Or in america we have to. Do the former pritish Prime Minister gordon brown warns that the west will be to blame if the w. H. S. Efforts to help contain the virus in developing countries fail. As some European Countries gradually lift their long downs will germany follow suit chancellor Angela Merkel and the nation 16 regional leaders are to to hold a Video Conference to decide what to do next at a sad anniversary in paris is exactly a year since fire badly damaged cathedral the blaze shocked people and fred said around the world restoration work has so far been slow but a couple of filmmakers 7 able to use fertile reality to show how the people looked and how it looked in the future. Hello im terry martin welcome to the program. Has instructed his ministration to halt funding for the World Health Organization us president says the w. H. O. Failed in its early response to the coronavirus he the us president himself has come under fire for his handling of the pandemic said the w. H. O. Should have done a better job of investigating initial reports in china u. N. Secretary general Antonio Terris responded by saying that the time to end support for the w. H. O. He said its work was absolutely critical to the global effort to combat kovac 19. The w. H. O. Failed in its basic duty to save lives those were the words of President Trump a freeze on funding for the u. N. Agency today im instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted as the organizations leading sponsor the United States has a duty to insist on full accountability. Has repeatedly criticized throughout the pandemic this time claiming its biased towards china is responsible for the viruses rapid spread to other parts of the world. Had the w. H. O. Done its job to get medical experts into china to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to chinas lack of transparency the outbreak could have been contained at its source with very little death trump says the roughly 400000000. 00 in annual donations will now be paused and decision drew a sharp rebuke from the German Foreign minister. Said in a tweet blaming does not help the virus knows no borders we should Work Together closely against kuwait 191 of the best investment is to strengthen the u. N. Especially the underfunded w. H. O. For example in the development and distribution of tests and vaccines bill gates to call the move dangerous the u. S. Is the washed affected country in the world with more recorded cases and deaths than anywhere else trumps handling of the pandemic has also been widely criticized and his opponents say this latest ones meant a month to nothing more than a deflection tactic of former u. K. Prime minister gordon brown has been calling for a stronger Global Response to the pandemic and he joins us now from fife in scotland mr brown thanks for being with us what do you make of Donald Trumps decision to stop funding the World Health Organization. Well you know on march the 26 donald trump signed or communicate that he was present at the meeting of the g. 20 when he said he would strengthen the w. It shows mandate they would increase the funding for Disaster Response they would give more money so it could develop a new virus and they would help it deal with the problems facing the developing countries this is not only and a logical step by the president its an act of self wrong because to protect ourselves locally in germany or in america we have to act globally and if this disease has a 2nd and 3rd round in africa or in the developing world and then comes back to the west then will be to blame for not helping those african countries at the w. H. O. Is intent on supporting protect themselves when they have underdeveloped Health Systems and true social social safety nets and counted oct the social distancing and other measures that we are docked in the west i want to talk about those african governments those african countries and this pandemic in just a moment but 1st which so National Governments leading the response to this pandemic so far have transnational organizations like the w. H. O. Or the un failed. I think each individual organizations trying its best but you know when i had to deal with others with the Global Financial crisis in 2009 we were only able to say we will do what ever it can do which is what you got to be able to say when we brought everyone together we brought the International Organizations i met from the world bank of the un of the w. H. O. But wed also brought National Leaders together in one forum the g 20 and whats missing at the moment is this concert to action together by World Leaders and even if america is reluctant to start with and even if china is operating bilaterally i think the European Union japan the rest of asia africa pushing us along i think we can get this global coordination and its necessary one to finance the search for a cure and for a vaccine and from diagnostics and therapeutics secondly to build capacity because were building each other at the moment for limited capacity weve got to build capacity in test kits and build it and ventilators never thing else and suddenly of course driven the 2nd and 3rd round of disease which has to be done by acting collectively they recently helped pen an open letter to the g. 20 it was signed by more than 200. 