Of the topics covered and the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the crawl of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you go your podcast can also find us at dot com slash science. And maxine remains elusive but catching the could run a virus can lead to immunity. And infection triggers the creation of antibodies to try to fight off the disease and prevent its return. But the question is for how long. Estonia is testing Digital Immunity passports so people the antibodies can return to work. But is that safe. To some scientists believe herd immunity is the answer they say up to 70 percent of the population must be immune to wipe out of the virus. But antibody tests are only just starting. And a new wave of infections can hit. Welcome to 1000. 00 special harmonica jones good to have you with us now sweden is among the countries that have opted against a lock down and instead gone for herd immunity and this strategy has arguably led to one of the highest per capita death tolls in the world but very little immunity may in stockholm its that special time of year when swedes hit the streets after the long dark or swedish winter but this spring theyre asking themselves whos got the coronavirus and who is a new and the government taking a risk by keeping the country open. Ensuring broad immunity 1st we assume thats possible is an aim of chief at the knowledge of anders tag. But only 7. 3 percent of stockholms inhabitants have developed antibodies to the virus so if you have been infected thats the interim result of a study conducted by the state Health Authority at the beginning of may the percentage is less than they hoped for a reason to rethink the strategy no says anders tegan. I think the swedish structure has proved them to be sustainable i mean we get figures now that people are actually increasing. It here and voice to create a higher level of acceptance in the swedish population for what we do. Tangle assumes that almost a month after the study about 20 percent of the population in stockholm has now developed immunity to the corona virus but critics say that with some 4000. 00 deaths in a population of 10000000 sweden has one of the highest coronal mortality rates in the world that immunization rate for children and young people nationwide was only 4. 7 percent far below the stockholm average the swedish government hopes a vaccine will soon be available the very yes on the big you know it will certainly take some time before we get there when we are there sweden will have access to that effect seems long and we have a plan for who should be vaccinated and in what order. To avoid. Vaccination would be safer than natural immunization and its neither clear whether those infected with the coronavirus really are immune nor for how long. David nabarro is the co 900 special envoy of the World Health Organization and he joins us now good to have you with us so we hear every day about the latest case numbers we know the number of those who died and those who a cure but how many are immune to cope with 9000 by now. The case numbers that we have are actually a reflection of the number of people who have been tested and found positive there are probably many more people who have had kobe good than these numbers suggest the question is if you had kovi are you also immune to getting it again there was some uncertainty about this a few weeks ago but it looks as though if youve had covert you do have a degree of immunity how long does that Community Last we dont know so im going to be a little bit imprecise here and say that the actual number of people whove had cove aid and who are immune to tobit in any community is not fully know and because we dont think that large numbers of people have coded without symptoms we suspect that probably the number of people who have covered is as many as the number of people whove had symptoms of covidien and in most populations that does not seem to exceed 10 percent rise by well sort of the question that that that also means that the number off in unity could be higher than what we know already but at the same time you mentioned it already we dont know how long this immunity last in a study from the university of amsterdam says that they think immunity to reinfection from coronavirus may only last 6 months that means and unity is at best only temporary. I think so i wish that there was more precision in the answers to this kind of question because its absolutely essential when governments are making policy about whether or not they are going to have things like passports that show whether or not people are immune so right now we do not know how long immunity last if there is immunity and secondly we dont know where everybody gets it so we have to continue behaving as though even if you had kobe and us still at risk of getting it again i would just as lieve countries like sweden or at some point also britain who were aiming for herd immunity has that approach failed. I think that the u. K. Does not wish to suggest to anybody that aiming for immunity was a policy it was an idea that was suggested in a number of press briefings in months so i dont think any country in the world is actually saying we should aim for herd immunity i. E. Letting everybody get in and then hoping that immunity builds up in the population the costs of doing so in terms of lives lost and in terms of overloading of Health Services is very great right i do not but if this policy is being used anywhere its time i know course we all hope that ideally there will be a vaccine that as we also know that could take a while and i ask you about that in a moment but 1st a quick look at where we stand. Over 130. 