14-AUGUST-2020

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin has said he has found a vaccine for Covid-19 called ‘Sputnik-V’ and it also has already been approved. Sputnik-V is the name of the vaccine in honour of the world’s first satellite. Sputnik is the Russian word for satellite.

Vladimir Putin said” Mass production of the vaccine was likely to begin soon and doctors and teachers would be offered the immunisation first. The vaccine will be made available for medics from late August or Early September. The drug will then go into general use from January 2021″. He also added”The vaccination will be voluntarily also the vaccine was given to one of his daughters and she was feeling fine despite a brief temperature increase”.

Sputnik-V was developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, a government-run facility based in Moscow. The jab has only so far been tested on 38 volunteers. A drug like this would normally be tested on hundreds or maybe thousands of people before being approved. The registration documents for the vaccine was submitted in Russia and they say the trials were conducted in just 42 days. Among the possible side effects are swelling, pain, hyperthermia, a high temperature and itching at the pace of injection. Many of the participants reported asthma-physical weakness or lack of energy-fever, decreased appetite, headaches, diarrhoea, sore throat, pain in the oropharynx, nasal congestion and a runny nose.

Experts have now raised concerns about the speed of Russia’s work for the vaccine, suggesting that Russia may have cut corners. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged Russia to follow the international guidelines for producing a vaccine against Covid-19. WHO said” It was talking to the Russian authorities about undertaking a review of the vaccine Sputnik-V”.

As of currently the Russian vaccine is not among the WHO’s list of six vaccines that have already reached phase three clinical trials, which involve more widespread testing in humans. Despite the rapid progress to try and find a vaccine for Covid-19 many experts have said they think a vaccine would not become widely available until mid-2021.

The Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Tuesday the vaccine had” Proven to be highly effective and safe”, hailing it was a big step towards” Humankind’s victory” over Covid-19.

Russia was previously accused by the UK, US and Canada of seeking to steal research related to Covid-19.