Taipei (AFP)

The US Minister of Health on Wednesday expressed his skepticism after the announcement of the development by Russia of the "first" vaccine against the coronavirus ensuring "lasting immunity".

Many Western scientists have expressed doubts about how quickly this vaccine would have been developed.

US Minister of Health Alex Azar echoed their views on Wednesday after a three-day visit to Taiwan.

"It is important that we provide safe and effective vaccines and that the data is transparent ... This is not a race to be the first," he told reporters on a conference call. .

"I must point out that two of the six American vaccines in which we have invested entered the phase of clinical trials three weeks ago, while the Russian vaccine is only just beginning," he added.

"The data from the first tests in Russia have not been disclosed, it is not transparent," said the US minister.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his country's development of the "first" safe vaccine against Covid-19, claiming that one of his daughters had it inoculated.

This vaccine was baptized "Sputnik V" (V for vaccine, note), in reference to the Russian politico-scientific victory which was the placing in orbit in 1957 of the satellite of the same name in full Cold War.

Shortly after the Kremlin's statement, the World Health Organization (WHO) reacted by calling for caution, recalling that the "prequalification" and approval of a vaccine went through "rigorous" procedures.

Many countries have embarked on a race against time to find an effective vaccine against the coronavirus which has killed more than 740,000 people across the planet since it emerged last year in China.

The United States is the country affected with 5.1 million cases of Covid-19 which has killed more than 164,000.

Mr Azar said he was confident in the ability of the Americans to develop a vaccine.

"We think it's very credible that we have tens of millions of benchmark, safe and effective doses of vaccine by the end of this year, and several hundred million doses by the start of next year." , he said.

The American president has launched Operation Warp Speed ​​which explicitly aims to obtain enough to vaccinate all Americans from January 2021.

© 2020 AFP