President Vladimir Putin’s coronavirus vaccine is being tagged as “Russian roulette,” according to a top official at the National Institute of Health.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the NIH, said that Russia’s coronavirus vaccine did not go through the “fundamental parts” of the approval process. Because of this, some people have labeled it “Russian roulette.”
“I think virtually every vaccine expert in the world looking at this has been quite concerned whether this was a wise decision. Some have called this Russian roulette,” he said during a conference call with reporters.
NIH is part of the federal government’s program called Operation Warp Speed. It aims to speed up the development, manufacturing, and distribution of vaccines and treatments to address the coronavirus pandemic.
"Good enough"
Scientists and health experts worldwide have expressed concerns over the safety and efficacy of Russia’s vaccine called Spunik V. When he announced the registration of the vaccine, Putin claimed it “works quite effectively” and that it was approved by Russian health authorities. He added that one of his daughters has already taken it.
“Although I know that it works quite effectively, it forms a stable immunity and, I repeat, has passed all the necessary checks,” Putin said.
During the conference call, Collins pointed out that Russia only held a phase one clinical trial of its vaccine, giving it to around 100 people, and concluded “that was good enough.” Medical experts emphasized that it remains uncertain whether a Covid-19 vaccine would work and its potential side effects because of the absence of a large-scale phase three clinical trial.
“If that was the standard, we would have been declared success several months ago because we had that experience of successful phase one trials,” Collins said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview with National Geographic that he “seriously doubts” Russia has proven the safety and effectiveness of its vaccine.
“Having a vaccine ... and proving that a vaccine is safe and effective are two different things. We have half a dozen or more vaccines, so if we wanted to take the chance of hurting a lot of people or giving them something that doesn’t work, we could start doing this, you know, next week if we wanted to,” Dr. Fauci said during a National Geographic panel held by ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts that aired on Thursday.
Rigorous evaluation
The World Health Organization said it is coordinating with Russian regulatory authorities to hold a rigorous evaluation of the country’s Covid-19 vaccine before endorsing it to other countries for procurement.
Infectious disease specialist Isaac Bogoch said he is also skeptical over Russia COVID vaccine even if he has “no doubts” that Russia can develop a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine.
However, “you can’t just start giving a vaccine to the public,” said Bogoch, a professor at the University of Toronto.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar pointed out that the shortened review is cause of concern.
“We need transparent data, and it’s got to be phase three data that shows that a vaccine is safe and effective,” he told ABC. “The point is not to be first with a vaccine, the point is to have a vaccine that is safe and effective for the American people and the people of the world.”
