All language subtitles for Astrazeneca - A Vaccine For The World 1080p BigJ0554

It just happened to be
right before New Year.

And this was the best New Year
present one could ever have.

And just to see him on television,
the first vaccinee being

administered, our vaccine,
and realising that there

were billions more people to come
who would benefit...

it was privilege.

It was a vaccine with
a unique ambition.

It had never been attempted before,
a no-profit vaccine.

I saw first-hand how
it was celebrated here.

The UK has ordered 100 million doses
of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.

This is the biggest gift that this
country could give to the world.

A fantastic achievement
for British science.

But did national interests
derail the global plan?

Well, the early grab for vaccines
was rather like the early

grab for toilet paper.

Those of us in low-income
countries were left outside.

There was absolute outrage.

The UK used its political clout
to get vaccines from India.

The option was there for everybody.

We just took that option.

When you grabbed it.

Yes, we did.

And we moved faster
than anybody else.

And are we all paying the price?

It's going to be deep
into 2022 before we get this

virus under control.

Bad behaviour from scientists
and from politicians has

probably killed hundreds
of thousands of people.

TV: 563 patients have lost
their lives in the past 24 hours.

Among another 708 people reported
to have died since yesterday...

Lockdown in the UK will
remain in place for now.

Across the world, medical
researchers are racing to find

a vaccine, but it's thought that
could be a year or 18 months away.

We had been developing
the technology that is the basis

of the AstraZeneca Oxford
vaccine over 15 years,

for many other diseases,
including MERS, which is

a coronavirus disease.

So we were ready.

And we were expecting that there
would be another pandemic.

Developing a vaccine usually takes
years and ends in failure.

Oxford's technology means
they are able to get

a prototype ready within weeks.

But they want this to be
a vaccine with a difference.

Our ambition, if the vaccine worked,
was to make sure that it could be

widely distributed around the world
to have the greatest

impact on people's lives.

So, in other words, a vaccine
for the whole world.

Why should we just decide that
in the next pandemic, only

the people who are rich can survive?

I don't think most people
would sign up to that idea.

Oxford's ambition is not
only about fairness -

it is based on science.

If we allow a pandemic virus
to spread in part of the world,

even though we're controlling it
in other parts of the world,

it has the opportunity to mutate
and to potentially mutate in such

a way that the vaccines we've
already used will not protect

against it any more.

And that means that that virus
will then spread around the parts

of the world that have been
vaccinated, and the vaccines may be

considerably less effective.

But Oxford need to find more funding
to start human trials.

TV: The Prime Minister is to spend
a second night in intensive care

being treated for coronavirus.

The latest figures today show that
another 800 people have died.

938 people have died.

We had to bring in these

extraordinary lockdowns
and all the decisions around them

were incredibly hard.

It was obvious that a vaccine
was the long-term way out.

And I remember having
a meeting with Sara Gilbert

on Easter weekend and saying,
"Is there anything else you need?"

And she said, "Actually,
we really need £20 million."

I said, "Fine, let's make sure
you have all the funding that

you need because you've got to go
as fast as safely as possible."

The government will invest
£88 million overall it allows Oxford

The government will invest £88
million overall and it allows Oxford

to kick off their trials.

But that cash came with
certain expectations.

Early in the pandemic
I'd watched Contagion,

the film and the central point
I took away is the moment

of greatest tension with the vaccine
isn't going to come before

the vaccine is ready,
it's the moment a vaccine

becomes available...

We are only able to give out 50
doses today.

There'd be a global
scramble for the vaccines.

So we needed to make sure that
that we would get the first

100 million doses and make
sure our contracts were watertight

and as much of it made
on-shore as possible.

Had you already seen a hint of that
in the global scramble for PPE?

The PPE does not protect us or our
uniform. Many staff wrote about

feeling scared and not protected.

Thankfully on PPE,
although it was extremely

tight, we never ran out.

Back in Oxford, the team also needs

a partner to produce
the vaccine at scale.

Sir John Bell approaches Big Pharma.

So this came very strongly
from the scientists that there

were certain conditions
that they really wanted to see

follow their vaccine
into the wider market.

The first was to make sure
that the developing world weren't

the last to the party,
and then the second key red line

was we really would like not to take
advantage of a global human health

crisis and be seen to be
offering the vaccine

at something close to cost.

When you thought you've got
to persuade Big Pharma to come

in and not make any profit,
how easy a sell was that now?

