Russia will test its coronavirus vaccine on 40,000 people, despite skepticism over the efficacy of the inoculation.
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the “world’s first” coronavirus vaccine and claimed that his own daughter had received the inoculation. The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is working on the vaccine in coordination with the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, said Thursday that a wide-scale study of the drug would begin next week.
“Next week, a previously planned post-registration, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled multicenter clinical study of the efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of the Sputnik V vaccine will begin in Russia, simultaneously with the vaccination of volunteers from risk groups. More than 40,000 people will take part in the study in more than 45 medical centers,” the fund said in a statement.
The vaccine has been dubbed “Sputnik V” in a nod to the 1957 Soviet Union launch of the world’s first satellite. Experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have cast doubt on the veracity of Russia’s claims.
Fauci said he hopes Russia has “actually, definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. I seriously doubt that they’ve done that.”
“If we wanted to take the chance of hurting a lot of people or giving them something that doesn’t work, we could start doing this, you know, next week if we wanted to. But that’s not the way it works,” he said of the U.S. process of creating a vaccine.
Despite reluctance by experts about the inoculation, others on the world stage, including Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, have hailed Russia’s mystery drug.
“I believe the vaccine that you have produced is really good for humanity,” Duterte said earlier this month. “I will be the first one to be experimented on.”
Russia has shouldered a heavy amount of the world’s COVID-19 infections. Confirmed cases there are fast approaching 1 million, and the country has reported more than 16,000 deaths. Worldwide, that number balloons to 22.4 million cases and about 790,000 deaths.
