Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has decided to lead by example. He went to the hospital and had the GamCovidVac or Sputnik V vaccine injected, which many experts criticize as a sewn hot needle and untested. The minister put on a marshal’s uniform and invited a television camera to the vaccination room. “I feel normal. I did not have a fever or any other symptoms. I recommend this vaccination to everyone, “said the head of the Ministry of Defense.
Russia registered Sputnik V on August 11, when President Vladimir Putin declared that his country was the first in the world to have a coronavirus vaccine. In fact, the vaccine was only in the second of three phases of testing, with 38 volunteers testing it twice. Now, after less than a month, the substance is going into public distribution.
Russia has published the results of tests on the coronavirus vaccine. It has created antibodies, but scientists have reservations |
“Registration allows us to vaccinate the entire population, but the first will be high-risk groups,” said Denis Logunov, a microbiologist and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. By the end of the year, it should be received mainly by health professionals and teachers. However, the vaccine has certain limitations. Together with the first few thousand recipients, it will be further tested.
Sputnik V should also be used in people who are chronically ill, but it turns out that in many of them – for example in cancer patients, people with blood diseases or immune disorders – the preparation could have undesirable side effects. Therefore, vaccination is not recommended in them.
In the end, officials became the first to be vaccinated – in addition to the Minister of Defense, for example, the director of the propaganda television RT and the information agency MIA Margarita Simoňanová or the Moscow mayor Sergei Sobjanin.
“We are ready to confirm the protective effect of this vaccine for two years, maybe longer,” said Alexandr Gincburg, director of the Nikolai Gamaleji Institute of Epidemiological and Microbiological Research, which is developing the substance with the Ministry of Defense.
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According to an article about the development of the vaccine in the scientific journal Lancet, testing took place for a record short time on an unusually small sample. A total of 38 people underwent tests twice in two hospitals. Doctors followed them for 42 days, of which only a month in hospitalization. All vaccinees received antibodies and no significant side effects were reported.
Under normal circumstances, however, the substance is tested throughout the year on a sample of many thousands. “To determine whether a substance is safe in the long term and whether it is effective in preventing covid-19 infection, a broader, long-term testing, including a placebo comparison, is needed,” the article said.
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The way in which the vaccine was introduced has been criticized by many countries, such as Germany, the United States and the World Health Organization. According to surveys, half of Russians would not allow it to be used voluntarily, and when public opinion researchers asked in Canada, 68 percent of citizens rejected the Russian vaccine.
On the other hand, covid vaccine is not so much about public health as it is about strategy. After the New Year, production is set to begin in a big way. Having a vaccine is a matter of national security, and countries that develop their own substance will always be at a strategic advantage. And a significant aspect is the business here – Russia already has orders for about a billion benefits from twenty countries around the world.
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