So it was one of those
moments where I thought,

OK, here comes Muggins,
the Regius professor, go off and see

if I could flog that one.

Eventually, a UK-based pharma
giant is willing to take

on their conditions.

We are not a vaccine company

at least historically,
but when the vaccine,

when when I identified that this
vaccine was in development

at Oxford, I thought we could help.

I know it may be difficult
for some people to believe

it, but our motivation
was really to help.

It's a big challenge,
but as a company, that's who we are,

we take big challenges and we try.

Oxford University has
finalised a global licensing

agreement with AstraZeneca.

If the vaccine is successful the UK
will be the first to get access.

We can also ensure we're able
to make the vaccine available

to developing countries
at the lowest possible cost.

When they announced
that they were backing financially

the Oxford vaccine and the first
doses would go to the British

population, but at the same time,
it would be a vaccine for the world.

It didn't quite add up.

You know, you can't have both.

It's very much on my agenda
and my radar as a reporter looking

at how that would play out.

AstraZeneca's goal is to deliver up
to three billion doses by the end

of 2021 to be sold at cost.

Within weeks, they start taking
millions of pre-orders

from around the world.

But the vaccine won't be approved
unless clinical trials show

it is safe and effective.

The race is on around
the world to develop

a vaccine for coronavirus.

There are at least 32 coronavirus
vaccines in clinical trials.

By the summer of 2020,
the frontrunners really emerged

and they were Pfizer,
Moderna and Johnson and Johnson.

AstraZeneca was the only British
vaccine in the race.

I'm very optimistic it's
going to work formally, we are

testing it in an efficacy study.

So the Oxford AstraZeneca jab
was well suited for low-income

countries because it needed
just simple refrigeration.

The MRNA producers, Pfizer, Moderna

which needed these deep freezers
that very few countries and health

care systems had in place.

And it was cheap.

Many people were betting
on AstraZeneca to win

the race at that point.

And that was, of course,
when there were these reports that

Trump wanted to get the AstraZeneca
shot approved before the US

election in November.

The US remains the worst affected
country. The situation is

deteriorating as numbers surged.

President Trump has set up a task
force to fast-track vaccines.

My administration is providing
roughly $10 billion to support

a ground-breaking effort.

Chief scientist Moncef Slaoui!

Thank you, Mr President.

It must have been late June or early
July when President Trump called.

Four zeroes would appear
on the phone, so I knew

it was the White House Oval Office,
and he just told me,

"Listen, I'm with this
friend who is a very,

very smart person."

That person was very, very,
very strongly pushing that more

resources should be put
on the AstraZeneca vaccine,

that we should go faster,
that we shouldn't ask as many

questions as are being asked.

I remember politely listening
and then saying, you know,

we will make all our decisions based
on facts and data and science.

And that's what we did.

Thank you Oklahoma.

Oxford is already running
trials in three countries.

And now with US government
cash, AstraZeneca begins

the biggest trial yet.

In one of the news that
I read on my phone, I saw

that there was an adverse event.

We've got more now on that breaking

news on a possible Covid vaccine,
testing has been paused by one

of the leading vaccines developed by
Oxford University and AstraZeneca.

Due to a suspected serious safety
reaction in one of the participants

in the trial in the UK.

And when I went at 7:00
in the morning to the Human

and Health Services building,
I asked the team, you know,

"What's going on here?"

You know, "What's the event?

Have we heard anything?"

Everybody's had no idea.

We were very frustrated.

So the event that occurred
was transverse myelitis,

which is a rare neurological
condition affecting the spine.

And I couldn't exclude
the possibility the vaccine

was the culprit.

And so we made the decision
that the trial should be paused.

We communicated the case
and the pause with AstraZeneca,

who were in the process
of communicating it to the FDA.

And to everyone's surprise,
this highly confidential information

became public in the media
in the US.

Senior US officials have
told us that the first

they knew of the pause was when it
was reported in the media.

But how did that happen?

I think one of the things we learnt
in this process is definitely that

when you do things like this under
the media scrutiny, everybody

is watching constantly, right?

I mean, as you said,
this kind of event in clinical

trials happen all the time.

Usually they are
adjudicated by experts.

In that instance, all these events
were adjudicated by the media

and these things were moving very,
very quickly.

It's not clear exactly what this
safety event was or how long this

pause could potentially last,
and how much effect this will have

on the trial going forward.

