we all have covid in all of these countries right now. and the other reason is to avoid importation of a new and concerning variant, and we really don t know if that is a risk given the lack of data. yes, and it is interesting because you mentioned there about the lack of transparency. for lots of people and lots of countries and authorities, the end of this policy of zero covid in china sort of caught them by surprise. i mean, was there perhaps a better way of handling that? lots of experts have pointed to that. yeah, it s a great question. i think that if you look at what has worked in other countries, sometimes by default and not even with great strategic implementation, ie in the united states, what seems to have mitigated the ongoing devastation of what could be seen with this virus has been a step up in effective vaccination. and i ll come back to that, because china has a real problem with that for two reasons. sinovac, which is their vaccine, is really not as effective as their
a step up in effective vaccination. and i ll come back to that because china has a real problem with that for two reasons. sinovac, which is their vaccine, is really not as effective as their mrna vaccines, especially in the elderly. so you ve got a very big, vulnerable population to this new wave of infections. and people are very nervous that when you have this immunologically naive population, particularly older people who are more likely to get infected and get severe consequences, that you are going to see severe impact. let s get some of the day s other news: south korea s military say north korea has fired three short range ballistic missiles towards the sea to the east this latest volley comes just days after the north flew drones into south korea s airspace. pyongyang has launched more missiles this year than ever before. police in the us state of idaho have arrested a 28 year old man in connection with the murder of four university students last month.
and i ll come back to that, because china has a real problem with that for two big reasons. sinovac, which is their vaccine, is really not as effective as the mrna vaccines, especially in the elderly. so you ve got a very big, vulnerable population to this new wave of infections. and people are very nervous that when you have this immunologically naive population, particularly older people, who are more likely to get infected and get severe consequences, that you are going to see a severe impact. the veteran american journalist barbara walters has died at the age of 93. born in boston, massachusetts, she was the first female co presenter of a major network tv news programme in the united states. in a career that spanned five decades, walters won 12 emmy awards, 11 of those while working at abc news. tributes are already being paid to barbara walters on social media. dan rather, another leading us news broadcaster, tweeted:
The comment comes after a report earlier this month that Germany's health ministry had granted a permit allowing China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to be imported to Germany to be given to Chinese citizens in that country. The shot has not been approved for use by Europe's drug regulator, but the World Health Organization has given its green light for its use.