00 Research Teams around the world are racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Some are using any negative version of sas code to. Others are using genetic sequences from the virus a dozen of the teams have developed serums to test on humans. This excess can move Financial Markets stock in us firm of surged after reports its vaccine had triggered an immune reaction with little or no side effects but the shares plummeted when reports emerged the vaccines effectiveness was exaggerated. Researches need to run tests on felson subside jackson any bank seen study to obtain meaningful results that takes time. Experts predict a vaccination could be approved by the 2nd half of 2020. David nabarro from the World Health Organization vaccines can take yes but if one becomes available this year would you take it. I want to know a lot about a vaccine before i decide whether or not im going to take it 1st of all has its safety been demonstrated in a variety of different individuals particularly in individuals whove had kobe before are they going to get a hypersensitivity to it has its efficacy been demonstrated does it provide immunity that protects against infection against kobe and does it provide long term immunity or not those are the kind of questions id want to ask if i was going to decide whether or not to take the vaccine now the more likely outcome of course is that there wont be a vaccine for some time what happens then then what we have to do is to learn as humanity to live with the constant threat of this virus will need to modify our behavior including physical distance scent and also taking great care of those who are most at risk and also will need to be able when necessary to take focus to action to restrict movement and to deal with outbreaks when they build up but as weve learned if you do this quickly and indeed if you do this robustly life can go on we dont need to have more lockdowns all right life can go on i like that message David Nabarro they are from the World Health Organization thank you so much. And now its time for our science correspondent Derrick Williams to answer some of your questions. Deaths from other pathologies the sometimes being classified as cover at 19 if that were true wouldnt it be reflected in fewer deaths from other pathologies tracking deaths and exactly what caused them has proved very challenging in this pandemic we mostly hear about how many people have tested positive for covert 19 and how many people have died from it from those people who tested positive but those statistics on the reflect how many people are being tested not hell many people are actually sick or how many actually died due to the disease and a more accurate overview could probably be based on whats called all cause mortality comparing numbers of how many people die in a specific place over a specific period those are numbers that we can track accurately like researchers did in a recent study looking at a small town in northern italy that showed that at the height of the crisis there in march people were dying over 10 times more frequently than they did in the town on average during that month now thats pretty eye opening there were many many more deaths across the board and many of those deaths were not necessarily being counted as covert 19 victims because the people who died werent tested. How many mutated covered 19 strains have been identified by reeses mutate regularly and if those mutations cause major differences in their virulence or their transmissibility experts begin talking about different different strains like they do with influenza but that strains is kind of a vague term in the world of viral o. G. Some studies have sought to show that various lineages of the sores close to family in different parts of the world have not changed in a. That we can call them different strains although there is plenty of evidence of of evolved changes in the virus at the genetic and the most like killer levels there isnt really evidence that those changes have altered its biology with whats called it ciro type which which describes how our immune system responds to the pathogen and for us thats the key point. There it was there and hell be back to on some more of your questions tamara just post them on our you tube channel 4 news as you keep up with the latest developments on the coronavirus you can always subscribe to our newsletter go to d w dot com slash corona dash newsletter and fill out the form. And thats all falco good night special court today i want to get johnsons and then from me on the team thanks for joining us. To go. Lots of goals are met with silence the 2nd bundesliga match day empty stadium. Leaders by in munich trance frankfurt. Paris up beilein beat local rivals. Homelessness and poverty. 43000000 people in the United States are affected. Even though many of them had steady jobs. Who is sneaking the outcasts of the american dream. Cafferty in the wealthiest country. In the. 45 minutes on d w. Sound. Into a symphony. Lives exam beethovens Pastoral Symphony is the foundation. Of an International Art project. Composed their understanding of nature. To mark the 250000 of verse 3 of the composers birth like sharon program by her you know hes good. Beethoven world wide pastoral project starts june 4th on t. W. Rotfl