the world is becoming a story of glaring
absences in Italy they shut schools and
universities but today 49 people died
from the virus fear of infection has
depleted even the most devoted crowds
some Peter's in Rome is missing it's
song of pilgrims the tiny Vatican City
has registered its first positive case
the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
is empty Israel's daunting security
walls may stop an Intifada but can they
stop a virus NECA from above before the
government stopped foreign worshippers
and after in Iraq Shia city of Karbala
they stopped Friday prayers and
deep-clean the empty spaces
fear of this virus has made us its hosts
put our borders and barriers while the
unwelcome guest is busy crossing them
with blind disregard for ideology creed
or flag for now covered 19 as the run of
the place battling the rising fear and
the growing infections is of course
science here in Bedford sure they're
working on a rapid infection test that
could yield results within 20 minutes
but it'll only be ready in the autumn at
the earliest meanwhile the cases keep
rising to a total of 163 in the UK today
and we are all in the same boat as the
prime minister learning the basics and
of course singing to ourselves or
purging it looks to me as though there
will certainly be a substantial period
of disruption when we have to deal with
this with this outbreak how big that
will be how long that will be I think is
still an open question and the most
alarming open question of them all how
many more deaths yesterday a woman in
her 70s with underlying health
conditions became Britain's first
fatality in reading today a patient in
Milton Keynes an elderly man with a
pre-existing illness became the second
fatality
Trust is the indispensable medicine in
this battle and by all accounts around
with over 4,700 official cases is
running short they may be using the fire
brigade to disinfect cities but the
government there has put pressure on
doctors to falsify the reasons for death
and play down the numbers and with three
direct flights still from Tehran to
London every week what happens in Iran
doesn't necessarily stay in Iran and as
if airlines weren't having a bad enough
time to be a baggage handlers at
heathrow have tested positive today
which surely begs the question could the
virus have survived a journey in the
luggage hold here I am on the princess
cruise ship and finally spare a thought
for those giant vessels of indulgence
turned petri dishes of questionable
quarantine with this an airdrop of
testing kits onto the Grand Princess
meandering off California floating home
to 3,500 passengers and crew including
142 Brits none infected so far but a
passenger on a previous voyage has died
from the virus and that was reason
enough to confine everyone here on board
we are all on that cruise ship now
afraid of the mundane constantly scaling
down our expectations and playing the
lottery of infection dr. Richard
Hatchett advised the Bush and Obama
White House's and work for the agency
that protects Americans against
pandemics and bio weapons his
organization has now received more than
20 million pounds from the UK government
to developed a code 19 vaccine I spoke
to him earlier and began by asking how
much of a threat the virus now is
alright I think that the threat is very
significant the potential of the virus
it's already demonstrated in China yeah
I think it's demonstrating that
potential in Italy in Iran looking at
what's happening here in the UK are we
on a similar trajectory well I don't
like to make predictions I think it's up
to societies how they will respond to
the virus you can look at places like
Singapore and Hong Kong Singapore had
its first case
On January 23rd yesterday they had
gotten up to I think about 115 cases so
fewer than the UK fewer than the UK over
six weeks and basically they have been
able through their public health
interventions through the public health
response through contact tracing
isolation of cases and through engaging
the public they have been able to keep
the virus under control well given the
rate of increase that we're seeing now
in the UK do you think the government
needs to be more aggressive as they were
in China Singapore Hong Kong Singapore
and Hong Kong did not shut themselves
down but they have managed very
aggressive responses contact tracing is
very important the the voluntary
quarantine of contacts is very important
the isolation of cases is very important
I think there may be a time to close
schools the virus has been circulating
here for some time and I think the
government does recognize the the
criticality of the situation I think the
I actually think Chris woody and his
colleagues are doing a good job at
communicating the risk to the public I
don't think they're minimizing the
threat I think they recognize the
potential of the virus to overall and
certainly relative just to some other
countries I think the UK is doing a good
job is there a danger though of an
overreaction given when you look at the
scale of flu deaths worldwide up to
600,000 a year and you don't shut down
public transport networks to stop people
getting the flu I don't think we're
dealing with the flu what scientists
know about this virus so far what
concerns you most about it I think the
most concerning thing about this virus
is the combination of infectiousness and
the ability to cause severe disease or
death and we have not since 1918 Spanish
flu the Spanish flu seen a virus that
combined those two qualities in the same
way and do you believe the whio figure
of 3.4%
mortality rate because I mean the UK
puts in a wonder
and roughly in some respects if it is
between 1% and 3.4%
it really doesn't matter what after the
decimal point I think what we're seeing
is a virus that is many many times more
lethal than flu and right now a
population that is completely vulnerable
to it and that we are seeing its ability
to explode there is nothing to stop that
expansion from continuing unless those
societies move aggressively engage their
publics implement multiple public health
interventions including focusing on
cases but also introducing social
distancing interventions there's there's
nothing to start right now social
distancing I think I think everybody
should be doing what we call the Ebola
handshake the elbow bump instead of
shaking hands Bruce Aylward has his
tongue detaching from w-h-o has talked
about coming back from China put it in
terms of it is like they are at war with
the virus I don't think it's a crazy
analogy to compare this to what war - I
mean a lot of people might be really
surprised if not sort of alien salted
that you're comparing this to a war
world war - well I I don't
waho is is using those kinds of terms in
talking about what's required to
mobilize people and it's because they
have seen what this virus is capable of
doing and the government here has
announced funding for that's a vaccine
or several trial vaccines against the
virus do you agree that there's no hope
of securing a vaccine and rolling that
out across population in time for this
outbreak we don't see any way that a
vaccine can be available much more
rapidly than 12 to 18 months and and
even if it were to be available in 12 to
18 months that would literally be you
know the world record for developing and
delivering a vaccine and the vaccine
that would become available in 12 to 18
months the supply would be such that we
would need I think
ethically to prioritize it for those who
were at highest risk so if this is a war
in your terms it's a lengthy one it is a
lengthy one this is a varus it's going
to be with us for some time I'm there
there are many epidemiologists who think
that the virus is likely to become
globally endemic and be with us
in perpetuity if I had to bet I would
think that that is the most probable
scenario you're using this these
Marshall metaphors you're making it
sound very scary you have a vested
interest in making people fearful so you
get the investment in a vaccine what do
you say to that I've been working on
epidemic preparedness for about 20 years
and completely dispassionately without
without elevating the temperature or
speaking hyperbolically this is the most
frightening disease I've ever
encountered in my career and that
includes a bola it includes MERS it
includes SARS and it's frightening
because of the combination of
infectiousness and a locality that is
appears to be mini fold higher than flu
Richard Hatchett thanks very much thanks
Kathy well I'm joined now by our
business and global trade correspondent
Paul McNamara or Paul it's been a really
interesting day with the health
secretary making some pretty interesting
comments about supermarkets and
stockpiling which have been challenged
tell us more about that yes so at the
beginning of the week hand sanitizer
started and selling out now there are
plenty of other supermarket shelves that
are emptying because people are started
stockpiling last night the health center
team at Hancock try to calm people down
he said look there's absolutely no need
to panic by adding we are working with
the supermarket's to make sure people be
able to get the food and supplies they
need which is all very reassuring except
for one small thing I spoke to someone
from one of the biggest supermarket
chains this morning and they said we
were a little bit surprised about that
because we've had no contact with
government whatsoever that seems to have
changed during the day and the
environment secretary George juicers has
been hitting the phones with chief
executives and the messaging from both
government and the supermarket's is
essentially don't worry supply change
will continue to
function as normal for the foreseeable
future but while people have been
panicked buying in supermarkets and
stock markets they've been panic selling
all markets around the world took an
absolute hammering today the footsie
closed down three and a half just about
three and a half percent and the problem
for investors we've been speaking to is
they don't know where or when or how
this will end Paul thanks very much well
there's growing concern about the number
of coronavirus related hate crimes
against the Chinese and Asian
communities a charity which monitors
hate crime now wants more support from
the government to tackle the issue today
two teenage boys were arrested on
suspicion of racially assaulting a
Singaporean man following the outbreak I
shat ol has been speaking to a man who
also claims he's been attacked because
of the corona virus as fear of catching
the new corona virus has grown around
the world there's another concern that
arise in racist attacks against the
Chinese and Asian community is growing
to more worried about them
like I say Thanh Jiang has lived in Hong
Kong all his life when he popped out to
his local shop with his wife and kids
recently he says he experienced his
first racist attack she was walk around
the corner there's about 10 15 that's in
there I could fit you and I fulfilled as
a bit of presents there so I warp I
start to ignore them as soon as I got
past the start shovelin abuse bolt the
coronavirus known racist remarks towards
me come back to me car they followed me
and was basically surrounding the car
just I roll through rocks and stones at
the corner
how did it feel when you've got groups
of men shouting at you your wife your
kids about coronavirus trying to look at
you like that you're a disease so I mean
it's not look like you're the
coronavirus I mean it's a mean inaudible
it's mr. Jiang isn't happy with how the
police are dealing with his case we're
on we got last week and said can you
tell me the more specific time because I
said it's between one o'clock or three
o'clock they said we're gonna have to
sit there for two hours and look through
that footage
they've actually roll me up and sat down
I said thinking you that's your job it's
a set of through two hours of fighting
me and he also has concerns about how
seriously this is being looked at
without like they do they say the
Denison report and that was quite but
nothing gets done mr. Jiang has also
lost his job at a local Chinese takeaway
his boss says business is so bad he
can't afford to keep him on police say
they're investigating mr. Zhang's case
in a statement to us they said Cheshire
Constabulary takes all reports of hate
crimes extremely seriously and we
encourage anyone who has been affected
by this type of crime to get in touch
Chinese students across the UK have been
organizing anti-racist protests Shannon
is one of them and she also wants
universities to do more maybe for at
this very crucial time will Coronel IRAs
universities need to have some tangible
or accessible platform for Chinese
students any students actually not only
from China but from also from South Asia
or Singapore you know Thailand South
Korea a lot of my South Korean friends
also got attacked because they look
Chinese right it doesn't matter how you
look like you look Chinese and you get
attacked there are concerns that these
types of incidents are on the rise
tell mama is a charity that monitors
discrimination and they're calling for
action we need to have that public
outrage against the anti Chinese racism
that is growing and it's not happening
yet and we need communities to stand
together to tackle anti-chinese racism
as we call on all communities to stand
against all types of hatred this isn't
just happening in the UK we've seen
reports from countries including France
Australia and America in some countries
politicians are speaking out and
condemning coronavirus abuse but some in
the Chinese community here in the UK
hope that leaders will start to speak up
for them well earlier I spoke to the
former business secretary Andrea led
some and began by asking her whether she
thought we should all be invoking the
Blitz spirit to battle the coronavirus
or not but I think what we've been very
clear about is that people should go
about their usual live
and take care over washing hands and so
on and for people who feel ill to self
isolate but I'm not sure that's quite
the same as the Blitz spirit you were
business secretary before you were let
go by Boris Johnson do you fear now
given the kind of clamp down going on
around the world that a global recession
is all but inevitable there's a lot of
evidence of a recent slowdown anyway
we've had the issues with trade between
the US and China we've seen a big
slowdown in the European Union and so
yes I mean coronavirus doesn't help we
saw Flybe collapse
yes week just a few weeks ago as
business secretary you tweeted delighted
that we've reached agreement with fly
bees shareholders to keep the company
operating ensuring that UK regions
remain connected do you regret that
given that there was no agreement just a
possible agreement which fell apart and
actually didn't you just give false hope
to employees of fly B and their
customers no I the time when we had
those discussions with the investors
they were absolutely clear that they
would continue to support fly B it's a
turnaround operation and they were
committed to its long-term future and at
the same time the government was
committed to review of air passenger
duty to take away the double counting on
domestic flights and to look again at
some of those routes which don't have
any alternatives and so we did sort of
what we'd set out to do I think it is
devastating for staff and for many
people who who now have problems with
passenger journeys just finally you gave
a statement in the Commons this week
about your resignation you said that it
you spoke about the importance of all
MPs behaving honorably the Home
Secretary is accused of bullying her
staff allegations she denies would it
help you set up a complaint and
independent and anonymous complaints
system for MPS and their staff would a
similar system be appropriate for civil
servants well first I want to say I have
never seen pretty bully anyone and she
is a very highly regarded colleague and
I certainly get along with her very well
and I think actually
the problem with this kind of very
public allegation is that it's very
difficult for her to defend herself and
in many cases that I've seen in my time
as leader of the Commons is also very
difficult then for victims to come
forward because they themselves find
that they're in the public glare of the
spotlight so actually yes I do believe
that a confidential and independent
complaint scheme is the way forward and
relents and thanks very much thank you