Russia rejects concerns about COVID-19 vaccine, stresses safety
Russia’s Health Minister Mikhail Murashko has rejected allegations that the country’s pioneering COVID-19 vaccine is unsafe, dismissing them as groundless and leveled by rival competitors.
Minister Murashko on Wednesday dismissed concerns raised by Western experts and media about the low number of clinical trials undergone to develop the first officially-approved coronavirus vaccine in the world, the Russian Interfax news agency reported.
The Russian minister further pointed out that a special app was currently under development to enable the recipients of the vaccination to monitor any adverse effects of the drug.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced the development of the vaccine on Tuesday, boasting that his country had become the first in the world to develop and approve such a drug.
More than 100 possible vaccines are being developed around the world to try to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. At least four are in the final Phase III human trials, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Russian vaccine is the world’s first to have been approved and to reach production level. It has been developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute.
President Putin has stressed that the vaccine has passed all the necessary checks and has even been administered to one of his own daughters.
He said Russia would soon begin the mass production of the highly-demanded vaccine.
The WHO, meanwhile, has said it is in contact with Russia about the vaccine.
‘First batch due in two weeks’
The Russian health minister also said that the first batch of its coronavirus vaccine would be released in two weeks.
He said vaccination against the coronavirus would be voluntary for everybody, including healthcare workers.
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