we are here is actually on fire. this is g.w. new swine flu from berlin tonight the coronavirus vaccine that works but not necessarily for those who need it most german public health officials say the astra zeneca bank scene should not be given to people over the age of $65.00 due to insufficient data but astra zeneca and the british prime minister they disagree they say the vaccine is affective for senior citizens also coming up this strict

coronavirus lockdown in lebanon protests are now in their 4th day as anger grows along with the economic crisis and the crime that shocked germany a politician shot in the head in cold blood a neo nazi pulled the trigger today the murderer was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. i bringed golf it's good to have you with us the drug manufacturer astra zeneca and the british prime minister boris johnson have defended the efficacy of the company's covert 19 vaccine in older people the rebuttal came after experts here in germany recommended that the u.k. swedish companies coded 19 bags seen not be offered to people over the age of 65 the backseat committee. germany's robert call public health institute said there

was insufficient data to assess the drug's effectiveness of among this age group the vaccine has not yet been licensed for use in the european union it's expected to be approved however in the next few days perhaps tomorrow. let's bring in our political correspondent hans braun he's on the story for us here in berlin and as i understand it german experts are not saying that this drug doesn't work for older people they're just saying there isn't sufficient data one way or the other. exactly obviously there were extensive studies done on the drug before it was licensed before it was accepted as being effective 1st studies involve tens of thousands of people many of them in brazil and in south africa and also in the united kingdom but the fact of the matter is that in that sample that was used for those studies. there were very few people of of an age somewhere over

$65.00 it was somewhere around 5 percent of that sample and the german authorities are saying that's true little to be able to say with certainty that this vaccine will be effective for people in that age group and so they want to err on the side of caution and at the moment are recommending that it not be used for people above that age you know this really comes amid disputes between the e.u. and the british swedish manufacturer over supplies of the vaccine and widespread dissatisfaction with the speed of vaccination rollouts here in germany and across the e.u. will take a look at this report and then we'll come right back to you. accessing this vaccination center in brandenburg in eastern germany is harder than it might look to get an appointment for a covert 19 job you need staying power only those determined enough to get past the overloaded top line will get an appointment like man for didn't head to green bag

both are over 18 and on to germany's number one high risk group. to talk to your mother got the appointment for us but it took you a long time to get through and arrange the time. as in other vaccination centers in germany things are moving slowly many remain empty because there's not enough vaccine. only 70 people a day can be immunized instead of the planned 600. the situation is even worse in other regions this center in cologne is not even open appointments are being made for february but it's not an easy process. is calling them to be kept on hold there are ways and then you don't even get an appointment machine. in can mean my appointment was made online by myself right on the 1st day in one morning. last hot line in north rhine-westphalia is overwhelmed. other countries are moving

faster israel for example has already vaccinated almost half its population about 4000000 people britain has immunized 10 percent the us 7 germany has vaccinated around 2000000 people 2 percent of the population in line with many other countries germany social democrats say that's not good enough and it's in vegas and you say israel britain and the u.s. are all making progress but there are a lot of problems in the european union and we need to address them quickly vaccine manufacturers contracted to supply e.u. member states are now reporting production delays not good news for this facility in brandenburg or others around germany filling these chairs is likely to take some time. your hands of me how will germany's decision not to use the astra zeneca bank

seen in people over 65 hells that going to impact the country's vaccination rollout strategy. well it's obviously adding a further level of complication to us that you're a ation that is already very complicated we're hearing reports of people in that age group above 80 that are being vaccinated 1st to having their confirmed appointments cancelled at the moment because the authorities are not sure whether they'll be able to have a vaccination at that time at the same time people under 65 will now have to be called up it's going to be very complicated so complicated in fact that i'm going to medical the chancellor is calling a special summit on monday with the leaders of various 60 of the 16 regions in germany and representatives of pharmaceutical companies and various other interested parties in order to try and coordinate all of this and possibly look for ways that the supply of vaccines in germany can be speeded up there's even talk of some german companies manufacturing or bottling this vaccine for the companies that

