Covid-19: Sputnik "Light", the lighter version of the approved Russian vaccine
Sputnik light, the light version of Sputnik V, was presented in Moscow.
May 6, 2021. REUTERS - SHAMIL ZHUMATOV
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
It is a vaccine that is easier to produce and use since it only takes a single dose to administer it: “Sputnik light” is the light version of “Sputnik V”.
Moscow announces its approval, and its next marketing.
With a target: countries facing sudden outbreak of Covid-19.
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Sputnik Light will have a lower efficiency than
Sputnik V
: 79.4% against a recognized efficiency of 91.6%. But the Russian authorities still believe that this result is excellent: almost 80% effectiveness is as good as many two-dose vaccines, says the Russian Fund for Direct Investments, which is piloting the program.
According to its designers, this "light" Sputnik will be effective enough in any case to prevent the onset of serious forms of the disease, and this is what counts in the eyes of the Russians: helping countries facing a sudden outbreak of the disease, with a vaccine that will be used much faster, since it only takes a single dose to administer it. Finally, according to the Gamaleïa research center which designed the vaccine, Sputnik Light will also help support the immunity of those who have already been infected. The idea would be to boost the antibodies of people who have already caught the coronavirus.
Russia has explicitly presented it as a vaccine for export: the Russians will continue to benefit from the two-dose version.
This will solve part of Russia's problem since it embarked on this vaccine race: its weak production capacity, and its inability to flood the world market with its two-dose vaccine, because it does not have the industrial means.
Sputnik Light will be the beginning of an answer to this problem with a still very low cost: less than ten dollars a dose according to the Russian Fund for Direct Investments.
Vaccination failure in Russia
Paradoxically, Russia, which boasts of having been the first to have approved an anti-Covid vaccine, is lagging behind in terms of vaccination. To date, only 9 million people in Russia are vaccinated, which is less than 7% of the population. A failure in the light of the figures announced by other vaccine-producing countries and by most Western countries - even those which have lagged behind in this race for vaccination. A delay which is explained by the mistrust of the Russians vis-à-vis this anti-Covid vaccination.
Even Russian President Vladimir Putin was slow to get vaccinated, only doing so last March, and away from the cameras. Vladimir Poutine did not specify more which of the Russian vaccines he used, but this Thursday, May 6, he sang the praises of Sputnik V, taking up a comparison that is to say the least astonishing:
"the Russian vaccine is as effective as a Kalashnikov
He declared, showing himself to be skeptical about the long-term effectiveness of American vaccines. And Vladimir Putin in his turn to vote for the lifting of patents on anti-Covid vaccines, affirming however that it was a European idea, and without making the slightest reference to
the proposal initiated by Joe Biden
.
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Coronavirus
Health and medicine
Russia
Vaccines