Starting next week, 40,000 volunteers will take the coronavirus vaccine they recently approved and received through the Russian government.
The vaccine, which Russia has called Sputnik V, will be distributed as a component of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study, Reports Ars Technica.These large-scale experiments are essential to ensure that a vaccine or other medical remedy is safe and effective, but it is also anything that happens regularly before the vaccine is approved with fanfare.
It is this opposite order that makes experts around the world skeptical of Russia’s claims.Doctors have only tested Sputnik V in early clinical trials, and knowledge of these experiments is still available.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has attempted to download any data on these past studies of the Russian government, Ars Technica reports, but without success.This does not necessarily mean that the vaccine does not work as well as the Russian government.claims, however, at the same time, there is no evidence that this is the case.
And some of Russia’s claims are bold.
“I know this has proven effective and that bureaucracy has solid immunity,” Russian President Vladimir Putin announced earlier this month, according to AP News.”We will have to be grateful to those who took this vital first step for our country and the world.”
But without embedding and accurate data, experts will be influenced.
“It’s not about taking shortcuts in terms of protection or effectiveness,” WHO emergency manager Catherine Smallwood told AP News.
READ MORE: UNproven COVID-19 Sputnik V Vaccine Begins Testing 40,000 People Next Week [Ars Technica]
Read more about Sputnik V: Russia says it has an untested COVID vaccine