Questioning our achievements in the fight against coronavirus

Provocations are planned against Russia, in particular, related to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

This was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting of the board of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The head of state thanked the employees of the service for transmitting information about the impending provocations to the country's authorities, noting that in Russia "they have long been accustomed and ready to such actions."

The President drew attention to the fact that against the backdrop of global challenges such as terrorism and cybercrime, Russia is faced with a so-called containment policy.

It consists, in his words, in a consistent and aggressive line aimed at trying to slow down the development of Russia, provoke internal instability, weaken the country and put it under external control. 

Putin specified that a "targeted information campaign with peremptory and unsubstantiated accusations on a number of issues is being waged against Russia."

“There are already absurd, I would even say, all sorts of anecdotal conspiracy theories.

For example, recent attempts to question our achievements in the field of medicine, in the fight against coronavirus, ”the president stressed.

The head of state recalled that the Russian partners are kind to Moscow's results in countering the spread of COVID-19 and are willing to cooperate.

“We understand that it is possible to solve global problems only by joining efforts,” said Vladimir Putin.

Vaccines for coronavirus infection 

We will remind, on February 12, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Russia and China are allegedly trying to use the vaccines they have developed against coronavirus to achieve diplomatic goals.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed regret in connection with such.

“Recently, representatives of the new US administration have called for suspicion of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, since this, again, is“ the Kremlin’s geopolitical plan ”and“ one must be more careful not to become dependent on the Russian Federation ”.

What to say?

If there is nothing to oppose to normal friendly communication between the countries, if the only thing that can be said is this kind of statements, then this is sad, ”the head of the foreign policy department emphasized.

In August 2020, Russia was the first in the world to register the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, which was developed by specialists from the Gamaleya Center.

Later, two more Russian drugs were registered - "EpiVacCorona" of the State Scientific Center for Virology and Biotechnology "Vector", and "CoviVac" of the Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immunobiological Preparations named after M.P.

Chumakov RAS.

All three vaccines have shown safety and efficacy against coronavirus in the course of the studies.

A number of countries have turned to Russia with a request for supplies - in particular, Sputnik V has already been registered in several dozen countries.

On February 12, it became known that the drug entered the top 3 vaccines against COVID-19 in terms of the number of approvals for use received worldwide.

Prior to that, on February 2, one of the largest medical publications, The Lancet, published material confirming the high efficiency of Sputnik V.

According to the results of an international independent examination, the drug provides full protection against severe cases of coronavirus, and its effectiveness is 91.6%. 

Sputnik V has received worldwide recognition as one of the key vaccines with which mankind will be able to protect itself from coronavirus infection and return to normal life, ”said Kirill Dmitriev, RDIF CEO.

Recall that in the early stages of the development of a Russian vaccine, Western media published materials in which the effectiveness and reliability of the drug were questioned.

The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov then explained the appearance of such publications with high competition, which posed a threat to the largest Western manufacturers.

However, later in the Western media, materials began to appear, the authors of which highly appreciated the Russian drug.

So, the New York Times journalist Andrew Kramer, who was vaccinated in a Moscow polyclinic, spoke about the benefits of the vaccine.

He noted that "the politicization of the issue of vaccine development" overshadowed the good test results and achievements of Russian scientists.

In turn, Sam Fasely from Bloomberg highlighted the absence of a severe course of the disease in the vaccinated, and recalled the Sputnik V test procedure, during which almost 23 thousand people were vaccinated - of which less than 80 test participants subsequently fell ill.

Specialists about Russian vaccines

Professor of the Vienna Medical University, Rudolf Valenta, in a conversation with RT DE, noted that the initial criticism of Sputnik V in the West was due to the fact that they are not very familiar with the procedure for admitting drugs in the Russian Federation.

“In Russia, research is carried out, of course, as thoroughly and thoroughly as in our country, in Europe, or in the United States.

It's just that the requirements of the Russian licensing authorities are fulfilled, they are not addressed to the EMA (European Medicines Agency -

RT

) or FDA (Food and Drug Administration -

RT

), "he explained.

According to the scientist, initially little was known about the Russian drug, but later the situation quickly changed. 

“The first scientific article was published on Sputnik V, the first work in the Lancet, in which we saw the first clinical data,” he said.

In addition, Valenta noted that the vaccination of each person with Sputnik is carried out in two stages, which makes it possible to enhance the immune response, and called the development of the drug “an important innovation”.

In turn, a specialist at the University of Wuppertal Hendrik Jurges told how much time, in his opinion, may be required to register the third Russian vaccine "CoviVac" in the European Union. 

“It depends on how quickly the test data appears,” he said.

According to the scientist, it is quite possible that those who are responsible for approving the vaccine want to wait a little longer until there is enough data on the third phase of clinical trials.

“And experience shows that it can take several months.

I would count on the middle of the second half of this year, ”the expert concluded.