00 former World Leaders and called for a coordinated Global Response to the crown a virus do you think should lean that response. I think we need 2 things 1st of all a pledging conference to deal with the financing of global howth and i do believe that the European Union has a major role to play in in leading this bringing and japan canada korea and then bringing in china of america and i think secondly we need a g. 20 tassels we need this coordination d on a week to week day to day level if were going to get the World Economy back to growth then there will be a moment when we need to expand demand in the economy at the moment were in employment protection soon we will have to restore demand and that we were cried coordinated fiscal monetary and Central Bank Policies and it will also require the into actually is that you shouldnt the i. M. F. And the world bank to be given by the politicians the power in the money that will enable them to support developing country economies g 20 finance ministers are about to release their Global Action plan as a former finance minister yourself chancellor of aspects checker in the u. K. Do you think that plan should include debt relief for africa i definitely ive got an article in the Washington Post today with the Larry Summers which is saying 76 of the low Income Countries in the world should get immediate debt relief well this year and for next year not just for a few months but they are spending more on debt Interest Payments are the moment when they are on their Health Systems it is against our self interests that they not spending on health we have got to help them do that one of the quickest ways is debt relief we will have to decrease they special drawing rights of the i. M. F. We will have to give the world bank and the i. M. F. The power to lend and to grant more money all these things are going to be necessary and it ought to be synchronized and brought together in 1. 00 plan and i hope and try to win the i. M. F. And world bank meet they will agree that a plan that includes debt relief is only required and has to be pushed forward as fran thank you so much for talking with us that was former u. K. Prime minister gordon brown thank you. Its catch up on a couple of other stories making headlines around the world today millions of people have flocked to the polls in south koreas National Parliamentary elections with unprecedented measures in place to deal with the credit virus pandemic the vote is seen by so as a midterm referendum for president in exit polls project his party will win a majority. And new zealands Prime Minister to send has said she and other top officials are taking a 20 percent cut pay cut for the next 6 months or 10 said the step was a symbolic acknowledgement of the struggle faced by many New Zealanders frontline stuff will not be affecting you like well as some countries in europe now starting to ease lock down restrictions the European Commission has released preconditions that even Member States should fulfill European Commission president said the lockdowns had comet quote enormous prize but theyve been necessary here in germany the number of new cases has gone up after 4 days of decline restrictive measures imposed to combat the virus or 2 to expire on sunday chancel going to michaels consulting with the premiers of germany 16 states about what should happen next its been 3 weeks since restrictions were implemented schools have remained closed restaurants of cleared that tables indefinitely and social distancing has largely become the no now is the number of new cases in germany slows opiate plateauing as a high level the German Government faces the grave decision begin relaxing measures or extend them beyond april 19th german chancellor Angela Merkel will discuss the possibilities in a telephone conference on wednesday with leaders of germany 16 States Health ministry and spawn has already hinted at a rollback but with caveats. We should do it step by step and keep control over the outbreak and make sure that were able to keep treating patients patients and 100. Suggestions from Germanys National academy of sciences will be closely considered in talks including the gradual reopening of elementary and middle schools shops stores and nightclubs would follow restaurants would open next as long as social distancing was upheld facemasks would be obligatory and publicly available g. P. S. Data could be used for contact tracing. But according to media reports on wednesday an extension of the current measures until may 3rd could still be on the table either way the consequences could be enormous easing restrictions could risk a spike in cases but there are also economic and societal risks to keeping them in place. Peres said a story not linked to the coronavirus a year ago today the cathedral of notre dame was badly damaged by fire thought to have been started by an electrical short circuit restoration work is months behind schedule delayed by talks eclipse winter storms and no of course pandemic as we wait for the work to be completed 2 films about the cathedral have been released one shot before the disaster and the other afterwards both enhanced by Virtual Reality. Not true don cathedral a symbol of paris in flames. The images from april 29th team sent the. Filmmakers cloues lushly and vic to argue long had been shooting a documentary on the world famous landmark just weeks before the fire. The day after the fire we realized that our images are of extremely great value that we captured a moment in history that will be able to pass on to the public whether European American asian or parisian everyone who ever visited has a special memory of not. They combined footage from before the inferno with newly shot material to make a 2nd documentary titled rebuilding notre dame. The images of the current cathedrals interior of the only ones of thick kind. Elses movies images special because they were shot. For Virtual Reality that is in 360 degrees with very High Resolution and in 3 d. That produces one image for the left eye and one for the right which gives you the illusion of depth as if you were actually there. With a vi headset people can immerse themselves in the world of not sure dumb for 16 minutes motion sensors allow them to move through and explore the structure independently. Such an experience in actual reality is no longer possible not sure dummy is now closed to the public so its there