On Wednesday, August 12, a briefing was held in Moscow on the registration in Russia of the world's first vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko and the director of the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after V.I. Gamalei Alexander Gunzburg.

In particular, the head of the Ministry of Health said that the vaccine, as well as other drugs for COVID-19, are planned to be included in the list of vital drugs. At the same time, the first batches of the vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Center will be released in the next 14 days.

“I think that within the next two weeks the first people will already receive a new vaccine,” said Murashko.

He stressed that first, the vaccine must be received by health workers and people from risk groups. The head of the Ministry of Health added that the production of the drug will primarily be focused on the domestic market in order to cover the needs of citizens of the Russian Federation. The minister noted that vaccination will take place on a voluntary basis.

“In any case, vaccination will be voluntary. And those doctors who already have immunity - there are up to 20% of such medical workers, there are different numbers in different organizations, there is vaccination, we believe that it is not needed. Therefore, it will be offered directly to the choice of a medical worker, ”said Murashko.

In addition, the minister spoke about the development of a mobile application for tracking the condition and adverse reactions in patients after vaccination. Also, the head of the Ministry of Health called unfounded criticism of the domestic vaccine from abroad.

“Foreign colleagues, apparently sensing certain competitive advantages of the Russian drug, are trying to express some opinions, which, in our opinion, are absolutely unfounded,” he added.

In turn, the director of the Gamaleya Center, Alexander Gunzburg, said that the vaccine was created in five months. According to him, the results of clinical trials of the drug will be published after their expert evaluation by Russian specialists. He added that at the moment, the center's specialists are preparing a package of documents for obtaining permission to test the vaccine on children.

“The vaccine (for children. - RT ) will undoubtedly be the same, the dosage, the mode of administration is different - a lot of additional work is required here. This additional work is fully regulated by Russian legislation, the essence of which is that the study of new drugs can be started on children from 18 minus only after the study of these drugs in the adult population is completely completed, ”explained Gunzburg.

On August 11, Vladimir Putin announced the registration of the world's first coronavirus vaccine in Russia. The head of state called this "a very important step" not only for Russia, but for the whole world, and also expressed his hope for an early start of mass production of the drug.

The vaccine was named "Sputnik V" in honor of the first artificial Earth satellite. The production of the drug at the Binnopharm site should start before the end of 2020. At the same time, the head of the RDIF, Kirill Dmitriev, said that applications have already been received from 20 countries for the purchase of more than 1 billion doses of the vaccine.

  • August 11, 2020. Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with members of the Russian government
  • © Alexey Nikolsky / RIA Novosti

On the eve of the start of the vaccination campaign, the chief freelance specialist-narcologist of the Ministry of Health Yevgeny Brun recalled the undesirable consequences of drinking alcohol on the day of vaccination.

"Any drug, including a vaccine (against coronavirus. -  RT ), is incompatible with alcohol, because first of all it is a toxic effect, weakening of immunity and weakening of the vaccine," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

The World Health Organization, in turn, noted the need to obtain more detailed information about the Russian vaccine in order to make sure of its safety and effectiveness.

“Currently, WHO is in contact with Russian regulatory authorities to obtain information on this issue. Only after analyzing the information received about the vaccine will WHO be able to recommend it, ”TASS quotes Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of the Pan American Health Organization at WHO.

At the same time, the United States stated that they did not seek to be the first to create a vaccine against coronavirus, stressing that they allegedly adhere to higher standards in their developments than Russian specialists.

“The US has much stricter standards. These standards are set by the US Food and Drug Administration, and, as I understood from the Russian statement, this is not the case at all, "Senior Adviser to the US President Kellyanne Conway told Fox News.

In turn, the head of the RDIF Kirill Dmitriev on the air of the CNN channel indicated that time will show the correctness of Russia's approach to the development of a vaccine against COVID-19.

“I think if in six months it is demonstrated that it is successful, there will be many questions about why some other countries have kind of blindly rejected it instead of learning a little more, giving it a chance, understanding the technology. I think this is connected with the political sphere, with other issues, which are more political than scientific, ”he said.

COVID-19 Statistics

Over the past day, 5102 new cases of COVID-19 were detected in 84 regions of Russia. According to the headquarters, in 27.4% of them, people had no clinical manifestations of coronavirus infection. The day before, for the first time since April 23, less than 5 thousand new cases of coronavirus were detected in Russia (4945).

In total, 902,701 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Russia. Since the beginning of the epidemic in Russia, 710,298 patients (78.69%) have recovered, including 7123 in the last day. 15,260 patients (1.69%) died of complications that developed against the background of coronavirus infection and concomitant diseases. During the day, 129 people died.

The regions where the largest number of new cases were detected per day included Moscow (689), Sverdlovsk region (167), St. Petersburg (161) and Moscow region (152).

Moscow remains the leader in the country in terms of the number of detected cases (249 611). As noted in the Department of Health of the capital, the growth rate of new cases per day is four times lower than as of June 1.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, more than 31.3 million coronavirus tests have been carried out in the Russian Federation. 234.5 thousand people remain under medical supervision in the country.