"The system has been worked out": mass vaccination against coronavirus began in Russia

In Russia, on Monday, January 18, mass vaccination against coronavirus infection began.

The corresponding instructions were given by President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with members of the government on January 13.

The head of state noted a slight decrease in the spread of infection in the country, but stressed that this should not reassure anyone.

He recalled that the situation in individual states, in particular in the UK, remains alarming, and the movement of the virus is inevitable, and therefore it is necessary to stop emerging threats, including those associated with new strains of SARS-CoV-2.

Putin drew attention to the fact that the Russian industry "not only fulfilled all the promised standards and volumes, but also exceeded the planned volume of vaccine production," and the drug itself does not require any special conditions for transportation (for example, extremely low temperatures).

“Therefore, I ask you to start mass vaccination of the entire population from next week and to build an appropriate schedule for this work, as we do with other diseases, such as influenza.

Our system as a whole has been worked out, we need to move on to larger-scale work in this area, ”Vladimir Putin instructed.

In turn, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that by the end of January, 2.1 million doses of the vaccine will go into civil circulation for use by the population, in connection with which it will be necessary to seriously increase the vaccination campaign.

• Putin urged to switch to mass vaccination of Russians from COVID-19

During the meeting, Putin noted the need for a clear understanding of the mechanisms of action of the vaccine against the background of the emergence of new strains of the virus and added that he had no doubts about the effectiveness of the Russian drug.

“The Russian vaccine, it is already quite obvious, we thought so before, but now practice shows it, I think that it is generally the best in the world.

No other drugs of this kind have demonstrated this level of protection and this degree of safety.

This is the undoubted success of our specialists, our scientists, ”the president said.

On January 15, at a meeting with leading epidemiologists and virologists, Golikova confirmed that mass vaccination of Russians will start on January 18.

The Deputy Prime Minister added that Russia has the resources to vaccinate the population free of charge against coronavirus, regardless of the level of population immunity.

"The main thing is that our citizens express a desire to come for vaccination and, as already mentioned, observe those measures of their own safety, which are extremely important, especially in today's conditions," TASS quoted her as saying.

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• © Alexey Kudenko

Recall that on August 11, Russia was the first in the world to register a coronavirus vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, which is currently being used to vaccinate Russian citizens.

The drug was developed by the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after N.F.

Gamalei.

It is a two-component vector vaccine based on the human adenovirus, which contains an insert in its genome that encodes a fragment of the SARS-CoV-2 S-protein, which induces the body's immune response.

Also, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation has registered the second drug from COVID-19 - "EpiVacCorona" State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector".

In late January - early February, registration of the third vaccine is expected, created at the Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immunobiological Preparations named after M.P.

Chumakov RAS.

Apart from Russia, Sputnik V has already been registered in eight countries: Belarus, Argentina, Serbia, Bolivia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela and Paraguay.

In mid-December in the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the center.

N.F.

The Gamalei reported that Sputnik V had a 91.4% efficacy based on analysis of the final checkpoint data after 21 days after the volunteers received the first component of the vaccine.

There were no significant adverse events in the volunteers participating in the study.

The effectiveness of the drug against severe cases of coronavirus disease was 100%, the fund added. 

The quality of the Russian drug in early January was also assessed in the Western media.

So, the journalist Sam Fasely in the material published by Bloomberg drew attention to the demand for the Russian drug abroad.

New York Times author Andrew Kramer personally vaccinated Sputnik V, noting that the politicization of the vaccine issue distracted attention from the development of Russian scientists, which can be called a serious achievement.

The head of the Gamaleya Center, Alexander Gunzburg, said that the drug is effective against new mutations of the coronavirus.

"When creating a vaccine, of course, it was taken into account that the virus will mutate ... By all criteria, new strains do not yet affect the effectiveness of the vaccine," the scientist concluded.

Large-scale vaccination against coronavirus has been carried out in Russia since December 2020.

More than 1 million Russian citizens have already been vaccinated.