Now on bbc news. Its hardtalk. Welcome to hardtalk, im stephen sackur. The roll out of covid 19 vaccines has boosted hopes the virus can be tamed, but it will have to be a worldwide effort if its to be effective, and right now the signs are not so good. While tens of millions have already been vaccinated in the rich west, the worlds poor are facing a very long wait the phrase Vaccine Apartheid has already been coined. My guest is the chief scientist at the world health organization, dr Soumya Swaminathan. Is Vaccine Inequity undermining the fight against covid . Dr Soumya Swaminathan in geneva, welcome to hardtalk. Hello, stephen. Thank you for having me. Its a pleasure to have you on the show. Lets start with an overview. Is there any reason to believe that we are getting on top of this Global Pandemic . Well, one year ago, the Director General of the who announced that this covid 19 was a Public Health emergency of international concern. That was on 30 january, 2020. And he said that
Means, what healthy competition means, julia, in this era that were in my take thus far is that theres been a difficulty applying kind of legacy, antitrust law to technology will new ground get broken here because congress, as we learned in elementary school, makes the laws absolutely. And theres been a lot of talk about the need for new, different types of laws. But jon and carl, what i think is really interesting here is the question of how much of todays hearing will really focus on the antitrust issues, which are the purported focus here, and how much will we hear other criticisms, other questions about the likes of hate speech, manipulation, voter manipulation and the spread of misinformation on these platforms such as, you know, youtube which is owned by google as well as on facebook so i think there are a lot of Different Things at play here. While antitrust will be at the center, carl, dont you think well see this veer off into other directions as well yeah. Thats sort of my qu
Tthe eamon javers is in washington, deidra, and julia boorstin, and josh lipton on apple we were just seeing a shot of the hearing room as well eamon, we may lack some of the visual drama given the remote locations of the ceos, however there will still be plenty of theater given the star power we expect. Yeah, look, scott, this is scuff iconic moments in business history. Starting with big to bako, the big banks, the pharmaceuticals, theyve all been through this big moment where all of the leaders of those industries are on the capitol hill raising their hands in the air testifying before congress this one wont have quite the sting of that for a couple reasons. I dont think you can say the Technology Industry is as unpopular as the industries were and that huge user base i think will go a long way also, you have this idea which you were talking about these guys are going to be testifying remotely. Theres a bit of distance thats going to go a long way here, in terms of softening some of
Protected civil rights writ large. So this is going to require a longterm bipartisan commitment. But not just from us in washington but folks in the state capitals, city halls, and Police Departments across the country. Because ultimately its the local officials that have the responsibility to hire and fire the police chief, to make sure that bad Police Officers are removed from the force. And thats where the nearterm responsibility needs to lie, because we dont have that capability here. But we do believe, i do believe there are concrete steps we can take right now to address the racial injustices that were exposed once again with the death of mr. Floyd. So i appreciate senator scott and leader mcconnell for responding to this crisis with the urgency that it deserves, and im proud to be part of this effort in the senate. Mr. President , i yield the floor. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the presiding officer the senator from. The presiding officer the s
Several of whom will participate remotely. I will come artisticpa wish panl of witnesses. I thank them for a period. Today we will hear from mr. Steven berry, president and chief exec of Competitive Carriers Association paid ms. Shirley bloomfield, chief executive officer of the ruralhe broadband association. Mr. Dean kimmelman, Senior Advisor of Public Knowledge who will be appearing at testified remotely and mr. Jonathans vulture, president and chief executive officer of u. S. Telecom broadband association. The crisis has changed lead dramatically for every american. As the administration and the center for Disease Control and prevention encourages social a distancing to prevent further spread of the virus normalia activities like work, school and Health Care Services are now increasingly taking place online. This has caused a huge uptick for the use of broadband in one estimate shows that every Broadband Usage is up by 47 since the pandemic began. The good news is theres been progre