Pauses in clinical
trials happen routinely.

So what regulators do is they note
that very carefully and they look

out for it and we look out
for it, of course.

And the trial starts
usually within a week,

which is what happened everywhere
else except in the United States.

A coronavirus vaccine trial
in the US is still on hold

but has resumed in Britain,
Brazil, India and South Africa.

The FDA has not commented on when or
if it will be allowed to...

US regulator the FDA
is overseeing trial safety.

It asks AstraZeneca for extensive
data from Oxford's other trials.

The reasons for the long
pause differ,

depending on who you talk to.
It's been said to me

that we were doing something that
some people in the financial world

thought was pretty outrageous.

Many people suggested that pricing
the vaccine at $3 a dose when other

vaccines were much more expensive
or going to be more

expensive was a driver.

We were undercutting the market.

That wasn't going to be liked
by certain quarters.

I have not seen any evidence,
frankly, of any attempt

to derail the vaccine.

But the lack of data or the speed
with which data was given

was creating frustration.

And sometimes we had to wait a week
or ten days to have data

from AstraZeneca on the vaccine that
other companies like Moderna

or Pfizer or J&J would give us
in three or four hours.

This study was started
by Oxford University

but they are not...

They are not
a pharmaceutical company.

And so the tools they use to manage
a study of that magnitude

are different from the tools we use.

But it created an amount of work
that led to the delay.

What was said and misunderstood
behind the scenes is unclear.

But clearly something fell
through the cracks at some point.

That seven-week delay allowed Pfizer
and Moderna to race ahead.

So that's when Oxford
and AstraZeneca lost

their frontrunner status.

The FDA finally concludes it's safe
for the trial to continue.

Within two months,
Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines

get US approval.

But AstraZeneca's trials
there are not yet complete.

The pressure grows to change
the restrictions

over the Christmas period.

Does the Prime Minister not realise

that his latest plans have once
again failed to control the virus,

protect the NHS
and save our economy?

Is Christmas cancelled,
Prime Minister?

For more than a week the UK has been
rolling out the Pfizer vaccine -

the first country in the world
to approve it.

It's a moment of hope.

But the roll-out comes too late
to stem the most deadly wave

of the pandemic in the UK.

Given the early evidence
on this new variant,

it is with a very heavy heart I must
tell you we cannot continue

with Christmas as planned.

It was one of the most dark and dire
times I've ever seen in Whitehall

that civil servants were depressed.

Ministers were flustered and it felt
like we were back to the worst days

of the pandemic when no-one really
knew what happened.

But you had that light
on the horizon and that

did change everything.

Today I want to begin
with the good news, the approval

of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine,

which is a fantastic achievement
for British science.

This is a real British
success story.

It's fantastic we've
got a UK-made vaccine.

The most important thing
to Boris Johnson at that time

was getting a game-changer
in the pandemic.

And the Oxford vaccine
was seen to be that.

Here we go, this is the actual
vaccine?

The UK had a large order.

It was much easier to store
than Pfizer so you can really

get the ball moving.

And of course, if the Oxford vaccine
comes to the rescue,

that's good for the UK
in terms of his standing.

So there's a story in
the Huffington Post,

which was effectively saying
Downing Street had wanted to put

Union Jacks on the vials
of the Oxford vaccine.

Well, we looked at that,
but actually the regulations around

packaging are very tight.

And more important was the medical
assurance that you had the right

information on the packaging.

The plan did not get
the green light.

But it certainly got lots
of attention when this came out.

The idea of branding vaccines
was significant because it pointed

a home-grown vaccine.

I think we as the vaccine team very
much tried, tried our very best

to downplay nationalism.

There was too much nationalism.

It was encouraging competition
between vaccine types,

between countries.

And that's the last thing you want
in trying to control the pandemic

and provide vaccines for the world.

So, no, we didn't want ours badged
as the British vaccine.

# Long live our noble Queen...

As the Brexit transition period
ends, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca

roll-out gets off to a flying start.

These mass immunisation centres
will be open eight until eight,

seven days a week, part
of the biggest vaccination

drive ever in the NHS.

You will end up with a wee bit of a
bruise.

The UK's vaccine task force has
pre-ordered up to five doses

for everyone in Britain.

It was wonderful, the queues
at the vaccination centres,

the volunteers who were creating
this incredible

spirit of positivity.

