competition when people like the editor of the lancet making extraordinary claims that somehow this was entirely preventable because of the herd immunity response look we know for sure that the numbers are a hell of a lot higher than the official numbers we don't know exactly what they are but we know there are a lot higher now in terms of the prince ability of this richard horton the editor of the lancet is exactly correct many scientists have been warning for some time and i come at this from the perspective of the precautionary principle the idea that when we don't know something we want to protect ourselves against what we don't know in the case of this emergency this virus it's unprecedented we don't know what effects it has we don't know for example whether it might have neurological effects where that might leave permanent lung damage we don't know a great deal about how it's transmitted yet we're gradually finding out but there's a lot we don't know ok but up until now living to let me just finish the point when we when we don't know that kind of stuff we need to on the side of

using mask this works there's no doubt the editor of the peer reviewed british medical journal the lancet says the response here in britain was wrong and that the outbreak has been entirely preventable what did you make of what you were hearing from britain when the chief scientific science advisor here's a patrick vallance who formerly worked at j.f.k. said herd immunity is the path to go down we now know that entails the deaths of quarter of a 1000000 people if you are already in a situation in which it's a cool muni acquired the only way that we need it to do is a tool up for conduct this is a general principle and it's i just see this to our all white court act we're getting reports of a lack of testing kits of protective again. for frontline medical stuff hit in london the epicenter of the pandemic in britain how can we learn from what happened in italy where thousands died about the need for testing which of course the world health organization has advised britain to get a move on with according to the level of it yannick you must concentrate on testing or rather just food to eat or

has been a lot of criticism towards the government there was for example the editor in chief of the lancet a leading medical paper and he has just 4 weeks almost to look at what's happening in other countries look at what's happening in italy and just act and be tough now the school closures come fairly late only in effect as of tomorrow even though some schools have already closed now voluntarily but officially as of tomorrow the schools will be closed the children of public health workers health workers and of other people who are necessary for the infrastructure for example food delivery they will be able to go into some schools so there will be some sort of provision but it's coming fairly late and lots of people hundreds of scientists in fact have the government over the weekend to be strict and yes now finally it is happening you're right back at mass the reporting in london thank you. now let's have a look at some of the other carona related developments around the world new zealand and australia are closing their borders to nonresidents and non-citizens to protect their nations fro

imitation product and you can use them and also there's a health buyer to it is recommended by the lancet the center for journal we've been talking about over and they're. recommending it died which includes meat and fish but only in their amount so if somebody wants to go plan based on his or her diet would you recommend using. turnitin like meat in the beginning i think it can make things easier but still often very processed and contain a lot of salt so in the end you should aim for eating more lentils beings for example so products like tofu or tempe and also nuts and see. or if you want to top off your protein you can even eat insects i mean many people around the world eating insects on a regular basis they are very nutritious tasty they're high in protein and they harm our environment much less then for instance carlos. is this the food of the future it could be since 2018 the european union allows insects to be processed into food and supermarket chains are already offering products made of insect flour or even entire larvae like buffalo and meal worms in many parts of the world i

of infection that was reported here on news are going to tell you ok globally then the editor of the lancet the peer reviewed journal here in britain richard orton claims the countries that will be most resilient will be those with the most equitable universal healthcare systems and any proof of that. well what i think is important is to understand that mortality from this disease and seriousness depends on the number of hospital beds available for the elderly who are greatest risk especially the elderly with co-morbidities so that means a health system which has beds which has isolation beds and which has ventilators will do a better job in saving lives than health systems which don't have that the u.k. i understand has made an agreement with the private sector to increase its beds and if the same time to make sure that there are ventilators available 'd and hopefully that will be sufficient italy has had a very difficult time because of its elderly population and that seems to be the population that has been initially infected with the virus and they've not been able to cope with all thes

