Russian President Vladimir Putin will not accept one of the nation’s immunization candidates to protect the novel’s coronavirus, a government spokesman said Tuesday. Putin’s press secretary and deputy chief of staff, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that it was “impossible” to administer a vaccine still under development to the Russian leader, according to Bloomberg Politics.
“We have not yet started large-scale vaccination, and the head of state cannot volunteer for vaccination,” Peskov explained, addressing the question of whether Putin was among the thousands of recipients to whom Russia’s most advanced vaccine candidate already belongs. shared.
“Impossible,” he continued. – The President may not use unauthorized vaccinations.
Peschov acknowledged the current limits of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine after months of less cautious rhetoric from Putin, the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Health. As researchers develop a vaccine that confers immunity to the new coronavirus, safety and efficacy issues are paramount.
Russian officials say their immunization candidates have both traits, although the rapid registration of the country’s leading COVID-19 vaccineer, Sputnik V, has been skeptical and concerned by health professionals around the world.
Russian health authorities issued a pre-registration certificate for Sputnik V in early August after only a small group of people were admitted to early-stage clinical trials. The certificate allowed Russia to administer the vaccine to medical staff and other high-risk individuals while post-registration examinations will continue until the beginning of the new year.
On Tuesday, officials behind Sputnik V confirmed that the III. Slightly more than half of the 40,000 volunteers in Phase I clinical trials received the first dose of the two-dose vaccine and 19,000 received the first and second vaccinations. The experiments were said to have “no unexpected side effects” and the vaccine was reported with 91.4 percent effectiveness based on a 28-day analysis.
The vaccine has not yet been officially authorized for widespread distribution. Last week, the manufacturers allegedly submitted an application for certification of an immunization candidate to the World Health Organization, according to Melita Vujnovic, a representative of the WHO in Russia.
ALEXEY NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP with Getty Images
Russia’s Sputnik V is one of three COVID-19 immunization candidates the nation is currently working on developing. The second candidate, EpiVacCorona, received its pre-registration certificate in October. Talking to other world leaders at last week’s virtual G20 summit, Putin shared his intention to distribute Russia’s vaccine to people living in countries other than his own.
“Our country, Russia, is ready to supply countries in need with vaccines developed by our researchers,” the president said. “This is the world’s first registered vaccine, Sputnik V, based on a platform of human adenovirus vectors. A second Russian vaccine, EpiVacCorona, has also been developed from a research center in Novosibirsk. A third Russian vaccine is coming.”
Russia has confirmed the occurrence of COVID-19, one of the highest occurrences in the world, since the nation began reporting the first cases in March last year. By Tuesday afternoon, more than 2.1 million people had a positive respiratory illness and at least 36,675 had died. The country has confirmed cases behind those registered in the United States, India, Brazil and France.
Newsweek made further comments to the Kremlin but did not receive an adequate response to the publication.
