As well as being unable to verify the claims, no meaningful data set has been released to the international community from the center that developed the vaccine – the Gamaleya Institute, based in Moscow. The fact that the vaccine has ‘come to market’ faster than any other vaccine has also raised suspicion about the vaccine’s efficacy and effectiveness, given that most other nations do not think they will have vaccines ready until 2021.
As Digital Journal reported, Moscow announced the first consignments of its “Sputnik” vaccine only four days after President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia had won the global race to approve a vaccine. It then followed that the vaccine had been tested on one of Putin’s own daughters in what was designed to a public show of the vaccine’s safety.
While Russia has made a great amount in relation to being the first country, supplies of the vaccine will not appear for several weeks. Russian officials have said that the first production runs of the vaccine will be reserved for frontline healthcare workers. This comes at a time when reports from within Russia suggest that over half of the medical fraternity suggests that they will not take the vaccine. It will not be until October that sufficient stocks of the vaccine have been released that immunization of the wider population will commence.
As to the vaccine itself, the medication is not one of those listed by the World Health Organization as a potential, workable vaccine. The Russian vaccine is based upon adapted strains of the adenovirus, the virus that causes the common cold.
According to PharmaPhorum, scientists based outside Russia are sceptical about the virus and they require data the clinical trials in order to assess the claims made. This incudes issues relating to safety as well as clear evidence that the vaccine provides immunity from the coronavirus.