epidemiological study conducted by scientists at the university of toronto it was published in the lancet just last night and this model's the likely size of the outbreak in egypt at the very beginning of march when egypt just had 3 cases officially and it's based on the fact that there was obviously a disparity between the number of official cases in egypt hand and the number of foreign nationals who were leaving the country and testing positive for the corona virus. on return home and so there was obviously a disparity in those numbers simply due to lack of testing we heard from the world health organization at a press conference last week that as of last week egypt had just tested 3015 people egypt is a country of 100000000 people. and so this issue of not having tested enough people to have a clear sign clear idea excuse me of the size of the outbreak is not a problem that's exclusive to egypt but egypt in their response to this reporting has politicized that problem and it's made it a president reagan issue when it's simply a public health issue but let's talk a little bit more about

allegations the fears appear to have been sparked by a letter last week to the medical journal the lancet it some researchers note that compounds like both affect certain receptors found on the surfaces of cells which happen to be the same receptors and viruses used to invade the cell so these researchers hypothesized a connection but we don't have enough information to either prove or disprove that hypothesis at this particular juncture still just this morning i talked with a doctor about this and he left no doubt that this was definitely going to have an effect on what people are prescribe whether that decision is based on science or not most physicians from now on are probably going to prefer to err on the side of caution and prescribe other medicines or fever like paris see them all which is also called see them in effect in the u.s. are often known by spamming tylenol. one caution. is that at the end important point it's been came up time and time again as we were doing our as i was looking into this is that doctors say that if you take ibuprofen for a quite a condition you really sh

meanwhile, you know, the editor—in—chief of the lancet is talking today on twitter about the realityof people trying to battle this, health workers et cetera, saying health workers are even coughing and having a fever and they aren't being tested at the moment, there's no advice for walk—in centres and a whole lot of areas where they need help and advice and they're not getting it. a long way to go even at that stage before we start developing a vaccine. kate, the suggesting is they will have to the suggesting is they will have to the intention is to increase the number of people tested each day? we've gone from a position of not testing too now seeing this as a huge priority. when i say not testing, i mean of course people have been tested in a hospital setting but not in the community. borisjohnson talked setting but not in the community. boris johnson talked about the aim of having 25,000 tests per day and then he threw in a number today of an overall hope of getting that up to 250,000 through time. this might be something that is simple in terms of its structure, format, as simpl

allegations and a few years appear to have been sparked by a letter last week to the medical journal the lancet and chinese researchers hypothesize they ipart the size that compounds like ibuprofen could affect certain receptors that are found on the surface of cells there are called a c e 2 receptors and they are what we think i was the corona virus uses to get into the cell but that's just the hypothesis we don't we don't have enough information right now it's either really prove that it worked or disprove it still i think that said i talked with a doctor in the field this morning about this and and he was pretty certain that it was going to have an effect on prescriptions i think that most physicians from now on will probably prefer to err on the side of caution and prescribe other medicines for fever medic though prescribe things like paracetamol which is called acetaminophen in the united states. one caution though an important point that came up time and time again when i was researching this topic is that if you if you take ibuprofen on the advice of your doctor then you really should no

these allegations the years appear to have been start by a letter last week to the medical journal the lancet some researchers noted that compounds like both effects certain receptors found on the surfaces of cells which happen to be the single receptors the root of viruses used to invade the cell so these researchers hypothesized a connection but we don't have enough information to other prove or disprove that hypothesis at this particular juncture is science correspondent eric williams followed thank thanks very much for the update. as many as 25000000 people worldwide could lose their jobs because of the corona virus outbreak that's the warning from the international labor organization people working in the tourism and service sector will be among the what the worst affected the number of the working poor holding one or more jobs will also increase significantly the united nations agency said it's called for urgent large scale measures to protect workers including paid leave short time allowances and of a subsidy. we are paying central bank has announced a 750000000000 euro bond buying pro

