(Newswire.net— August 13, 2020) — More than 20 million people have contracted the COVID-19 virus worldwide. There are currently over seven million still active cases. Of those, more than a third are in the United States. That is why the beginning of mass vaccination is awaited with great hope, which seems to be the only safe dam against the coronavirus.
The race to a fully working vaccine that would allegedly save humanity started to look like the Cold War space race which Russia had won by sending the first man into space. Did they manage to beat the Americans once again?
Russian authorities announced that they first developed the vaccine against COVID-19, and are preparing for mass production in September. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the vaccine is safe for use.
The world media is, however, skeptical about the announcement of the Russian vaccine, which received the approval of the local Ministry of Health, after less than two months of testing on humans. Germany expressed doubts about the quality and safety of the Russian vaccine and pointed out that the drug can be registered in the European Union only after all clinical trials. The WHO experts also abstained.
According to WHO standards, Russia did not complete the two phases of the examination, as they claim, but Russian standards are not as strict. Russian health administration allegedly allows the use of medicine after it completed only the first phase of testing.
Chief American epidemiologist Anthony Fauci stated yesterday that he seriously doubts that the coronavirus vaccine approved in Russia was safe and effective.
“We have half a dozen or more vaccines,” Fauci told National Geographic reporter in an interview. “So 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.”
Russian researchers said that the claims that the new vaccine is unsafe are unfounded.
“Our colleagues from abroad see the competitive advantages of Russian medicine and make claims, which in our opinion are completely unfounded. In fact, many countries have adopted various accelerated research standards,” Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko replied.
From the USA, where the state ordered 100 million doses of the potential vaccine against COVID-19 from its biotech companies today, comes the statement of the Secretary of Health Alex Azar, that America is not competing with Russia over the vaccine.
He pointed out that the vaccines of the two American companies have already entered the third phase of clinical trials, while the Russian vaccine has only now started that phase, without any information being publicly revealed.
Moscow announced that mass production of the vaccine will begin in September, and vaccination on a voluntary basis in October. Medical personnel will be vaccinated first.