After an initial dose of skepticism about Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci now admits that data on the Spabnik V jab make him believe it is “quite effective.”
“I looked at some of the reports. It looks pretty good, “Fauci told Hugh Hewitt radio on Monday, Bloomberg News reported.
In February, a study published in the British medical journal The Lancet found that Sputnik V is about 91% effective and appears to prevent serious cases of infection.
Concerns over the safety of two-dose inoculation mounted after Russia approved the coup in August 2020, ahead of its Western competitors and before the start of large-scale clinical trials.
At the time, President Vladimir Putin said one of her daughters had been vaccinated with her, even though it had only been tested on several dozen people.
But Fauci had expressed skepticism about the Russian shot.
“I hope the Russians have definitively demonstrated that the vaccine is safe and effective,” Fauci told ABC News at the time. “I seriously doubt they did.”
In January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said its Office of Global Affairs was trying to convince Brazil not to allow Sputnik V – accusing Moscow of wanting to expand its influence in the Americas to the detriment of the security and safety of the United States “. according to Bloomberg.
In the new interview, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and senior science adviser to President Biden, said he has not had the opportunity to review a Chinese vaccine, but that he also “could to be good ”.
“But Russian I think is pretty effective,” he said.
The Russian vaccine is similar to that developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Both use a modified version of the common adenovirus that causes colds to carry genes for the coronavirus ear protein, to drive the body to react to a COVID-19 infection.
But unlike the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Russian version uses a slightly different adenovirus for its second booster shot.
On Monday, AstraZeneca announced that data from a trial of a US study on the vaccine show that it is 79% effective.
He said his experts also did not identify vaccine-related safety issues, including a rare blood clot identified in Europe.
Experts found no increased risk of clots among the more than 20,000 people who received at least one dose of AstraZeneca shot.