MOSCOW – The Russian president on Thursday praised a vaccine opposed to the coronavirus that Russia approved for use before this month as effective and safe, a transparent attempt to respond to foreign skepticism about injections that have been studied for two months in a few dozen people.
In an interview with the state-owned Rossia 24 broadcast on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin insisted that the world’s first coronavirus vaccine for a soft green government had been approved “in strict compliance with Russian laws” that comply with “international practices and regulations.” “
The claim comes after scientists around the world sounded the alarm about accelerated approval and Russia failed to achieve the percentage of knowledge that supports the vaccine’s claims of efficacy, saying it is a major violation of the clinical protocol.
“It is clear to our specialists today that this vaccine bureaucracy is a system of lasting immunity … and he’s safe,” Putin said.
He said one of his daughters had already been vaccinated, developed antibodies and felt good, but the Russian government did not present clinical evidence to resolve those claims.
International experts that any widely used vaccine deserves to be tested first in complex trials involving tens of thousands of other people to prove that it is safe and effective before obtaining the license. Scientists at the World Health Organization said that although they had started talks with Russia about their vaccine, they had not yet gained detailed knowledge of the vaccine.
Experts warn that the use of an unproven vaccine that has not yet been shown or has not been effective may ultimately undermine the pandemic reaction and create greater mistrust among others about whether or not they deserve to be vaccinated.
The Russian vaccine called Sputnik-V, a reference to the Soviet Union launch of the world’s first satellite in 1957, has been tested in two teams of 38 volunteers each, according to the Russian Ministry of Health.
The Russian government has promised that complex trials of the vaccine will continue after its approval and involve 1,600 volunteers. But after a wave of foreign criticism, Russian fitness officials have legalized the release of complex trials with 40,000 volunteers.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobianin on Wednesday invited the citizens of the Russian capital to enroll in the study, and called it a “unique opportunity for leading clinical trial participants who will help defeat the coronavirus.”
It is not clear that vaccination of at-risk equipment, such as doctors and teachers, announced above, will be a component of the trials or will be carried out in parallel.
Earlier this year, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova promised to start “industrial production” of the vaccine in September and Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said mass vaccinations could begin in October.
The vaccine evolved through the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow with the Russian Ministry of Defense uses another virus – the non-unusual adenovirus that causes colds – that has been changed to bring the genes of the “peak” protein that covers the coronavirus, as a way to initiate the framework to recognize if a genuine infection with COVID-19 occurs.
It is a generation similar to a vaccine developed through CanSino Biologics in China and the British University of Oxford and AstraZeneca; however, unlike these companies, Russian scientists have published clinical data on the functionality of the vaccine in animal testing or early human studies.
Becoming the first country in the world to approve a vaccine is a matter of national prestige for the Kremlin, which seeks to assert Russia’s symbol as a world power.
Putin has continually praised Russia’s effective reaction to the epidemic in televised speeches, while some of Moscow’s most sensitive officials, adding the country’s prime minister and Putin’s own spokesman, have some of the more than 970,000 cases shown in the country.
Last month, the United States, Britain and Canada accused Russia of hackers using vaccine studies from Western laboratories. Russia has denied any involvement.
Several vaccines, in addition to those developed through Oxford and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, are being tested on complex tests and hope to have effects later this year.
Several Russian research institutes are also working on other vaccines opposed to the virus, and Putin said Thursday that the vaccine could be “ready” in September.
Russia has reported more than 16,750 coronavirus-related deaths, but experts say the actual number of deaths from the pandemic is much higher than all reported numbers, due to limited evidence, mild cases lost and cover-up of cases through some governments, among other factors.
———
Track the AP pandemic in http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
24/7 policy of the latest news and events