Putin hopes WHO soon approves Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine

Moscow, Dec. 6 (BNA): Today, Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his hope for a speedy approval of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the country by the World Health Organization, saying that this step is necessary to expand its global supply.

Speaking during a video call with Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Putin said receiving WHO testing was necessary to spread the Russian vaccine more widely around the world, including free supplies, according to the Associated Press. ) mentioned.

“We intend to expand this assistance,” Putin said.

The Russian leader also argued that WHO approval should open the door for Russians and others with the Sputnik V vaccine to travel more freely around the world. He said that about 200 million people around the world received Sputnik in.

Putin was vaccinated with Sputnik V in the spring, and last month he received a booster dose of Sputnik Light, a single-dose version. He also said he took a trial version of Sputnik V days after receiving a booster dose, adding that he was fine and did not feel any side effects.

The Aesthetic Institute that developed Sputnik V said the vaccine should be effective against the omicron variant of COVID-19, but announced that it would immediately begin work on adapting it to counter the new variant.

Russia was the first country in the world to authorize a vaccine against the Corona virus, as it launched the fifth Sputnik in August 2020, and it has ample supplies. But assimilation was slow, in part due to conflicting signals from the Russian authorities.

Russia in recent months has faced its deadliest and largest case of the coronavirus, with infections and deaths rising to an all-time high and only slowing in the past few weeks. Russia has the highest confirmed epidemic death toll in Europe with more than 281,000, according to the government’s coronavirus task force. But a report on Friday by the state statistics agency Rosstat, which uses broader criteria, put the total number of virus-related deaths between April 2020 and October 2021 at more than 537,000 — nearly double the official death toll.

Putin, who has repeatedly argued that vaccinations should remain voluntary, despite the high number of infections in Russia, emphasized Sunday that Russian authorities have tried to use “persuasion, not pressure” and worked to dispel “the prejudices and myths that drive aversion to vaccination.”

The rapid Russian approval of the Sputnik V aroused criticism abroad, because at that time it was only tested on a few dozen people. But a study published in the British medical journal The Lancet in February showed that Sputnik V is 91% effective and appears to prevent vaccinated individuals from becoming severely ill with COVID-19.

Russia actively promoted Sputnik V around the world but faced bottlenecks in shipping the amounts it had promised. Countries in Latin America have complained about the delay in getting the second shot of Sputnik V.

The World Health Organization is reviewing data on the Russian Sputnik V vaccine as part of the approval process. This approval could pave the way for it to be included in the COVAX program that ships COVID-19 vaccines to dozens of countries around the world based on need.

MI