in an editorial in the lancet, health service officials are accused of having failed to adequately prepareng to chaos and panic. it claims this has left britain's health service unprepared to handle the flow of patients requiring treatment. in spain, the country's health ministry reports the country's death toll from the virus rose by more than 800 overnight. it brings the total of those struck down by the virus to more then 5,600 people. the increase of 832 deaths exceeds yesterday's record breaking one—day figure for fatalities in the country. spain has now more than 72,000 people infected with the virus. president trump has spoken to the uk prime minister, borisjohnson, after the pm tested positive for coronavirus —— with the two countries agreeing to work closely to fight the pandemic. in the us, mr trump signed into law a two—trillion—dollar emergency spending package to relieve the impact of the coronavirus on the us economy. millions of americans have lost theirjobs as a result of the crisis. from there, here's nick bryant. new york, new york, the worst infected city in what is now

allegations the years appear to have been sparked by a letter last week to the medical journal the lancet did some researchers noting that compounds like both affect certain receptors found on the surfaces of cells which happen to be the same receptors viruses used to invade the cell so these researchers hypothesized the connection but we don't have enough information to other prove or disprove that hypothesis at this particular juncture is science correspondent eric williams follett thank thanks very much for the update. and let's take you to taiwan now which has so far managed to keep its infection right follow of the neighboring countries despite its proximity to china where the for outbreak started weeks ago the island was expected to become the 2nd worst hit region after china but that didn't happen so what did taiwan do right and how is it coping with the ongoing pandemic. kong is in taiwan and sent us this report. surgical masks and goggles have become part of dr who's uniform since the corona virus outbreak began he was among the 1st group of doctors in taiwan to treat suspected p

influenza then and now in the leading medical journals in the united kingdom the little tube is called the lancet to talk about bloodletting and with this breakthrough pandemic there was another epidemic from the military camps in great britain and they tried everything including they said bloodlettin bloodletting. this is the time of my own grandfather. in 1916 position on - - positions were trying bloodletting on patients and of course it didn't work but they said we think it didn't work because we tried it too late. had we tried it sooner in the care of these soldiers then maybe it worked then in 1918 at the height of the epidemic of bloodletting yes sometimes it works for influenza. so you could see it wasn't the anime than the bloodletting could get you in there was a nasty array of medicines that we had to treat this we saw earlier an ad for the concoction containing coining that it was a useful drug for malaria but useless as a treatment for flu because it's useful for malaria it reduces the fever cycle and that it reduces fevers and malaria and influenza through quite different mechanisms

of her 372 trace contacts, a study published in the lancet found that they have only detected transmission of the specific name of the disease, not the coronavirus we are talking about -- in a single household contact with frequent prolonged interactions with the patients. if out of three hunted seven to contacts, only one person who lived with her, her husband got it. why some people get sick and some don't. we don't know why some of those have only mild cold like symptoms why a significant minority of those affected may have serious symptoms at least in pneumonia and depth. one theory is that the severity of symptoms is linked to the strength of a person's general immune system. that's just one possible explanation. number four. patient is zero? we still don't know who the first patient was who contracted the virus in china. that's a key fact that a lot of researchers say is essential to the analysis of this disease. we first heard late december, then it was december 1st come on now reports to get all the way back to november 17th. this means that the coronavirus started spreading for we

in the united kingdom and it is named after that device leading medical journals today is called the lancet and that is 1916, two years before the great flu pandemic, there was another epidemic in the military camps in great britain and the doctors had tried everything including bloodletting they said. so in 1916 in the lifetime of my own grandfather, in 1916 physicians were trying bloodletting on these poor patients and of course it did not work. they said but it was because we tried it too late. had we tried it sooner, that maybe it worked and then there were thoughts in 1918 that are highly epidemic that yes sometimes it does work for influence up. so you can see if that didn't get you the bloodletting would and it was the nasty array of medicines that we had to try to treat this. we saw earlier the concoction that contained bromo quinine a useful drug for malaria but useless as a treatment for flu because it is useful drug for malaria it reduces the fever cycle and the idea that bromo quinine reduces fevers and malaria it will reduce and influenza through different mechanisms of the dis

