MOSCOW (AP) – While excitement and enthusiasm welcomed the Western-developed coronavirus vaccine when it was launched, the Russian-made version has received a mixed response, with clinical reports empty of Moscow who offered the shot to health workers and teachers – the first members of the public appointed to receive it.
Kremlin officials and state-controlled media announced the Sputnik V vaccine as a huge success after it was approved on August 11th. But among Russians, the hope that the shot would reverse the course of the COVID-19 crisis has been mixed with caution and skepticism, reflecting concerns about how it rushed when it was still in the final phase tests. to ensure its effectiveness and safety.
Russia has faced international criticism for approving a vaccine that has not completed advanced trials among tens of thousands of people, and domestic and foreign experts have warned of its wider use until studies are completed.
Despite these warnings, authorities began offering it to certain high-risk groups, such as front-line medical workers, within weeks of approval. Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya Institute that developed the vaccine, said last week more than 150,000 Russians have gotten it.
One of the recipients was Dr. Alexander Zatsepin, an ICU specialist in Voronezh, a city 500 kilometers south of Moscow, who received the vaccine in October.
“Since March we have been working with COVID-19 patients and, every day we get home, we worry about infecting our family members. So when some kind of opportunity arose to protect me and myself, I thought it should be used, ”he said.
But Zatsepin said he is still taking precautions against the infection because studies on the effectiveness of the vaccine are not over.
“There is still no absolute confidence,” he said.
After Britain announced on December 2 that it had approved a vaccine developed by drug makers Pfizer and BioNTech, President Vladimir Putin told authorities to launch a major inoculation campaign, a sign of Moscow’s eagerness to be at the forefront of the race against the pandemic.
Russia approved its vaccine after testing it with only a few dozen people, declaring it “the first in the world” to get approval. The developers called it “Sputnik V”, a reference to the Soviet Union’s launch of the world’s first satellite during the Cold War in 1957.
There is more at stake than national pride. Russia has registered more than 2.7 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 48,000 deaths and wants to avoid another damaging blockade of its economy.
On December 2, Putin cited a target of more than 2 million doses in the coming days. Despite such a limited supply for a nation of 146 million, Moscow immediately expanded who was eligible for it. The shots are free for everyone in medical or educational centers, both public and private; social and municipal workers; retail and service workers; and those of the arts.
The European Medicines Agency has said it has not received any requests from vaccine manufacturers to consider licensing it for use in the EU, but some data has been shared with the World Health Organization. Health. The UN agency does not usually approve vaccines on its own, but expects regulatory agencies to weigh in first. According to reports, the Russian vaccine is being considered for use in a global WHO-led effort to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to the poorest countries.
Unlike the UK, where the first shots are aimed at the elderly, Sputnik V is aimed at those aged 18 to 60 who do not have chronic illnesses or are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Its developers have said the study data suggest that the vaccine was 91% effective, a finding based on 78 infections among nearly 23,000 participants. There are far fewer cases that Western drug manufacturers have accumulated during the final tests before analyzing the effectiveness of their candidates, and no significant demographic and other data from the study have been released.
Some experts say these effectiveness rates inspire optimism, but public confidence can be an issue.
“I don’t care so much whether Sputnik V is unsafe or less effective than we need to be,” said Judy Twigg, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who specializes in global health. “I’m worried about whether or not people will be willing to take it to Russia.”
A survey conducted in October by the Levada Center, Russia’s first independent pollster, showed that 59% of Russians were unwilling to receive the shots, even if offered free of charge.
Denis Volkov, a sociologist and deputy director of the Levada Center, says respondents cited unfinished clinical trials and said the vaccine was “raw” and suspected claims that Russia was the first country to be vaccinated while others worked on the vaccine. his.
Some medical workers and professors interviewed by The Associated Press expressed skepticism about the vaccine because it has not been fully tested.
Dr. Yekaterina Kasyanova, from the Kemerovo region of Siberia, said she was not confident enough to get the shot and advised her mother, a teacher, not to receive it either, adding: “The vaccine has several months. … No long – term side effects are known, their effectiveness has not been proven. “
Dzhamilya Kryazheva, a teacher in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, echoed this sentiment.
“I have no intention of experimenting with my body. I have three children, ”he said.
For other health workers, the choice to get vaccinated was easy.
“People are dying here every day. Every day we carry corpses. What is there to think about? ”Said Dr. Marina Pecherkina, a specialist in infectious diseases in the far eastern city of Vladivostok. He was shot in October due to his daily work with coronavirus patients.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 6,000 people were shot during the first five days of vaccinations released on December 5th. But some media reports about the early days of the Moscow campaign showed empty clinics and medical workers offering shots to anyone who came in. In some cases, this was because the vaccine had to be stored. at less than 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and each vial contains five doses. Once thawed, it should be administered within two hours or discarded.
Deployment outside Moscow and the surrounding region appeared to be much slower, and Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said all regions began vaccination on December 15th.
Media reports suggest that there may be problems with increased production and distribution of Sputnik V. It uses two different adenovirus vectors for the two-shot regimen, which complicates production. In addition, low-temperature storage and transportation makes it more difficult to travel around the vast country.
There were also confusing signs about whether recipients should consume alcohol. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said vaccinated people should refrain from drinking three days before and after the shootings.
Several Siberian medical workers who received the vaccine later reported contracting the virus, but health officials said they had not spent enough time developing the antibodies.
Dr. Yevgenia Alexeyeva, in the Siberian city of Tomsk, tested positive for the virus 12 days after her second shot. Alexeyeva said he was not surprised by the result and did not shake his confidence in the vaccine.
“The vaccine does not guarantee that the person will not be infected. But it should protect us from the development of a serious case, ”Alexeyeva said.
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Vladimir Kondrashov and Anatoly Kozlov in Moscow and Tatyana Salimova in Tomsk contributed.
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