Russia's COVID-19 Vaccine Released To The Public, Starts Trial In India This Month

COVID-19 is still wreaking havoc in India with the number of cases piling up day by day. When the second wave hits the country, our best hope now lies with a potential vaccine.

Two days ago, Russia made public that it had already started its vaccine trials.

According to Russia’s Health Ministry, the first batch of the Sputnik V has been released into civil circulation after it passed all the needed tests of Roszdravnadzor (or the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare).

The Sputnik V vaccine was registered on August 11 and Putin told his citizens that it’s safe to use and effective against the novel COVID-19 pandemic.

Some other reports revealed that his own daughter was vaccinated with Sputnik V and she remains healthy after the shot.

Concerns Still Persist

Although Russian authorities assured the public that the vaccine is safe to use it does what it’s supposed to do, concerns still exist mostly because it hasn’t been adequately tested and it has been only a few months from when it was under development to its lunch.

Sputnik V’s sample size of initial phases was thought to be too small and at the moment, we haven’t had the results of the large phase 3 trial yet.

Russian Vaccine Trial In India

Some reports surfaced recently claimed that the Russian Sputnik V would go into trial in India this month.

On Monday, Russian Direct Investment Fund’s CEO Kirill Dmitriev said the post-registration studies with the participation of 40,000 people began on August 26, before the Phase 3 trial of AstraZeneca in the U.S which involved 30,000 people.

He also shared that clinical trials in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the Philippines, and India would start this month.

Phase 3’s preliminary results will be out in October or November this year.

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