when its also a tourist landmark that each year drew millions of visitors of any faith or even without one this is a monument of importance to the history of france and it was important to us to put that across in our films i guess if theyre not. To make his own rebuilding not acquired a very rare permits to film inside the damaged cathedral but in some spots only one member of the team was allowed the camera robot crumbling walls and high lead contamination posed too great a hazard to people in these areas director chloe oshea is delighted that she managed to be in the right place at the right time with the right technology. Youre watching news from berlin remember you can get the latest headlines on our g. W. App or on our web site thats w dot com and of course you welcome the fall was on twitter and instagram too at g. W. News our handle there by handle on twitter is at t. M. News stream im terry martin ill be back at the top of the next hour thanks for watching. Combating the corona pandemic. Where does research stand. What are scientists learning. Background information and. Our corona. Covert 19 special next on d w. And. Cast. Video and. W b a sector. In the fight against the corona virus there is still one big know how many people have actually contracted maybe even without showing any symptoms one way to answer the question is by antibodies. An antibody is a protective protein produced by the immune system to destroy for example harmful viruses when a pathogen enters the human body the immune system recognizes it and produces antibodies that dark onto the pathogens and your genes to remove them later in a test can be used to detect these antibodies in a persons bloodstream antibodies are also used in vaccines to make people immune to future infections but immunity doesnt always last a lifetime so what do we know about sars. And how long will people be immune after an infection. These will be some of our topics on this edition of covert 900. 00 special here on the w. News im chris coburn berlin welcome to the program now in the quest to. The coronavirus is small town in germany could provide valuable answers spec and the state of north rhinewestphalia has become an epicenter of the Current Health crisis now scientists are using the town as a testing ground to find out how covert 900 spread and how to move forward. The streets are empty in heinsberg the town on germanys western border with holland has become the epicenter of the Coronavirus Crisis in the country it was here that the virus spread at a local carnival infecting dozens of citizens and putting the town in the focus of politicians and by rolla just alike. Work. First the unique opportunity to us because the virus arrived here on a very specific date on february 14th or 15th during carnival carnival. Based on this we have sufficient data for example to determine unrecorded cases. Has become a case study for cobbett 19 and the question how can we go back to normal a lot depends on how patients develop immunity to cope with 19 through antibodies to find out mouth swaps and blood tests were conducted in 1000 locals. And 15 percent of the population of the municipality here can no longer be infected with sars. Virus could be the top. There has been some criticism that the study might not be representative of other regions also some experts fear it might be too early to say whether or not antibodies prevent further infections with corona virus. Well talk to a leading scientists here in a moment if and if so how the search for antibodies can help the fight against covert 19 1st a quick reminder what exactly we mean when we talk about antibodies antibodies are produced by the immune system to neutralize pathogens when for example a virus enters the body the immune system produces specific antibodies that dark onto the viruses and genes to remove it now these antibodies can be detected in a persons bloodstream later on. So lets take a closer look at the matter with jack hauser hes a professor of epidemiology at the handhold center for Infection Research its good to have you on the program does finding entitled hes mean that the pathogen has been eliminated the infection is over not necessarily no antibody its just the fact that the human system has had contact with the pathogen and often also think that later on after their disease has been kossuth and caught that then the body is Human Resource time against new infection so how does detecting these antibodies help us against the fight against the corona virus here ok so this helps at. The creation also at individual level so the population that you know homer you sent us a book they sure do have antibodies we do also know that those people will not be able to transfer it and because of the to be cation transmission process of the epidemic and more so this is how it was a necessity what kind of measures we need to do it also helps us in determining how many percent of the cases that column to do actually exist and that helps us to assess only cases dying in portions of the case that actually exists so those figures are very important as assessment of the risk of their identity but also for the assessment of the strategies to fight against it and that now some experts say. Does anybody test dont deliver Accurate Enough results that antibodies against other forms of Corona Corona virus get to detect it and then get mistaken. This is going this is a big difficulty that we have so so far i think that the antibody tests and some costly ip of the election to the to the other oh no access and its difficult to assess our dachas sado about this percentage actually is the hope that in the future and actually my that its working on that you were at the party as a baby girl that it will be more precise and more specific and there are reports about potential really infections despite the people supposedly