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tv   BBC World News Outside Source  PBS  May 14, 2020 5:00pm-5:31pm PDT

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and by contributions to this pbs station from vik ers like you. thu. onwebc news for v in the u.k. and around the world. we are covering the very latest coronavirus developments. our top stories, the united states, the chair of the senate intelligence committee, richard burr, steps down. he is being investigated for alled insider trading during the coronavirus pandemic. meanwhile, a former topia officl turned whistleblower warned opportunity to deal with the
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virus is>> closing. knew we were going to have a crisis.r health care workers were not taking action. host: the new test designed to show whether people hav had the coronavis gets the gen light in england's health service after a rollout in the u.s. andu pe. and we will take a look at the u.k.'s care home prices where o order of all deaths from covid-19 have occurred. ahello, andarm welcome to the program. we have had two big developments in the united states today, both focusing on who, what, when in the u.s. government's response to the coronavirus. the first is testimony given by whistleblower dr. rick bright who led the ancy spearheading research into a vaccine. he told a congressional commite today that the u.s. will face a worse crisis unless it develops a better to
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fight the pandemic. in just the past couple of hours, we learned that richard burke one of the most senior republicansn -- richard burr, one of the mt senior republicans in the senate has stepped down as head of the senate intelligence commite. he is being investigated by the fbi for allegedly selling stock after he was briefed on the coronavirus. for the latest, our correspondent joins us live from washington. let's focus on richard burr, the most recent development coming from the united states. it's all an issue of stocks. remind us of what he is believe. to have do >> well, going back to february, when richard burr, as the chair of the intelligence city, was receiving daily briefin from the intelligence community -- intelligce committee, was receiving daily briefings from
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the intelligence community about the threat of the coronavirus to the united states. on february 13, he began selling stocks, anywhere from 600,000 dollars to more than $1 million in stocks and industries that were going tofee severely ed by the pandemic, travel, shipping, restaurants. after that, he said privately to some people that it looked like the pandemic was going to be as bad as the 1918 fluenza pandemic. the accusation is that he used the informationin he was ge as chair of the intelligence committee to educate his decisions on stock and was able totock in advance of what would be a massive u.s. stock market drop that began at the end of february and stretched into march. that is al violation of fede law.
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a 2012 law prevents members of congress from using nonpublic informaton t benefit or get guidance on their stock actions. host: that is the accusation. he is saying he is -- was using information that was available to the public,ut he was playing down the seriousness of corovis that we know now. today, a further delopment. his phone was taken by the fbi and he has announced he is standing down. >> right. what happened wasch that in m the fbi began an investigation to see if this was a violation federal law. this investigation continuedren. there wasure on him. now that the phone has been seized, it is clear this is a criminal investigation. aste chair of the igence
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committee, richard burr has oversight of the federal bureau of investigaon. host: i am so sorry to interrupt you, but we are out of time. we will ha much more on this on our website. viewers joining us in the u.k. have -- in the u.k., welcome to "outside source." our main focus in the.k.'s antibodies. england has become the latest country to approve the use of a bloodest that can tell whether or not you have had the coronavirus. the test was developed by sw s drug country -- company and has already been approved for use in the united states. health x roots can you -- e perts can use the test to work out how ny peove been infected, but whether it means disease is still an open
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question. >> it's what millions of britons want to learn -- have they already had coronairus?no it is possible to findut for sure with a blood test. this can be done by hand at imperial college in londonedr in an autom process leatew highly accantibody test approved for use in the u.k.. if you get infected with starts to produce antibodies. these become part of the system's memory. again, they should attack it. but how much protection they will give an how long that immunity will last is unclear. >>om viruses, we know the protection can fade. it's possible to be infected with the same ronavirus even though there are antibodies.
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so, we have to be careful to lsume any antibodies willt >> the company says it can provide hundreds of thousas of tests to the u.k. each week. pharmacies and health clinics could be involved in collecting samples. >> i anticipate it will be rapidly rolled out in the days and weeks to come, as soon it is practical to do so. i ao anticipate the focus will be on the national health service and on carriers --rs instance. first >> despitemi buying 3.ion tests, the government concluded none was accurate enough. >> this is another way of testing for antibodies. you procure thumb, and then apply a blood spot tohis piece of card, which is then sent to a
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laboratory for sophiicated analysis. >> that dry spot blood test i being developed at imperl college, london. it is planning to send out 100,000 home testingntibody kits once they are proven to be accurate and easy to use. put this by your tonsils. >> remember, ites is a swab tt like this whi willho sw if you arerently infected, so this remains crucial in preventing the spread the virus. bbc news. host: the u.k. government has commitment tg its protecting people in residential care. around a quarter of all known coronavirus dehs have happened in care homes. our colleague has been investigating this iss us. >> thank you very much.
