Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advisers still can’t say when the Kremlin chief will take a coronavirus vaccine, months after declaring that Russia had won the race to produce the inoculant.
“He told us that he will be vaccinated himself,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday, per state-run TASS. “But he will say himself when and how it happened.”
Putin touted the “Sputnik V” vaccine’s development as a victory for Russian scientists in August and pledged within weeks to take it himself, but Kremlin officials acknowledged last month that the vaccine needed further testing before the head of state would use it. Russia launched a mass vaccination program two weeks ago, and Peskov argued that Putin’s delay should “absolutely not” cause any unease about the vaccine.
“We don’t see any connection here,” he said. “After the Health Ministry’s conclusion on one vaccine, other vaccines will follow then, and then the president will make a decision.”
The development of a reliable coronavirus vaccine turned into a proxy geopolitical competition, as the ravages of the pandemic turned into a yardstick for evaluating Western democracies and authoritarian regimes. British regulators were the first to approve a vaccine for widespread use, relying on U.S.-based Pfizer’s collaboration with Germany’s BioNTech, followed by President Trump’s administration and the European Union.
“All the citizens of Europe together are starting to get their vaccinations, the first ray of light after a long night,” Italy’s special commissioner for the pandemic, Domenico Arcuri, said Sunday. “We all have to continue to be prudent, cautious, and responsible. We still have a long road ahead, but finally, we see a bit of light.”
A top Russian microbiologist acknowledged Monday that the Sputnik V vaccine would be more effective if paired with a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, a Swedish company.
“Memory cells will form much better as a result of using such a hybrid two-component vaccine. And the vaccine, quite obviously, will accordingly protect an inoculated individual not for 3 to 4 months but for at least two years,” Alexander Gintsburg, who directs the Russian Health Ministry’s Gamaleya Institute, told state media Monday.