the presidented medical journal "the lancet" describing the government's response so far as a nationalcretary in chief says the government has failed to follow the world health organization guidelines. a thoracic leads a union representing doctors. >> it's a snapshot about members into the ppe and preparedness for the onslaught. and 80% of our members said they were fearful. they were anxious. >> our action plan as you know sets up four phases of our approach to attacking the virus: contain, delay, research, and mitigate. >> just three weeks ago, johnson's plan sounded solid. no one mentions it now. back then, the former top government official was urging faster action, now reluctantly accepts defeat this government has delivered. >> i think it's difficult to criticize the government in these circumstances. they're trying to do their best in very, very difficult circumstances. i think when we look back at it, when the inquiry happens, people may say it was a bit late to move because usually my experience in government is you have to move quickly if you have a crisis like this. >> repor

what is this so this is a label from a water bottle dishonored bottle clearly and found amongst the lancet fish stomach . is a. design design is a pretty well known. bottled water company. you know finding finding level such as this in the sonics makes it that easy to determine where you know where it may have originated. this is always more to use than just which. is much more than just water in the bottle. in front sunny is one of the world's best selling water brands. and if you're not familiar. you will certainly know the name of the group behind it the coca-cola company. everyone knows coca-cola but not everyone necessarily knows that the group is in charge of dozens of other brands just sunny as part of the coca-cola company and sprite 2 there is also minute maid powerade and of course from one of the company's flagship brands. every year the group sells more than $120000000000.00 bottles across the globe that's almost like 1000 bottles a 2nd and this mass production is creating a devastating mass pollution. in january 28th the multinational made a bold announcement by 2030 the brand

a very critical line from the respected medical journal, the lancet. they're saying that the government's response has been a national scandal and that they failed because they didn't follow the w.h.o., world health organization guidelines, by test, test, test. chasing down connections of anyone and contacts with anyone who had had -- who had tested positive with the virus. the reality is still that brittain lags significantly behind the number of tests that it can perform in a day just reaching 10,000 tests that it can do in a day this weekend, whereas, germany has many, many fold more than that. >> yeah, germany has done an incredible job in the midst of all of this. nic robertson bringing us the latest from london. fred pleitgen. they say the credibility of the e.u. is at stake in the midst of this pandemic. what's the latest on that? >> reporter: a lot feel that way. they say if the european union is going to die, it's going to die because of inaction. that just shows you how the -- dire the situation is. rate now for the e.u. in this situation and

the respected medical journal "the lancet" describing the government's response so far as a nationaletary in chief saying the government has failed to follow the world health organization's guidelines. claudia paralini leads a union representing doctors. >> it's a snapshot. a snapshot into the ppe and the preparedness for the onslaught. and 80% of our members that were privy to this snapshot said they were fearful. they were anxious. they were fearful for their safety. >> our action plan as you know sets up attacking the virus, contain, delay, research and mitigate. >> reporter: just three weeks ago johnson's plan sounded solid. no one mentions it now. but then this former top government official was urging faster action. now reluctantly accepts the fate this government has delivered. >> i think it's fair to criticize the government in these circumstances. they're trying to do their best. when we look back on it, people might say it was a bit late to move. >> reporter: that questions will need to be raised is in doubt. her primary thought is keeping her doctor's spirits up. >> the qu

those regulations and i know that a couple of weeks ago you signed an open letter published in the journal lancet calling against the travel ban you argued that it's not only excessive but it may violate international law and one of the conditions on which travelled balance could be introduced is that it's done in accordance with science and yes i think you would agree with me that it's going to take months if not years to get definitive signs on these particular coronavirus as well as many others that may follow do you think these kind of international legislation this kind of regulations out up today given the with what we're dealing right now this emergence of the new sort of virus of a new family of viruses that's seem to be spreading faster than before and seem to carry higher fatalities down before well you're certainly right that we won't ultimately know whether things where in the right way at the right time. well after this outbreak is over but we have to get outbreak is the data that we see on the ground and the best available research evidence that's available to us at that time and th

>>break again, there has been a miss information prompting this open letter by scientists in the lancetconspiracy theories do nothing but create rumors and prejudice that jeopardize our global collaboration in the fight against this my pet can give me the virus because we know. >>that a pet here in hong kong has tested positive for the new coronavirus the pet has a very bitter taste in quarantine it's very unlikely more likely that dog has being environmentally contaminated even though is contaminated you won't get a very high farlow and very unlike the debt you can actually be. >>transmitters from the pets 2 is very unlikely. >>now this is a big one and wearing a mask will not protect me from the virus because you have the us surgeon general telling people you don't need to buy a mask is not effective is it. >>if you look at the in hong kong wearing moss is probably the most important thing in terms of infection control well in not only bring down you know the cases of coronavirus it also bring down the infant so in fact this is now the influenza season. and we hardly seen any influenz

>>break again, there has been a miss information prompting this open letter by scientists in the lancetiracy theories do nothing but create rumors and prejudice that jeopardize our global collaboration in the fight against this my pets can give me the virus because we know. >>that a pet here in hong kong has tested positive for the new coronavirus the pet has of the east in quarantine it's very unlikely more likely that dog has being environmentally contaminated even though is contaminated you won't get a very high farlow and the very unlike the debt you can actually be. transmitted from the pets 2 is very unlikely >>that this is a big one and wearing a mask will not protect me from the virus because you have the us surgeon general telling people you don't need to buy a mask is not effective is it. >>if you look at the in hong kong wearing moss is probably the most important thing in terms of infection control well in not only bring down you know the cases of coronavirus it also bring down the infant so in fact this is now the influenza season. and we hardly seen any influenza cases and

according to an article in medical journal the lancet, it puts older americans at greater risk of depressionty. >> watch for the signs. if they're not talking to you as much as they did before, if they're not as chatty. >> reporter: this doctor is with the cleveland clinic and says it's more important than ever to reach out to the seniors in your life. watch for potential warning signs. if they say they're having trouble sleeping or eating, you notice they're having low energy or neglecting their physical care, and they're feeling hopeless. >> make sure you connect with them. daily, maybe twice day over the phone or virtually through a platform where you can see their faces. >> reporter: some nursing homes are working to get tablets to residents, and communities are finding ways to reach out safely. like this honks for hugs parade at a senior living facility in cleveland. >> it's thrilling. have i four cars of my family went through today. i was in that window, and i was crying. >> reporter: a show of love to seniors separated by a pandemic. sar sarah dallof, nbc news. >>> let's check bay ar

>>break again, there has been a miss information prpting this open by scietists in the lancet conspacy theories do thing but create rumors and prejudice that jeopardize our global colloration in the fight against the my pets can give me the virus because we know. >>th a t here hong kong has tested positive for the new coronavirus the pet has a ve taste in quarantine it's very unlikely mo likely that doghas being environmentally contaminated even though is contaminated you won't get a very high farlow and the very unlike the debt yocan >>transmitted fr the pets 2 is very unkely. >>at this is a big on wearing a mask will not rotect me from the virus because you have thus surgeon general telling people you don't ne to buy a mask is not effecve is it. >>if you look at the in hong ong wearing moss is probably the most important thing in tems of infection control well innotonly bring down you know the cases of coronavirus it also bring down the infant so in fact thisis now the influenza season. and we hardly seen any influenza cases and that is because the moss actually protect not only agai

there was a small article in the "lancet" that looked at wuhan, china.t women in their third trimester. none had severe complications and none of them transmitted it to their fetuses. but we know in other coronaviruses like sars, there is more adverse pregnancy outcomes. would it effect women earlier in their trimesters? we don't know. it's an evolving viral issue. if you're sick, have a fever a cough, if you're spiuspicious y may have it, you should go to the hospital so you can be isolated, monitored and aggressively watched. >> i don't envy your phone calls these days. thank you for that. it's the thing most people ask me. how do i stay safe? qtsds wh >>> when we come back trump rhetoric. my body is truly powerful. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to. trulicity is for people with type 2 diabetes. it's not insulin. i take it once a week. it starts acting in my body from the first dose. trulicity isn't for people with type 1 diabete

