huge hopes are being invested in this
little jab
the hope of life returning to normal
before fear
and masks and social distancing
but reality looks very different the
vaccination campaign has only just begun
and it will be months before anyone's
guard can be let down
we don't want to split our society and
at this point when not everyone can get
vaccinated
and when it's not even clear whether
vaccinated people might still spread the
virus
there can't be any special rights for
immunized people
that may be so but divisions may crack
open in germany nonetheless restaurants
have a right to throw out unwelcome
guests
businesses can decide who to employ
it's their right of course they can say
that's somebody who's a bigger danger
because they haven't been vaccinated so
we want to limit our risk
will germany become a two-tier society
airlines that
only admit vaccinated passengers pubs
which refuse
entry to the unimmunized
how long does the vaccination work for
but otherwise i'm in favor of people
who've been vaccinated having advantages
things should be the same for both
groups as long as it's possible that
vaccinated people might still be
contagious
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there are people who can't be vaccinated
for some reason
but there are also people who don't want
it
the position of the german government is
clear no discrimination between those
vaccinated and those not
and if necessary that will be written
into law
germany is reckoning with its highest
daily coronavirus death toll
for the first time since the pandemic
began
more than 1 000 people have died in a
single 24-hour period
germany had a relatively low death rate
in the first phase of the pandemic but
has seen a steady
increase in recent weeks restrictions
meant to stem the spread of the
coronavirus have been tightened since
november
a current lockdown due to remain in
place until january 10th now looks
likely to be extended
here's german health minister yen
schmann speaking moments ago
1961 129 deaths this morning alone
1129 families will experience
this new year in mourning these numbers
show how brutally this virus still
strikes
the infection and death rates also show
that we are still very far away from any
kind of normality
so in this situation i don't see how we
can return to pre-lockdown mode
as hard as it is this also applies to
new year's eve tomorrow
it is a necessity that this is to become
the quietest new year's eve
that germany can remember
i'm joined now by dw political
correspondent emmanuel shares
emma stern and somber words from the
health minister there
even as the vaccine is being rolled out
across germany what do these numbers
tell us about the situation here
well it simply tells us that the
situation is not good you've mentioned
it this is the first time that
there's over a thousand deaths recorded
in a single day there's more than twenty
two thousand new infections
now the head of the robert cohen
institute which is
uh monitoring the pandemic here in
germany say that this could be due to
the backlog to the delay in reporting
those infections over the festive period
but this could also be the sign
that scientists were fearing of the
beginning of a third wave for
early january after the festive period
so just
as uh health minister yang spam say this
is
bound to mean that we won't be returning
to normal anytime soon
everyone looking for something to hang
on to as we move into the new year emma
is there any
room for hope in the near future
well um president feinberg steinmeier
talked about
the light at the end of the tunnel when
referring to the rollout of the vaccine
so this could be the light the only
thing is that we don't know how long
this channel
still is and the pandemic being far from
being over
uh there's still some tough months ahead
added to that there's a protest
continuing process from people who don't
approve
um the handling of the pandemic by the
government or
from anti-bacters that being said
two-thirds of germans plan to get
vaccinated and hence mr
yanshpan said he was hopeful that the
vaccine will be made available to the
general public by me 2021
all right dw political correspondent
emma shaz thanks very much for that
meanwhile britain has become the first
country in the world to authorize the
coronavirus vaccine developed by
astrazeneca and oxford university
it's the second vaccine to receive
emergency authorization from the uk
authorities
after the biontech jab trial data
suggests the latest vaccine is less
effective but
easier to store and transport
authorities say they plan to start
rolling it out within days
britain is struggling with a surge in
virus cases that are threatening to
overwhelm
hospitals
i'm now joined by john campbell he's an
independent health analyst an educator
and joins us from carlisle in the north
of england
dr campbell thanks for joining us this
pandemic is hitting your country and so
many others very hard at this time
how important is this new vaccine
it really is but this new vaccine is the
best news we've had in the pandemic and
it is going to change the situation
entirely now in the united kingdom we're
going to start a mass
roll out of this vaccine from the 4th of
january
we're going to be vaccinating a million
people a week from that point
and that's only going to build up as the
logistics and infrastructure develops
and as well as that what we're going to
do is we're going to give one dose of
this vaccine
and then wait a full three months before
we give the second dose
so that means an awful lot of people are
going to start to get a fairly good
level of immunity
straight away without waiting for the
second dose and of course it also means
we can vaccinate many more people
so it really is going to change the
situation in the united kingdom and in
time in europe
but this this vaccine this new one
oxford astrazeneca vaccine is the second
but
we've already seen in trials that it's
not as effective as the biontech
fires of one is it good enough
it certainly is good enough anything
over 50 is going to be efficacious
but we had the managing director of
fires are making a press announcement
just a few days ago
saying the efficacy of this would just
be as good as the pfizer and the moderna
vaccine
now we don't have the scientific data on
that yet but it's looking very promising
and the key seems to be in the gap
between the two doses
so giving a longer gap between the first
and the second dose seems to increase
the efficacy
so although we have efficacy figures of
like 62
70 up to 90 depending on the dosing
regime
what he says is we've found the right
formula and we should be up there with
the others
so we are expecting high levels of
efficacy so yes
it is good enough and we believe this
vaccine is safe as well
well that certainly sounds promising
john campbell independent health analyst
thank you okay thank you