We were cracking through the numbers
at great pace, as fast

as supplies would allow.

As far as I could make out it was
quite harmless. It was very quick.

It became this hugely
positive jamboree.

Everyone was like,
"When s my vaccine?"

Getting that spirit was incredibly
important and then, you know,

some of our closest neighbours
weren't even at

the point of approval.

There are going to be difficult
days and weeks ahead

as we report these numbers.

The European Medicines Agency has
so far only approved

Pfizer and Moderna.

But the EU is depending
on AstraZeneca for a big order.

Well, I remember it
was Friday afternoon.

It was a regular video conference
that was held between AstraZeneca

and the EU and AstraZeneca announced
this very important cut

in its expected supplies
in the first quarter.

The European Commission is expecting
the vaccines from two factories

in the EU plus two in the UK.

But AstraZeneca reveal they're
having major supply problems.

They can only deliver 31 million
of the 80 million doses

expected by the end of March.

It was a very delicate moment.

It came just before
the vaccine was supposed

to get roll-out in the EU.

The number of cases was increasing,
there were a lot of people dying.

As the news spreads,
MEPs are growing anxious.

As concerns grow, Pascal Soriot
gives a newspaper interview.

He says the delay is at
a factory in the EU -

the yields are lower than hoped.

But AstraZeneca can't share British
doses as they agreed

to supply the UK first,
while the EU contract is based

only on "best efforts".

So when we AstraZeneca came in,
in May 2020, the UK Government had

supported the development
of the vaccine and so invested

in supply sites to scale up
the manufacturing the vaccine

and wanted to be supplied out
of those sites where they had

spent money as a priority
and as a company, we felt, you know,

this is fair and this
is what we have to respect and do.

Soriot also claims the UK gets
priority because

they signed their contract first.

This is not the
understanding of the EU.

Really angry with the company
AstraZeneca, they want to treat

the citizens of EU as second class.

We reject the logic of first
come, first served.

That may work at the neighbourhood
butchers but not in contracts

The position the EU is in now
is partly the EU's fault

in being too slow in
the process to date?

This is the EU's choice to gather
together and speak in one name,

it has weaknesses such as delays.

I mean, in Europe, they said it came
as a shock to them when

they found out that it was like that
and it was not their understanding

of their contract that they couldn't
get doses from the UK.

Can you understand how they made
that miss and how that

misunderstanding developed?

I can understand people would have
been disappointed to not get

the quantity of doses
they were expecting.

We couldn't take from any
other region

to supply Europe, unfortunately.

And I think, you know,
people were so desperate to get

vaccines and they sort of forgot
that it was very complicated.

The issue of this biological
manufacturing is that

they take quite a lot of refinement
of the protocols to get it to work.

And, you know, sometimes it works
like a dream and sometimes you end

up with a load of brown sludge
at the end of the run.

Look at this vaccination
centre in Paris last week

where there were no vaccinations
because the fridges were bare.

Meet Renault George,
told by text his vaccine

appointment has been cancelled.

The same week, international
journalists attend an off-camera

briefing with President Macron.

I think for Macron, at that point
with this British vaccine,

or at least this vaccine
that is seen as British,

with the British vaccination
roll-out going much faster

than the French or EU roll-out,
he was not in a happy place.

I asked him to respond
to the AstraZeneca CEO's claims.

Did he think that the EU
Commission had messed up?

But I also asked him,
given the context of Brexit,

whether Brexit UK was succeeding
in a way that was difficult

for the EU to live with
and whether Brexiteers would want it

to take back control and

were being proven right
while the EU was lagging behind

and things were taking too
long to come together?

Emmanuel Macron is someone who truly
does believe in the EU,

and he is a champion
of the of the EU.

So he tried his best to defend the
approach of the EU.

But then unexpectedly he basically
took a shot at the vaccine itself.

"The real problem with AstraZeneca
is just that it doesn't work

as we were expecting it
to because we have very

little information.

The Americans so far
haven't taken it.

But today, everything points
to thinking that it is

quasi-ineffective on those
who are 65 and above."

Was it politics getting
in the way of science?

I think that's a really
good question.

Emmanuel Macron is apparently
being accused of making nonsense

claims about the Oxford jab.

I suspect this is a bit of demand
management from Mr Macron.

The AstraZeneca jab was approved
in the UK before firm data showed

it strongly protects older people.