those regulations and i know that a couple of weeks ago you signed an open letter published in the journal lancet calling against the travel ban you argued that it's not only excessive but it may violate international law and one of the conditions on which traveled bans could be introduced is that it's done in accordance with science and yes i think you would agree with me that it's going to take months if not years to get a definitive signs on this particular corona virus as well as many others that may follow do you think these kind of international legislation this kind of regulations out up today given the with what we're dealing right now this emergence of a new sort of virus of a new family of viruses that's seem to be spreading faster than before and seem to carry higher fatalities down before well you're certainly right that we won't ultimately know whether things where in the right way at the right time. after this outbreak is over but we have to get outbreak is the data that we see on the ground and the best available research evidence that's available to us at that time and that is wha

in a new study plushed in the lancet looked at 100 patients and found survivors continues to release coronavirus from their bodies for a median of 20 days. some continued viral shedding for a maximum of 37 days. another study still awaiting peer review suggests the coronavirus can remain viable in aerosol droplets from things like sneezes and coughs for as long as three hours, up to four hours on copper surfaces, 24 hours on cardboard and at long as three days on plastic and stainless steel. trace, we keep hearing public health officials saying be sure to clean surfaces. this is why. trace? >> trace: good advice. jonathan serrie live for us in atlanta. let's bring in dr. william shatner a professor of medicine in the infectious diseases at vanderbilt medical center. doctor, so good of you to join us. i don't want to freak people out here with the whole the virus can linger in the air for three to four hours, are we making too much out of that? >> no. trace, actually, i think this study shows exactly how contagious this virus is. it emphasizes the importance, among other things, of co

in an editorial in the lancet, health service officials are accused of having failed to adequately prepareaos and panic. it claims this has left britain's health service unprepared to handle the flow of patients requiring treatment. and in other developments here in the uk, county councils are warning of major short term changes to local services as they prioritise efforts to keep people safe during the crisis. the county councils network, which represents 36 local authorities, says councils are being forced to stop or significantly scale back services. the credit ratings firm fitch has downgraded britain's sovereign debt rating, from aa to aa—minus, due in part to the economic damage the virus is causing. employees who don't take all their annual leave because of the crisis, will be able to carry it over for up to two years. the government said it didn't want people to lose out if they were working round—the—clock in key industries. let's turn to italy now, the country which has recorded the second highest number of infections, and, with more than 9,000 fatalities, the highest number of d

hospital beds, there was a study in the lancet journal that came out a couple of days ago saying that this country and going to need 4,000 more hospital beds. i think they're probably going to need more than 4,000 as this goes on and on. we heard from prime minister you sepp conte last night, and that this had not crested yet, and while the case load was not accelerating, it was flattening. >> so they are still in a situation where there are not enough hospital beds and they're still in a situation where doctors are triaging when patients come in, deciding who to treat and who to not treat based on their age and their underlying conditions and their prediction for how they'll recover? >> well, let me just specify that, katy. when i spoke to this doctor who was in lombardi earlier today, he said, okay, that triage something that all hospitals do -- >> of course. of course. >> reporter: -- under all circumstances. there is always a determination whether or not care is appropriate for a patient. he was important to say, this is ant death committee. doctors aren't saying, this patient wil

that for the cases, for example, nine cases in china that have been incredibly kind of detailed in the lancetr, contracted the virus in their third trimester, and all had a form of pneumonia that we think played some role in fetal distress, leading to c-sections and ultimately kind of all the babies did fine by the way. nine births. but ultimately led to kind of what we could call kind of complications in the delivery. so that's real. >> unlike the flu where in fants and children, young people who do not have well-developed immune systems tend to be more susceptible, that has so far not borne out in covid-19. >> right. this is kind of -- i hate to say there's something that's always kind of interesting about these novel viruses or if you want to call it the silver lining. in that sense, it's that children, not only infants, newborns, all the way up to at least age 14 have incredible kind of resilience and are just not getting infected. having said that, again, there are children that have been infected. all of them with the exception of one case have all recovered fully. so we're trying to un