have been licensed with that have had their vaccines license in order to get through the bottleneck in some way it's become a politically very hot potato in germany in a country which is waiting for elections in a few months time so there is quite a lot of political infighting here as well enough think i'm going to go is trying to spread the responsibility a little as well it's less the situation with the vaccine what about the tougher lockdown that the country is in right now well that's actually working at the moment the numbers of infections are going down and the numbers of deaths there's also slowly going on all the much more much much less quickly than than the numbers of infections but at the same time there is a lot of concern about the mutated viruses and so there's no prospect at the moment for the doctor on measures to be relaxed or political correspondent hans von with the latest tonight here in berlin ponce thank you. well here's

a look now at some of the other developments in the pandemic biotech confines or say their vaccine is effective against the british and south african koroma virus variants meanwhile the united states has reported 2 cases of the south african corona virus variant in the state of south carolina and portugal is reintroducing controls along its border with spain to control a surge in corona virus infections and deaths are let's have a look now at some of the other stories that are making headlines around the world a moscow court has rejected alexina of all these appeal against imprisonment the kremlin critic appeared today via video link he was arrested for parole violations and remanded in custody for 30 days after returning to russia from germany where he had been recovering from a near fatal poisoning pakistan's supreme court has ordered the release of the british born man convicted over the killing of american journalist daniel pearl 19

years ago a panel of 3 judges acquitted auckland omar saeed shaykh of involvement in mr pearl's kidnapping and beheading is 3 coach accused were acquitted last year. european powers have warned that iran is undermining hopes of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal by resuming 20 percent uranium enrichment iran today announced that production was ahead of target and rejected washington's call to comply with the agreed curbs tehran says the us must 1st rejoin the pact which was abandoned by donald trump in 20. unrest returned to the lebanese city of tripoli on thursday after overnight clashes between security forces and protesters that left one man dead she curity forces fired tear gas in crowds at the lack of compensation for workers during the coronavirus walked out protests started the

monday and are spreading to areas outside tripoli at a time when the country is already struggling with the pandemic and the worst economic crisis that it has seen in decades. or for more now we want to go to d. w.'s resigns oman she is in beirut to resign what do protesters what do they want. good evening brant protestors have been back on the streets and tripoli for several days now and they are demanding this us to see. such as food water electricity and education. nationwide implemented over $1000.00 dumped on have been had very harsh on citizens already suffering from sour economy conditions because to 5 percent of that have been this population fund under the cover it's a dime and that is not to be one of the poorest areas and of and on having the richest and then was fortunate that it's a good deed just some of them were through former and p.s.

one of them was a former prime minister and they were on the list of the top tycoons of the forbes 2020 1000000000 analysts ok well is the government now looking at additional economic support for the people. well at the beginning of this recent lockdown. the government has approved of giving an allowance for some of these who depend on a daily income and somebody is suffering from dire financial. circumstances and conditions but this has become. significant since the country has been witnessing an inflation 80 percent devaluation of its currency and just to give you a clearer picture for example an average rate of citizen over the course of this and ship it is less than 2 u.s. dollars per day mason what about the vegetation role well how was that progressing

. well brant caretaker prime minister of 7 health have a person has announced that the 1st batch of vaccines will arrive in lebanon and mit have drury he also said that all the residents including the syrian refugees and palestinians and on the nationalities residing in lebanon will have access to the vaccine and he plans on getting 80 percent of the population vaccinated by the end of 2021 priority is definitely for the health for the frontline health. workers and the older people and the citizens suffering from underlying health conditions but hospitals has told the human rights watch that they have not yet received any instructions on how the plan will be implemented.

with a ball to situation in lebanon was one thank you. well one of germany's most closely watched trials in decades has ended with a guilty verdict in life imprisonment for a right wing extremist he murdered regional politician 2 years ago mr luker was a member of chancellor angela merkel's c.d.u. party and had spoken out in support of refugees stefan shot him in the head at his home near the west of. it was a trial which brought the specter of violence in germany into sharp focus once again defendant stefan allen was charged with murdering an elected politician. was a well liked local leader who defended angela merkel's policies on migration it turned him into a target for extremists stefan recorded this video at a meeting where 5 deluca faced right hecklers you have to stand up for certain

values is anyone who doesn't agree with these values is free to leave the country that's a freedom every german enjoys. facially. 4 years later luca was assassinated at his home in june 29th in his body discovered by his son. 2 weeks later authorities arrested stefan and. over the course of the trial he confessed then retracted and later confessed again today they called found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life in prison luke is killing is one of several high profile attacks linked to the far right in germany in recent years costing a spotlight on the dangers extremists pose to democracy. or here's a look at that story that we're covering for you astra zeneca and the british foreign minister say that the vaccine against target 19 works in senior citizens