President Macron's comments echoed
a German newspaper report

which wrongly suggested the jab
was only 8% effective

in the elderly.

Here in Oxford, we were
aghast at the German

newspaper reporting 8% efficacy
because that figure doesn't appear

in any data that we have,
we just couldn't make sense

of it at all.

But that, without any doubt,
had a huge impact on people's

thinking and started this confusion
that there has been now.

Within hours of Macron's comments,
the European Medicines Agency

approves AstraZeneca for all adults.

But France joins Germany
in saying it won't give

this vaccine to over-65s,
citing a lack of data

on its effectiveness.

Both countries will reverse
their decision five weeks later.

Where I do have criticisms
of the politicians is that in order

to cover up their own incompetence
at ordering the vaccine at scale

and in the right time frame,
they have damaged the reputation

of the vaccine in a way that echoes
around the rest of the world

and I think to be honest

bad behaviour from scientists
and from politicians has probably

killed hundreds of thousands
of people, and that they

cannot be proud of.

So you had all sorts of comments
and memes floating around.

There was one Italian journalist
who said that the while the Pfizer

vaccine was like a Ferrari,
the AstraZeneca vaccine

was more like a Fiat Panda.

And this really kind of reflected
the kind of the anger

with the AstraZeneca,
but also this sense

of a hierarchy of vaccines.

As the EU reels from the delivery
shortages, its factories

continue to export vaccines,
including to Britain.

Through its priority contract,
the UK has received a million

AstraZeneca doses from a factory
in the Netherlands and around ten

million Pfizer jabs from Belgium.

But the UK is yet to send any
finished doses to Europe.

The UK was enormously
reliant on vaccine supply

from mainland Europe -
millions and millions of doses.

And so it was reliant the UK on that
supply not being interrupted.

The EU introduces checks on vaccine
exports, including to the UK.

By March, the AstraZeneca supply
shortage is still not resolved.

Charles Michel wrote,
the UK and the US have imposed

an outright ban on the export
of vaccines or vaccine components

produced on their territory.

Let me be clear, we have not
blocked the export of any

single vaccine or vaccine.

single vaccine or
vaccine components.

There are signs the EU may
halt exports completely.

We are in the crisis of the century
and I'm not ruling out anything

for now because we have to make sure
Europeans are vaccinated

as soon as possible.

That made me really worried
that they would cause a full blown,

you know, breakage in this entire
supply chain.

What do you make of comments
from Brussels today that the UK

should be sending
vaccines to the EU?

The country was still
locked at home.

You couldn't leave home,
you couldn't socialise.

The economy was shut
down in big sectors.

There was huge pressure
on the government at that point

to keep the vaccine roll-out
going and to increase

the pace of it.

So the supply of vaccines from EU
production facilities to the UK

is indeed fulfilling contractual
responsibilities and we fully expect

those contracts to be delivered on.

With roll-out targets under threat,
the UK has started looking

elsewhere for supplies.

In India, tens of millions
of AstraZeneca doses are coming off

the production line each week
at the largest vaccine

factory in the world.

The Serum Institute had been
licensed to produce a billion -

part of Oxford's global ambition.

We could have easily made
a product or partnered

with someone to sell the vaccine
at $7, $10.

You know, the Pfizer and Moderna
sold at $20, for example.

So, you know, at $3 a dose
with a two-dose regime,

you're talking about $6 to $7
to protect a human being's life.

300 million of these doses
are destined for COVAX, a scheme set

up by the World Health Organization
and other global institutions to

ensure fairness in vaccine supply.

When COVAX was established,
the underlying principle was that

everyone should have access

to the vaccines at the same time,
every country, every vulnerable

person around the world,
irrespective of where you live,

whether you're a wealthy country
or a low-income country,

because the virus is telling us
if you don't vaccinate everywhere

and the disease runs uncontrolled,
we will have new variants,

variants of concern.

These countries really had
nobody else to depend on.

The Western pharmaceutical companies
traditionally wanted

to supply the vaccines,
you know, to the richer

nations because that's
where they were going to get that

value addition and their pricing.

And COVAX was largely
dependent on Serum Institute

We don't take any supply
from the Serum Institute, that

supply is for the developing world.

Up to now, the UK had relied
on its own factories and the EU

for its supply of AstraZeneca.

But in February, the Serum Institute
receives a new request.

