The government in Ankara is proud of the Turkish vaccine Turkovac, because it moves Turkey into the circle of nine countries that have developed their own vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The country's independent expert groups are not convinced by Turkovac, because there are no official data on the degree of its effectiveness.

Small doses of Turkovac have been inoculated since the beginning of the year.

However, mass production is only being prepared.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already promised to donate 15 million of the vaccine to African countries.

Rainer Hermann

Editor in politics.

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The vaccine was developed by scientists at Erciyes University in Kayseri. On December 22nd, prior to the completion of the third clinical test phase, the drug authority, which reports to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, granted him emergency approval. This third phase began in June with 40,800 subjects. Koca was the first to be vaccinated. He was followed by the chairman of the far-right MHP, Devlet Bahceli, who supports the AKP government. He praised the “local and national” Turkish vaccine. Erdogan himself called on all Turks who had not been vaccinated to be vaccinated with Turkovac. Because the vaccine was completely developed by Turkish scientists.

Turkish doctors point out that the approval by the drug authority says nothing about the effectiveness, as it only checks compliance with the standards in the tests. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Health's Corona Science Council declared that Turkovac also protects against Omikron. The Turkish virologist Mehmet Ceyhan countered that, based on all the information available, he could not see any structural differences to the Chinese vaccine Sinovac, which is also a traditional dead vaccine. In early 2021, Turkey initially used Sinovac. However, the vaccine was unable to avert the high numbers of infections in March and April.

The independent Turkish Medical Association continues to refuse to recommend Turkovac for vaccination, sparking a controversy with Erdogan.

Its general secretary, Vedat Bulut, had stated that until no scientific data was available, he viewed the vaccine as a simple liquid that was given out as a vaccine.