sturbridge health officials have said that it should not be used if you go over 65 because there is not sufficient data. you want you to. be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the day i hope to see you then. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. has the rate of infection been developing what does the latest research say. information and context the coronavirus update 19 special. on t w. what keeps us in shape what makes us sick

and how do we stay healthy. my name is dr carlson the i talk to medical experts. watch them at work. and they discuss what you can do to improve your health. state use and let's all try to stay. on top of. this is the plan. this is the plan and goal line and get it you know it's a lot of heavy reading. the white house finally has its own plan for distributing vaccines. 100000000 doses in 100. days. the new president also wants a 100 you back to nation status. and when least scores of for

a time doctors trained nurses and medical students. we will get through this we will defeat is pandemic into a nation waiting for action let me be clear stand this point help is on the way. corona virus has infected and killed more people in the us than anywhere else in the world. or biden better get cracking close to half a 1000000 people have died in the united states officials are converting sports stadiums and grocery stores into vaccination centers mobile units are on their way to underserved areas the plans ambitious but it needs to be surrounded by the coronavirus in her illustration it's all i think about visual artist sandra battleaxe expresses her feelings about the pandemic her biggest hope was getting

a vaccine and the date was already set. when i got the appointment i called everyone i told everyone i thought it implied that i was like what are you a lot of but the new york city ran out of vaccine doses. and didn't know that it had been changed until i saw something on the news and some friends sent me things saying that they were canceling all the rest of the appointments on thursday personally no one emailed me no one called me she's one of at least 23000 people in new york city whose appointments were cancelled 15 vaccine have shut down over the weekend new york authorities blame the federal government new york blames the federal government. they said they had additional dosages in. that they would send they say will increase the supply. they never did this is one of the facts you have here in new york city had to close due to the

vaccine supply shortages thousands of apartments had to be cancelled and many other parts of the us are experiencing very similar problems to by god ministration is under his pressure to solve this problem quickly this is the plan better vaccine distribution is part of joe biden's coronavirus strategy. but he wants stronger federal coordinator in the entire vaccination process by contrast former president donald trump left most of the decisions up to the individual states experts warn current problems won't be solved without increased production. i think number one is increase maxine supply is very very important motivate companies to accelerate the production of. could meet the demand. americans have high expectations. my family for almost

a year now. and i really want them to get vaccinated too so it's not just new york it's everywhere that. kind of problem so the federal government needs to step in there i think there's a lot of order that needs to take place in these testing and vaccination sites that are asking a lot of patient the people that people are going to react for more than days. sandra bad lex appointment was rescheduled but after the last cancellation she's now much more skeptical and just like hoping that they're going to come through with it the now i don't believe them anymore you know i trusted them last week but not now it'll take more time until the vaccines free americans from the virus. how much time monaco gandhi is a professor of medicine and associate chief in the vision of hiv infectious diseases and global medicine at the university of california san francisco good to see you again monica attard how much longer do you think this will take this

vaccine dr yes we have been plagued by many difficulties in the u.s. with this transition of power but president biden has committed to purchasing 200000000 more doses which meant that we have 400 before supposedly 600 this enough to vaccinate the entire u.s. population with its huge oses and the current estimates are by the end of the summer so things are slower than we had hoped and anticipated in the united states what about his promise of 100000000 shots 100 days going to achieve that. we are not yet at that goal either but i actually think that that can happen i do think that can happen we he signed in what's called the national defense production act last week actually was one of his 1st executive orders when he came into office which allows more supplies in sort of a war merchant fleet like situation to help produce more doses so we thought we had

the doses and we didn't have the doses so i think that 100 is achievable biden also wants to release all available vaccine for immunization according to reports rather than withholding half of it for the 2nd doses trump planned how wise is that. actually that is a very good idea the image of necessity or the amount of antibodies production that you get with a single dose is actually extremely high and of course we do need the 2nd dose that to ultimately what's required but increasing the duration between those 2 doses is likely to have no harm in the ultimate efficacy of the vaccine and the purpose is to get as many people some immunity as we can we've been the epicenter of the pandemic since march 26th the united states we have had the worst pandemic in the world so anything that we can do to increase vaccination rates is indicated if