In a bid to keep the roll-out
on track, the UK Government now

asks India for vaccines.

A few weeks later, five
million vaccines arrive

in London from India.

The UK used its political clout
to get vaccines from India.

The UK government basically reached
out at the highest level

to the Indian government.

There was absolute outrage
at the fact that you had one company

making the Oxford vaccine
for a third of the world's humanity.

And at that point of time, the UK,
who had already vaccinated

50% of its population,
chooses to dip its hand in this

very constrained pool
and pull five million out.

Now that was causing a great concern
for us in COVAX because the original

agreement with the Serum Institute
of India was that those doses

would be to serve India and serve
COVAX and through COVAX would serve

the world.

So as far as any other country
is concerned in terms

of hierarchy or even ethical
hierarchy or contractual

obligations, it's the UK
first and my nation

and then everybody else.

So the UK had a golden ticket?

Naturally, because I mean,
it's their vaccine, it's thanks

to them that we've been able
to do this.

Within weeks of the doses
arriving in the UK, a new,

more infectious variant takes
hold in India.

The Delta variant is spreading
at an alarming rate,

it causes symptoms,
which are new and unexpected.

If you look at the city of Delhi,
this was a city that was seeing

perhaps the onslaught of Delta
in the way that the

world had never seen.

And we have vaccine shortages
and five million people residents

And we have vaccine shortages
and five million people, residents

of Delhi could have been And we have
vaccine shortages and five million

to prevent them from
getting severe Covid.

Now I was one of the people
who got their first dose from India.

And you're comfortable that those
doses went into the arms of UK

citizens rather than into frail
elderly in India?

Yes, of course I'm comfortable
because firstly my job was to make

sure every UK citizen had access
to a vaccine.

And secondly, and the rest
of the world could only be

vaccinated at this pace
because we've made the decision

to make the Oxford AstraZeneca
vaccine available at cost right

around the world.

Across Europe, Covid
deaths have risen sharply.

And there's a new problem
for AstraZeneca.

By mid-March around 20 million
people across Europe have received

the AstraZeneca vaccine

the AstraZeneca vaccine

Nearly 40 rare blood clots
are being investigated,

many in people under 60.

And they are not just the routine
blood clots that we see many

thousands of in the population every
year, even without vaccination.

These are an unusual
form which is associated

with low platelets.

So it's much called thrombosis
and thrombocytopenia.

And it was very unclear
whether these were related

to the vaccine or not,
because when you have the first few

cases, it could just be
that it happened by chance.

The UK keeps jabbing, but elsewhere
there's a sudden change.

Ireland, Iceland, Bulgaria...

Denmark, Austria, The Netherlands...

France, Germany and Italy
have become the latest

countries to suspend use
of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab over

concerns about blood.

But the important thing
to remember is this

is an incredibly rare side effect.

And in a pandemic, it's actually
the pandemic virus that is the real

threat to our lives.

This was a moment when there
was a huge amount of disease

spreading and there were no other
vaccines for many countries.

Within days European regulators
announce the benefits of the vaccine

outweigh its risks.

Several countries lift the ban
but with restrictions.

France now limits it
to the over-55s.

Never mind the Prime Minister,
it was the AstraZeneca vaccine that

needed a shot in the
arm today in France.

But confidence takes another knock.

The 5% of the population believe.

Three weeks later, the UK
makes a major shift.

Tonight at 10, the safety
of the AstraZeneca vaccine

for young adults has been
in the spotlight today.

From now on because of a possible
link between the vaccine and blood

clots, adults under 30 will be
offered an alternative

as a precaution.

The impact is global.

The Philippine Food and Drug
Administration recommends to...

Malaysia has removed AstraZeneca
from its main pool of vaccines.

AstraZeneca in the spotlight again
as Canada advises against getting

the shot for the under-55s.

More and more countries
limit use of the jab.

Some stop using it altogether.

The messaging was so damaging
in this part of the world.

What you're telling us at this point
in time is that the vaccine you have

said is reserved for us in Africa
is of no use in your population

of a similar age and therefore why
should we be taking it?

I spent hours explaining
that the the risk of taking

an aspirin if you gave aspirin
to all seven billion people

on Earth, all at the same time,
how many people, how many clots

you would have?

So there was this mixed messaging
and that mixed messaging has greatly

affected vaccine confidence
around the world.

ARCHIVE: This was a parking space.

