What 2021 taught us about Covid

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2021

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This year started with the focus on Covid-19 vaccine rollouts and ends with the emergence of a new coronavirus variant, Omicron. Ros Atkins looks at how the pandemic has evolved in 2021 and the challenges that lie ahead.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Nambulanta Combo and my podcast, Dear Daughter, is available now.
0:05.4	It's a handbook to life for daughters everywhere. Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:14.0	Hello, I'm Rosakins. Each week on the BBC World Service, I look at one of the biggest issues
0:19.6	in the news. This week, it's what 2021 has taught us about COVID-19.
0:25.5	This is like a detective story. You are looking for evidence. You get closer and closer to
0:36.2	understanding what really is happening. Although you're tantalizingly close, you're not 100% sure.
0:43.6	This is David Nabarro from the World Health Organization talking about the uncertainty
0:48.4	surrounding COVID-19. He doesn't know what next, none of us do. But we do know that Omicron
0:55.4	is coming. This variant was first reported in South Africa in November within weeks it had spread
1:01.2	to dozens of countries. And Dr Ted Ross, the head of the WHO, has this message for us.
1:18.3	To put it mildly, this is not where we'd hope we'd be. As this woman, in Copenhagen,
1:24.0	put it recently. It's 2020 all over again in a way. We're back where we were.
1:28.8	I want to consider where we were with COVID and where we are now and look at what we've learned
1:34.5	about this virus in 2021.
1:42.2	100 million shots at the end of my first 100 days as president.
1:47.2	Back in January, America's newly elected president Joe Biden laid out the country's COVID
1:52.8	vaccination plans. The US was among a number of rich countries which had started their rollouts.
1:59.6	Also in January, the pandemic's death toll passed two million and cases were rising significantly.
2:06.1	And amid all of this, the World Health Organization had a message of defiant hope.
2:12.2	His David Nabarro again, this time in February.
2:15.8	I don't want to ask people to hide under their desks or do vays in fear.
2:20.8	Actually, I want people to be connecting with each other and saying, you know, this is a virus
	...

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