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attics around care homes in england are stark. thousands of died. tens of thousands have an infected. while the human causes indisputable, the reasons forra thisdy are increasingly on the front lines. u c see here the widely used johns hopkins virus tracker st the u.k. as having the second-highest number of deaths in the world the u.k. government has recently started to qstion the validity of cntry comparisons. the story of theare home crisis goes back to march. during march, the uk's number grew from 40o over a thousand. some individuals were admitted to care homes without a test for the virus. why did that happen?
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did it contribute to the national surge in action? -- national surge in infections? a london doctors emails as we discharg known cases into care homes with no formal warning, no testing available, and no method to prevent trance mission. into theission.we actively sees pulation that was the most vulnerable. the u.k. government hasly consiste denied any suggestion it deliberately allow the virus spread. questions were raised march 13 20 chief scientific advisor -- when a chief scientific advisor said this. >> the vast majority of people
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will get a mild illness and could buil up herd immunity. at t same time, we need to protect those who are most vuerable. yikes that was a huge flop. atlantic -- >> that was a huge flaw. atlantic magazine ca it the herd immunity debacle. now, there can be no dispu that three important things did happen in march. first, the u.k. abandoned any effort to test, track, and trace the virus. that approach has proved very effective in south korea. boris johnson recentlydmitted that transmission exceededty capan the u.k. in other words, for whatever reasons, the u.k. did not have the test to do this.
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the u.k. locked down later than many european neighbors. a scientific advisor said you dll people to home too early, they get fed up at the very week when you need them to get home area -- very point when you need them to stay at home. for whatever reason, the march 23rd -- the u.k. decided to lock down march 23, much later than other countries. there was noystematicest until april 15. in march, we have a system where test, track and trace is not a goal. lockdown policies are not in sync with other cntries. and there were no instructions to test everyone being discharged into care homes.
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theovernment has defended itself throughout, the questions continue to be asked. >> m the primeister said we need to rapidly reverse the epidemic in our care homes. but earlier this year and until the 12th of march, thern gont's official advice -- and i am quoting here -- it remains verynlikely that people receiving care in a care home will become inf yesterday's figures show that at least 40% ofom all deaths covid-19 were in care homes. does the prime minister accept that the government wa slow to protect -- too slow to protect people in care homes? >> prime minister. >> no, mr. speaker, it was not true that the advice said that. and we brought locown and care homes ahead of the general
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lockdown. -- inheare homes of the general lockdown. >> but that was the government's advice until it was withdrawn in mid-march. by bhat point, it home clear that the assumption that e virus was not spreading widely in the community was incorrect. by early march, the virus had been spreading and care homes the government advised it wouldn't be. of these facrs.the impact of all it is too soon. but we do know this was a sector thatas already under extreme pressure. here is the bbc'social affairs correspondent. >> what this has done is shined a light on a system that was already under huge pressur already in crisis, and in the most upsetting way, coronavirus has made the case, displayed the need for reform, which has been talked about for such a long time. >> this week, the government has reiterated its commitment to protecting those i care homes toy, asked about the issue at
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the daily briefing. >> it is certaly the case -- and we have seen these figures from the who, it europe -- in europe, as whole, over 50% of deaths have taken place in care homes. not so in english care homes. thes fure been about 25%. >> our bbc journalist has looked at the care home issue. we asked him to record what he thinks the government's biggest challenges are in tackling this issue. >> the british government has some very big decisions to make in the short and long-term in relrds to soc care. first, try to get control of the outbreak of the disease that is so severe, so profound, that it is pushing the country.