being immune what are we to make of that well i think that it brought some fight they dont imply that people got an infection despite or the you may be you knew they already that this detection was biased as possible off the people that we cover and thats yet another thing so not necessarily does a person that we caught us with it as had a negative test was in that virus infection necessarily have immunity probably infection or doesnt also mean that the chronically sick case so we need to look into that more and more the s. P. To look at the antibody detection of those patients and then we need to also see it as a patients ahead we i do to be cation and detection of pathogens got ill of it just carry us the pathogen you know from any other diseases that people may be cameos or a disease or a pathogen is actually fighting you know. Is there a way to determine how long immunity will last in terms of sars cover to. Im afraid the only bait is this time you need to look at the patients at the disease at one point in time of which you have antibodies from an important time and then you have to wait and go into the future for their case or someone goes to get the disease again now your institution wants to conduct Antibody Testing similar to the one weve seen in the report but on a much larger scale what do you hope to show by doing that so by the colleagues in hyderabad and under very important study theres a very specific focus and a very exclusive look at the t v 5 to number of studies at different times forwards and different look at the country in order to get a better section on the you that you that in their own local predation but also on that change of units that are over time and by that you ought to be got ready for the ticks and policymakers and Decision Making us on how to adjust the interventions in the fight against it and then jack calls and the whole center for Infectious Research thank you for sharing your thoughts with us youre very welcome and not a staple segment on our show you send us your questions about the coronavirus we try to answer them and the man hard at work doing so is our science editor Derek Williams. If i order take away and an infected could by delivery person sneezes on it can i get covert 19 i get asked this a lot its something that worries people lets put it this way theres no evidence so far suggesting that take out or take away food contributes in any way to cope with 19 transmission there are no reported cases that have been linked to food there arent any full blown studies yet on covert 19 but there have been some similar studies on this topic with other coronaviruses and they show that transmission in those pathogens doesnt really happen via the digestive tract in the 1st stages of the infection at least coronaviruses in general invade the cells in the upper respiratory tract sars cove to also often appears to gain its 1st foothold in the nose which food doesnt enter of course viruses that are swallowed in food and up in the digestive tract and are eventually killed by the acid in your stomach so as far as we can tell take away food doesnt present a danger packaging probably presents slightly more of one thats why many experts also say if you want to be extra safe you can transfer take out food to your own household dishes dispose of the containers quickly and of course then wash your hands thoroughly. Drinking water carry the virus and. We still dont know everything there is to know about the transmission of source code too but were learning all the time and as far as we can tell theres no way to get covert 19 from Drinking Water the w. H. O. Says there is no added. About the survival of the virus in either possible water or sewage and other corona viruses are not transmitted this way source code to is actually whats called an envelop virus which means it has a quite fragile membrane that doesnt protect it all that long outside the body standard treatment methods used in most municipal Drinking Water systems like filtration and in this infection should inactivated just like they do other pathogens if you live somewhere where you dont have access to safe treated Drinking Water then the precautions that youve always taken to protect yourself like boiling your Drinking Water should also inactivate in the coronavirus that was our science editor Derek Williams answering your questions about the corona virus and that wraps up this edition of covert 19 special for more on the pandemic to check out our social Media Channels and our website a d. W. Dot com it has dedicated covert 1000 pages in 30 languages im chris coburn berlin thanks for watching and take care. No opportunities for everyone regardless of ethnicity or appearance unfortunately for many migrants in germany that may be distant dream. Many companies are trying to make their application process is more inclusive but does that really help against discrimination. Made in germany. On d w. Environmentally conscious livin. With maximum comfort. Her now if you will from tanzania is helping make it possible he started with sustainable ideas in his own home. Kitchen how hes inspiring others to innovate and his invention school eco africa. In 60 minutes on. We know that this is very time for the coronavirus is changing the world changing a lot so please take care of yourself good systems wash your hands you can stay at how we deal with you for here for you we are working tirelessly to keep you informed on all of our platform were all in this city get on together make it. Stay safe everybody. Stays safe stay safe please stay safe. What it takes to be successful lets see a good education for sure good not pleasing looks it can do any harm if youre well spoken to ideally in more than just one language yes i think those things could lead to success but there is one major hurdle hugh have very little influence over and thats