Russia is said to be the first country to successfully produce a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus to fight the epidemic that has already killed about 780 thousand victims and infected more than 22 million individuals worldwide.
In this regard, Russia’s success in producing a vaccine called ‘Sputnik’ was declared by its president, Vladimir Putin on August 11.
Recently, Putin announced in a statement that the vaccine will be ready for use for his people within a month.
He claimed that many countries were interested in getting the vaccine, and even 20 countries were identified as willing to buy millions of doses of vaccine for their citizens.
“The President of Mexico Mr. Obrador said that he was ready to vaccinate himself with a Russian drug if its effectiveness was proven. He noted that ideology should be excluded in this matter,” said Putin through Facebook.
“And this is a clear hint of an unjustifiably sharp reaction in the United States, where a representative of the health care system said that even monkeys will not be vaccinated by Russian drug,” he said.
Putin explained that with the successful production of the vaccine, Russia was able to challenge and bring down the ego of its strong enemy, the US where several years ago, the country once tried to overthrow the Russian leadership in the discovery of vaccines for the Ebola epidemic.
“But it was the Russian vaccine that showed the greatest effectiveness then and stopped the epidemic,” he added.
“Now the story is repeating again – unfortunately, some partners are annoyed that the Russian drug is the first to enter the market,” continued Putin.
“But is human health less important than the political and economic competition? We are all in the same boat called planet Earth. Stay healthy everyone!” Added the Russian President.
However, until today, the success of the vaccine is still a concern for a large number of researchers around the world, including in Russia itself.
They explained that the institute’s efforts may not be detailed with no immunity and security data reported at the trial stage so far, apart from no Phase Three (3) trials conducted yet.
“Fast-tracked approval will not make Russia the leader in the (vaccine) race, it will just expose consumers of the vaccine to unnecessary danger,” said Russia’s Association of Clinical Trials Organizations to the AP, citing a report by The Scientist.
Source: The Scientist, Vladimir Putin