On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had become the first country to successfully register a coronavirus vaccine to fight against the deadly pandemic. The treatment has gone through less than two months of human testing, which Moscow hails as proof of its scientific capabilities.
First coronavirus vaccine developed
According to Inquirer, the successful development of the vaccine marks the beginning of Russia's mass vaccination among its population. It also comes as the final stages of clinical trials have yet to determine the treatment's safety and efficacy ultimately.
Russia is showing its determination with the speed of its process to successfully develop an effective coronavirus vaccine amid a tense global race. However, the country has received international criticism for seemingly placing its product's safety and efficacy behind its prestige.
During a government meeting aired on state television, President Putin announced that the vaccine that Moscow's Gamaleya Institute developed, was proven safe and that he approved its injection into one of his daughters.
In his speech, the Russian president said he knew the trial vaccine had high efficacy and provided the host with strong immunity against the coronavirus. Putin reassured that the registered vaccine has adequately gone through the needed trials and checks and said he hoped to start mass production of the treatment soon to distribute across the nation.
The health ministry's approval of the Galameya vaccine comes with the beginning of a larger-scale trial that would involve thousands of participants to test the safety and efficacy of the injection and is most commonly referred to as the Phase III trial.
Traditionally, Phase III trials are considered to be a requirement before a vaccine's approval by the regulatory body because it tests the injection's safety and efficacy among a specific rate of participants who have the virus. The trials are also conducted to test the vaccine's effects on the human body that does not relate to the virus in question.
What makes the vaccine?
The head of Gamaleya Institute, Alexander Ginzburg, said their vaccine was developed based on adenovirus and contained dead particles of the COVID-19 virus which are incapable of multiplying, hence being safe to be injected into the human body.
The medical expert added, however, that the vaccine could provoke an immune response that includes high temperature when foreign substances enter the human body, as reported by Anadolu Agency.
Russian authorities that the country would plan to prioritize medical workers, teachers, and other risk groups to be the first recipients of the coronavirus vaccine.
According to Arab News, Russia has become the first country in the world to develop and produce a coronavirus vaccine. Several scientists worldwide have been skeptical of the country's short development process. Experts have also criticized the vaccine's approval despite not having completed the necessary Phase III trials that seek to find the treatment's effect on the human body.