But this time for the pandemic
we use it as a cremation centre.

With the second way in a steep rise
in cases. India has become of the

centre of the epidemic.

You know, the bodies were piling
up in the crematoriums

and people people were doing,
trying to, you know,

do the last goodbye for the loved
ones and finding it really difficult

to do that.

There were queues outside
vaccination centres

to to get your jab.

And at that point of time, every
vaccine vial made a difference.

Because that was the difference
between life and death.

The COVAX scheme and dozens of lower
income countries are waiting

on AstraZeneca doses from the Serum
Institute.

But in response to the Delta wave,
the Indian Government has stopped

vaccines leaving the country.

It's been a political
decision to keep doses.

You know, the US has done it.

Other countries have done it
because you have to protect,

you know, your nation first.

That's always been the first
responsibility for any world leader,

any prime minister or president.

And then when the second wave hit
in India it really set COVAX back.

Suddenly the vaccine supplies dried
up and they were left empty handed.

The head of the Africa Centre
for Disease Control and Prevention

says there's been a 23% increase
in the number of Covid-related

deaths in the last week.

We have through COVAX
this month zero doses

of AstraZeneca SII vaccine,

zero doses of J&J and the situation
now is dire.

And the reason we didn't get answers
is because high income countries

or others were putting such pressure
on the company to prioritise them.

We could not redirect
doses because, you know,

we have contracts and we have
to respect those contracts.

Just like we had a contract with
the UK and a contract with Europe.

At this point AstraZeneca had
delivered 67m doses to COVAX,

Pfizer 10m, Moderna none.

Contributions would increase
significantly later on.

Once India shut that door,
the sense was we are truly well

and truly done for because at that
point, that was the only hope.

And then the phone started to go off
because people were afraid.

African leaders were afraid.

Where are these vaccines?

What is going on?

Are people going to die?

Are we going to watch people die
like we re watching these scenes

coming out of India?

The situation is dire,
we are experiencing

a second Covid wave.

Dr Peter Waiswa is part of a group
advising the government

on vaccines.

So in the 20, 21, around May, June,
we got the Delta wave.

Things were really so bad our
hospitals were full.

You would struggle to get a hospital
bed and we needed oxygen.

But oxygen was out of stock.

We also didn t have ICU equipment.

Every day you would get names
of colleagues who are either

admitted or have died
as doctors, nurses.

And I'm sure for most
of these they have not yet

accessed the vaccine.

So this wave really hit
the country so much,

the demand for the vaccine went up.

Uganda is relying on doses from
the Serum Institute and from COVAX.

So far it had received
fewer than two million

for a population of 45 million.

So this was a double tragedy,
and that's where I lived

as a country, but also
as a continent without

a source of vaccines.

But also because in Europe,
especially Europe and the US,

they are hoarding vaccines
and they could not be accessed.

And then everybody started
lamenting, including

our president saying,
"Well, we have money, but..."

And even with our
money, we can't buy.

Across town Peter s sister-in-law
Grace is working for UNICEF.

So her work was quite closely
involved in the process of having

vaccines in the country or improving
access to care, especially

for children in Uganda.

She was so happy that she s in a job
where she is making a direct

difference in people s lives.

Vaccines in Uganda are being
prioritised for frontline

workers and the over 50s.

Grace, who is 49, has not
yet been vaccinated.

Yeah, actually, I think
it was in the evening when my wife

told me Grace is home and sick
with Covid, so I called her

and she said, "Peter,
I m here but I m going to be fine."

With the main source
of AstraZeneca cut off,

many countries start looking to buy
vaccines from other manufacturers

but doses are in short
supply across the world.

The biggest problem with this
pandemic was that the world does

not have enough places
to manufacture vaccines.

Individual countries negotiated
individually with particular

suppliers and those who put money up
front did very well.

People in Africa are very,
very angry about being left behind

in the queue and having no
manufacturing capacity

pretty well in their continent.

High income countries had already
bought up half the world's supply.

There is no diplomatic
way to say it.

A small group of countries that make
and buy the majority of the world s

vaccines control the fate
of the rest of the world.

So there was a sort of concurrent
movement, you know,

there was a vaccination euphoria
an almost festival-like

atmosphere in the West,
you know, everybody doing

the V-signs for vaccinated.

At the same time that people
were getting more and more desperate

in the low-income countries
of the world and in Africa.

