Columns

ECLECTIC RANT: Russia’s Dubious claim to a Coronavirus Vaccine

Ralph E. Stone
Saturday August 15, 2020 - 05:21:00 PM

Russia claims to have a coronavirus vaccine — Sputnik-V. The director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, where the vaccine is being developed, has yet to publish any results from large-scale human trials or published data from earlier trials, which typically involve three phases to check a drugs safety, efficacy, and dosage.  

Gamaleya may have jumped dangerously ahead of critical, large-scale testing that is essential to determine if a possible covid-19 protection is safe and effective.  

As Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, opined, I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. I seriously doubt that they've done that.”  

I cant wait to hear Trumps response to the news. Now that Russia claims to have a vaccine, will Trump announce that his good friend Putin will supply the vaccine to the U.S. just in time for the election? Remember, Trump has been touting hydroxychloroquine, which has proven an ineffective — and possibly even dangerous — treatment for Covid-19. Why then would he hesitate to champion Sputnik-V?