Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he is ready to be “experimented on” by taking the vaccine that Russia is touting as a coronavirus inoculation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the “world’s first” coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, but the claims have met a dubious response given how quickly the country is moving with the experimental treatment.
Duterte, a strongman known for his often combative and brash nature, said Wednesday he has “huge trust” in Putin’s effort to end the pandemic. He said the Philippines would participate in clinical trials of the drug, and officials are set to meet with Gamaleya, the drug’s Russian developer. Duterte said he will be first in line for the vaccine.
“I believe the vaccine that you have produced is really good for humanity,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse. “I will be the first one to be experimented on.”
Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque insisted that his boss was not joking when he made the remarks about being a human guinea pig.
“He’s old. He can sacrifice his life for the Filipino people,” said Roque.
The controversial Russian vaccine was dubbed “Sputnik V,” a nod to the 1957 launch of the world’s first satellite by the Soviet Union. Putin said his daughter had already received an injection of the drug.
The Philippines have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Some 27 million people in the country of 107 million people are under lockdown orders because of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 143,000 people there and killed more than 2,400.