In Uganda, Grace's
condition has worsened.

She is airlifted to
a hospital in Kenya.

It became so personal
and so painful.

The sickness, God fear,
all we could do is pray

for her and hope for the best.

SINGING.

After nine days in intensive
care, Grace dies.

We think that if she had been
vaccinated, then the outcome

would have been so different.

By now, the UK is using Pfizer
and Moderna to vaccinate people

in their 20s and is building
a stockpile of millions

of unused AstraZeneca doses.

It'll be another six weeks
before any are donated.

By the time you got
through the first half of 2021

enough doses have been manufactured
that could have prevented almost

all of the deaths in the second half
of 2021 if those doses had been

targeted at older adults,
those with health conditions

and health care workers
all over the world.

So from a global public health
point of view, it's easy.

We've done it wrong.

But how do you make politicians
comfortable with actually the moral

imperative that there should be
in a pandemic?

The contribution we make
to the world is is giving

the science and the wherewithal
to others to make it.

Give a man the tools
and teach them how to fish.

And that is far, far more powerful
in terms of saving lives than any

number of vaccines we could have
manufactured here and then

physically exported on an aeroplane.

In June, the UK also
receives a fresh delivery -

half a million doses of Pfizer
jabs from COVAX.

High-income countries who had
invested in COVAX had

a right to claim vaccines.

You could say, why did the UK
need those COVAX jabs?

That the whole principle
of COVAX is that is it...

It's all of humanity together.

It's a bit odd, though, isn't it?

The UK taking doses from COVAX?

I mean, they're better
intended for Nepal, Malawi,

for the poor countries.

France and Germany
never took any doses.

We were essentially there
at the start of the birth of COVAX.

We were the biggest donors to COVAX,
although the Americans then later

came in with more support,
which is good.

And our view was if you're all in,
then you should be all in all parts.

In October 2021, India
lifts its export controls.

A month later, South Africa reports
a new variant - Omicron.

At this point, 67% of
people in high-income

countries are double jabbed.

But in Africa it averages 7%.

What is going on right
now is inevitable.

It is as a result of the world s
failure to vaccinate

in an equitable, urgent
and speedy manner.

It is as a result of hoarding
by high-income countries

of the world and quite frankly
it is unacceptable.

We're giving this virus
the opportunity to evolve,

to mutate, to present in more
rapidly transmissible

or deadly forms.

We're going to be deep into 2022
before we have this pandemic under

control in a best case scenario
because that's how long it s

going to take to get vaccines rolled
out equitably around the world.

I would like to see more vaccines
manufactured in Africa.

For the next pandemic, we need
to increase our manufacturing

capacity across the world.

If the vaccines don't exist,
then they can't be shared.

Nearly two billion vaccine donations
have now been pledged by the G7

and EU but lower-income countries
now face a new challenge.

Millions of donated doses have only
weeks left before they expire.

Not all of them can be used in time.

Some have blamed
vaccine nationalism.

OK, so this whole issue
of nationalism generally

in a pandemic is a reality
which in theory you would

like to wipe out and say, "Well,
actually, we should all share

from day one."

But the truth is, if you've
got the people making

the ultimate decision,
the politicians, who rely

on the votes of the people
in the street to get re-elected

and to maintain their wide support,
it becomes rapidly clear

that the first priority they're
going to have are going to be

to their own territories.

So I think it's a really good thing
that taxpayer money has been

dedicated within countries such
as the UK or the US to accelerate

the development of vaccines.

I believe vaccines would have been
developed without the help

of governments, but I think
we would have maybe waited

two years or three years.

The clinical trials
would have been slower.

The manufacturing
would have been slower.

I wrote a story under the title
of Nice Guys Finish Last.

I don't think AstraZeneca has gotten
the credit it deserves for rolling

out this vaccine on a not-for-profit
basis, prioritising

low-income countries.

I think it's played an absolutely
crucial role in battling

the pandemic and that the world
would be in a much

worse place without it.

I'd like to think that our legacy
will be that the public

will appreciate that even though
some excellent companies invested

in new technologies and made
new types of vaccine,

largely for quite substantial
profits, but there is also a sector

that exists in academia,
which is a non-profit activity that

saw the global picture
and was able to recognise that.

Unlikely though it might seem, you
could make a vaccine, manufacture it

with partners around the world and
make a true global impact in terms

of supplying people who otherwise
might have been left behind.