On Tuesday, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin announced on national television the approval of a coronavirus vaccine for global use, claiming it is the “world’s first” vaccine to be developed.
“A vaccine against coronavirus has been registered for the first time in the world this morning,” Putin said on state TV.
“One of my daughters took the dose, she had a slightly higher temperature after each dose, but now she feels well,” he added trying to instill confidence in the controversial vaccine that has raised concerns over its safety and effectiveness.
The vaccine has been named Sputnik-V, a name given to world’s first satellite built by the Soviet state in 1957. The V stands for Vaccine.
Last month, Russia’s Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University said it had completed and successfully tested its groundbreaking clinical trials of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine with initial human trials indicating that the vaccine is safe and effective.
The same month, Russia announced it was rolling out the vaccine to the public in August and confirmed more than 20 countries had already ordered more than a billion doses of the vaccine.
Critics have also claimed that Russia’s vaccine has no scientific data to verify its safety and effectiveness.
Despite this, Russia is the only known country to construct such a groundbreaking development in the global push for an effective vaccine against Covid-19.
