is a smaller town in chechnya and it came into the spotlight after this video came out . around a dozen of people in police uniforms patrolling the area holding white plastic pipes allegedly there was war local law enforcement and the pipes were meant as an intimidating tool for those who do not comply with quarantine at the local administration which is located inside this stunning skyscraper built in the town

of 10000 people we were told that the video is just another fake so when they get over into the border going to our law enforcement offices always work was in the lives of the locals in monaco in a civil and. we couldn't find anyone who would confirm that people were beaten in chechnya or for not complying with the quarantine many locals heard the rumor and literally everyone we met said they strictly followed all the rules reduced by the local government as deputy minister of health and medicine at a children's hospital that was turned into a center for example which they should stay because i was vaccinated they even allowed me into the red zone in. the hallways were quiet and spotless most of the units were empty and medical staff looked fresh and full of energy the facility didn't look like it had a particularly hard time during depend demick the region bragg's one of the lowest numbers of registered cases of daily new infections of covert related deaths i mean

it really looks impressive which may janya it or if it's armed us in italy now i don't trust the official numbers are hard to not only those provided by chechen officials but these fishel data from the north caucasus region in your mouth we've seen a lot of the. it is assuring that the numbers are under a poll to time you so imagine my surprise when not just an opposition journalist but also one of change now its top health officials told me to do not take this social data at face value. he says to me to design 50 percent of our population have probably already had to wait so you're saying that over 50 percent have to already had it but according to the officials and i specifically checked that the number of registered cases is in 13000 make it clear times is the number of foundations confirmed in many people's you know showing any symptoms. and that was quite a journey of people in chance now their clients and their hospitable and they're

always willing to help on the one hand but on the other they are cautious and they seem to always keep something for themselves especially when they talk with an outsider they always mindful of what they're saying to you i guess this is part of the cultural code chechen society which went through 2 bloody wars is a tough it is closed and close knit at the same time. and their experience of getting through this pandemic might be different from what people have in europe the united states the rest of russia but it's hard to tell that it didn't work out at the end of the day so this is it were a flight out of chechnya i'm back to moscow and what that means well for one thing that means that i have to put my mask back on. comes if you go for that report from chechnya as i live picking up again in one russian republic of course on the very front line of all this all around the world

the medical workers doctors working so hard to help a soul in tribute to them. along with the head doctor of moscow's main covert hospital tells the stories of the nurses who work shoulder to shoulder with doctors to save lives i'm going to have the full version later tonight and locally where you will. it but i really can't recognise them by their face it was not i recognize them by their eyes. it was personal protection equipment has drastically changed perceptions if you recognise a person either by a large batch on their chest or which happens more often by their eyes that's how you recognise them later in the green zone. the red zone the corner teens are and you have to wear p.p. there which is uncomfortable because it never fits properly.

when they 1st brought the patients in they were scared of us it took us some time to realise that there was this young girl they brought her here from the airport she was crying all the time so i said on the bed beside her and asked are you scared of us she said yes so i said to her we're just like you were human and we're scared to. last summer was a real just unreal when you lower your arm streams of sweat poured down the sleeves it was really hot in there. live. my life has been split into before and after a strange as it sounds. sometimes you see a person and realise that they're an ideal nurse something i could never be.

it's practically my 2nd family frankly.