you're waiting though these these poor people who are waiting weeks to hear whether or not they're going to get that 2nd is how much longer can they wait. so i mean that 1st dose will at least give over the 1st couple weeks 52 percent efficacy being depending on the vaccine it can go up to 80 percent they can go up to 6 right now the c.d.c. has said 2nd dose can be given 6 weeks later for the there is no even though the trials of 3 to 4 weeks. in the axioms in general increasing the duration usually does not diminish the efficacy and word of urgency situation so this one dose strategy and then given a 2nd later i actually think is biologically absolutely indicated the u.s. also wants to boost surveillance of new variants a critics call for a systematic nationwide strategy for sequencing the genomes of coronaviruses i mean

don't you need to be able to act quickly on mutations. yeah the problem. with that is there's actually very little you can do about new variants in less they feed the vaccine so there are 3 things new variants can do they can increase transmissibility they can crease very limits and they can evade the vaccine luckily we haven't seen the latter to any great degree in and increasing surveillance does little in less we can get the vaccine out into people's arms so if i were to focus on anything what folks on vaccine rollout get certainly surveille will always be able to hopefully tweak the vaccine in the future if we must to evade the variance but the in vaccine codes for the entire spike protein and these variants have little point we teach and along the rest i think we're focusing

a lot of the variance when we should be just literally there's nothing more important than getting people in unity against this virus in this episode or the pandemic really briefly if the u.s. does get its act together what sort of a difference can it make a broad buy by saying in the world health organization for example and back in kovacs to get vaccines to poor countries yes i completely agree that actually no country clearly is safe from crown of arson tell we have at a whole world wide distribution of these vaccines so i think it's imperative to kovacs it's imperative to have other companies that patents. make sense not during an emergency this is an emergency and so with good will to she vaccine we're never going to reach herd immunity without worldwide distribution monica gandhi university of california san francisco thank you very much for being on the show again thank you time for derrick williams our science correspondent has been

looking at your questions on the coronavirus. possible adverse events are they looking out for as vaccines are proved and rolled out and large numbers. temporary side effects like fatigue or headache or a slight fever are fairly common with many of the vaccines that have been launched but but around 70000000 people worldwide have received at least 1st doses so far and major adverse events remain extremely rare a handful of people per 1000000 have had serious allergic reactions after vaccination which is a side effect that occurs by the way occasionally with vaccines for other diseases as well but so far no deaths from an awful lactic shock have been linked to getting a covert vaccine in norway over 30 deaths recently among very

frail elderly people that occurred soon after they received the shot might have been linked to their vaccination and authorities there have adjusted guidelines for the moment but only for that specific group a few isolated cases of facial paralysis usually temporary have also been reported but the experts say that any link they are is very tenuous monitoring systems are of course in place to to watch out for any other possible adverse effects that might not have been identified in trials for example anything that might be longer term moving forward authorities will be looking very closely to see whether for example certain rare or auto immune disorders occur more frequently and in people who've been vaccinated although there is currently no

evidence that the vaccines that have been authorized so far can actually have those effects in general experts are in wide agreement that with a few exceptions almost everyone should get vaccinated when they had the chance because the benefits simply far outweigh any potential risks. you heard it from derek williams i've been fizzling thanks for watching stay safe and see you again sir. to the point of strong opinions clear positions from international perspective such . a real threat to vladimir putin down some commentary to see the kremlin's here's his critique alexander found me so who is taking a courageous and charismatic opposition leader who are opportunists fighting

a personal vendetta find out only to the point of showing up to the point. at which the next county doubling. has a virus spread. why do we panic and when will all this and trying to do through the topics that we covered and the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the crown of irish or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcasts you can also find us at d.f.w. dot com forum slash science a. life on earth one of a kind to end. a gigantic coincidence.

that 10 previously the earth was just in a mess the chemistry lab of all nations. where the improbable happened. to joseph the creation of our solar system with our planet is a bit like winning the lottery there is a little bit. an earth. starts feb 11th on d w. a real threats to vladimir putin that's how commentators are describing kremlin critic alexei novelli son who is he a courageous and charismatic opposition leader or an opportunist fighting a personal vendetta against president putin. the russian authorities certainly responded nervously to his recent return to moscow an avanti was immediately arrested in turn he put out a documentary film showing

a giant colored selectively belonging to president putin that triggered more claims and counterclaims and violent protests across.