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it's about ppe. it's about ensuring you are not giving covid to patients. long-term, it is about structural solutions. the british care model has been governments of all colors have ignored it. if money doesn't go out quickly and soon, we could be here very soon all over again when a new crisis hits. >> thankir you for teporting on the care home issue. there is more on the covid oureak in the u.k. on the bbc website, bbc.com/news. host: thank you so much. as always, brilliant reporting. thank you forg highlight it. stay with us. take a look at the world'sg t largest refugee camp in bangladesh, which has now reported its first cases of
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covid-19. the swearing in of israel's new unity government has been postponed until sunday. it is the latest twist in a political standofthat has lastore than a year. >>enjamin netanyahu remains israel's prime minister despite facing corruption charges. he and his main rival agreed to become coalition partners after three inconclusive elections in a year. >> the coronavirus certainly created -- pled a role by creating a feeling of emergency relegated to the back seat. >> last week, israel's high court ruled israel's netanyahu could run the government will t while onrial. some israelis are outraged. they have joined large protests
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-- keeping to social distancing rules. but others are glad to avoid yet another election. host: you are watching "outside source" live on the bbc. chair of the sencoe intelligence stepping down while he is investigated for alleged insider trading during the coronavirus icpand the other development from the unit states, president trump has dismissed the whistleblower who used to head the agency researching a vaccine for covid-19 as a "disgruntled employee." dr. richard bright has said he was dismissed for outing
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mishandling of the crisis. hthere is dr. br >> i believe this was because of a pushback i gave when they asked me to make hydroxychloroquine more freely available to americans who were not under close supervision of a physician. when i spoke outside of our government and shared my concerns to the public, that was the straw that broke the camels back. that led to my removal. host:ere is president trump speaking earlier. mr. trump: i don't know him. i never met him.an i don'tto meet him. he looks like an angry, frankly, an employee who didn't do a very good job. host: well, the united states is e epicent of this pandemic. orere are more than one point 4 million cases ofavirus in
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the u.s. nearly 85 thousand people have died from covid-19. it is by far the highest number in the world. he is more on dr. bright's testimony before congress. >> a lot of it i dboected at hies at the department of health and human services, talking aut warnings he issued them, on getting samples of the ccine from china early on. process of getting the wholee country back to normal and needless deaths will have happened because of delays. he was also one of those people pushing back on the presidents fetish, if u like, with hydroxychloroquine. the president was pushing it for a long time. take it. what have you got to lose?em youber thpresident said that. richard bright said there were no safety evaluions done and
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it was not something he would support. as aest of that pushback, he was frozen out of meetings. w a senior official at hhs. he was eventually fired from the job. host: the first cases of coronarus have reached the world'largest refugee camp in banglaarsh. the camphome to more than 800,000 people. they fled persecution in myanmar. officials are now trying to trace anyone who might have come into c with those who have the virus. ourde corsp reports. c for weeks, the world's largest refugeep has been in lockdown. now,he news they have been dreading. coronaviru a has finallyived. officials say two cases were identified in the camps, one a refugee, and one a local. both have been taken to a nearby
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health facility. for the refugees who live in the cramped and congested dwell in -- dwellings, where social distancing is tough, there is fear. >> we are very afraid of coronavirus. the camps are crowded. i worried that many people could die of covid-19. >> f health caacilities in the campsre basic with no ventilators. charities arexpecting the number of cases to skyrocket. >> it is very difficult to say, but given the slow tesng we have, it could be anywhere from thousands or hundreds. it is likely what we will be is an explosion in cases in the camps in the coming days. >> officials are currently trying to trace hundreds of others who may have me into contact with the two confirmed those who fled persecution in myanmar now face a new, deadly threat in the form of
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coronaviru. host: let's move to another vulnerableorart of the, yemen. it has been a dramatic rise of people dying from coronavirus mptoms in a southern city. officials say there have been at least 380 deathsn the past week. according to a charity, some al professionals lacking personal protective equipmentse reto go to work. people are dying because t cannot get tatment. let's turn now to new zealand where people are getting a sense of w it's li to get back to business as the lockdown there is lifted. thousands of places have reopened, with shops and restaurants welcoming customers for the first time since march. the risk of tranission is now said to be very small, but strict social distancing
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.guidelin the government is facing criticism over a new law which gives police greater powers to arrest those breaking social distancing laws. >> the law was rushed through on wednesday before the restrictions were eased around the country. what it means is that the quarantines, the lockdowns, police giving fines around social distancing, that can continue with more ease. the biggest change is that police a will e to go to people's homes if they have significant reason to believe that people are breaking the rules. what this means in prtice i that if you are having a party or there isus loud, you can probably expect purice at door without an arrest warrant. the other thing is the government can designate any employee and enforcementhi
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officer, means they can go into businesses and see if they are complying witsocial distancing rul. if not, they can be shut down. there has been a loof criticism. people believe this infringes on civil liberties. the opposition has calle a too far. the government has been urged to look at the law and review it in coming weeks. >> a 1 billion dollar package to support the tourism industry has justeen announced. with 95% of hotels closed, the vernment says it will extend the current furlough scheme untiat least the end of september. the government has promised the bench people they will still able to go on holiday in the summer. thiss a cafe just outside of hamburg. customers are being asked to wear swimming noodles on their what do you think?
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#bbcos. let us know your thoughts. na presentation of this program is provided by... lang spanish, french d more. raymond james. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pu solutions for america's neglected needs. by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank yo
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♪ is provided by... a language learning app that teaches real life conversations and uses speech recognition technology. (ding) daily 10 to 15 minute lessons are voiced by native speakers... (ding) and they are at babbel. babbel.com. raymond james. the frfoundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs.

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