Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he received an experimental nasal coronavirus vaccine three days after receiving his booster injection. Russia faces the highest spike in contagion and deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Putin received the locally made Sputnik V vaccine in the middle of the year. On Sunday he said that he received a booster dose of Sputnik Light and that he wanted to participate in the tests of Sputnik V in its nasal version.
Denis Logunov, deputy director of the Gamaleya Center, which is state-funded and created Sputnik V, told Putin that the nasal vaccine is in the testing stage and is being studied “as always, with staff members, supervising.”
According to accepted scientific protocols, the vaccine must go through several stages of testing, even with thousands of people, to prove that it is safe and effective.
Putin told a government meeting on Wednesday that “exactly six months after vaccination my levels of protective (antibodies) have dropped and specialists recommend revaccination, and so I did.”
He said the nasal vaccine did not bother him.
In recent weeks Russia has suffered the highest peak of COVID-19, registering new records of contagion and death almost daily.
Vaccination rates are low and the public’s attitude towards precautions is sloppy.
Less than 40% of the 140 million Russians are fully vaccinated even though the country approved a locally produced vaccine months before most of the rest of the world.
The state commission for the coronavirus reported 33,558 new cases and 1,240 deaths.
The official total since the start of the pandemic is more than 9.4 million cases and more than 267,000 deaths, by far the highest figures in Europe.
Some experts believe that the true numbers are higher.
–
