11-08-20, 13:14
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re: Is Putin Sick - With COVID?
Russia's Health Ministry Gives Approval for World's First Coronavirus Vaccine
President Vladimir Putin vowed the vaccine is safe and even said he had allowed it to be tested on his own daughter as he announced Russia can expect a mass jab roll-out
Daily Mirror UK, 11 AUG 2020.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Image: SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia's health ministry has given regulatory approval for the world's first coronavirus vaccine, President Vladimir Putin says.
The jab was developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute and has been approved after less than two months of human testing, the Russian leader said.
He claims he has even allowed his own daughter to test the experimental vaccine.
The major breakthrough paves the way for mass vaccine roll-out in Russia, as the final stages of clinical trials to test whether it works, and is safe, continue.
The speed at which Russia is moving to roll out its vaccine highlights its determination to win the global race for an effective product.
But is has also sparked fears it may be putting national prestige before science and safety.
A scientist prepares vaccine research samples in Saint Petersburg, Russia (Image: REUTERS)
Speaking at a government meeting on state television on Tuesday, Mr Putin vowed the vaccine is safe and that it had even been administered to one of his daughters.
"I know that it works quite effectively, forms strong immunity, and I repeat, it has passed all the needed checks," he said.
The leader added he hoped Russia would soon start mass producing the vaccine.
A scientist works on a coronavirus jab in Saint Petersburg (Image: REUTERS)
Its approval by the health ministry foreshadows the start of a larger trial involving thousands of participants, commonly known as a Phase III trial.
Such trials, which require a certain rate of participants catching the virus to observe the vaccine's effect, are normally considered essential precursors for a vaccine to receive regulatory approval.
Regulators around the world have insisted that the rush to develop Covid-19 vaccines will not compromise safety.
But recent surveys show growing public distrust in governments' efforts to rapidly produce such a vaccine.
Russian health workers treating Covid-19 patients will be offered the chance of volunteering to be vaccinated soon after the vaccine's approval, a source told Reuters last month.
More than 100 possible vaccines are being developed around the world to try to end the pandemic, including world-leading trials in the UK.
At least four around the world are in final Phase III human trials, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) data.
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