Russia To Offer Free COVID-19 Vaccine To United Nations Staff

The Russian president, while speaking with the General Assembly, has decided to offer UN staff in New York as well as around the world free Sputnik-V vaccine.

Until now, experts are still concern about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine with only results from small-scale trials have been published.

For the first time ever, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s General Assembly was held online.

Putin described his offer of a free vaccine as a response to the demand of some colleagues from the UN.

Stephane Dujarric, UN spokesman thanked the Russin president for his generous offer. Meanwhile, at the medical agency of UN in Geneva, spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris refused to give any comment.

In a report that can be found in the Lancet journal, developers of the Sputnik-V vaccine said that the vaccine was safe and was able to generate an antibody response in 40 people during the second phase.

However, it was noted that they only kept a check on the participants for 42 days. Thus the study was a small-scale one with no control vaccine or placebo used.

Meanwhile, other potential vaccines are now being tested on more people, with tens of thousands of volunteers in several countries to understand whether they are effective and have no side effects.

Russian officials have spoken to defend the vaccine, saying that many countries have expressed their interest and sent their requests to purchase 1.2 billion doses of vaccine.

>>> Russia To Supply 1.2 Billion Doses Of Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine