TIRANA, August 12 – Russia announced on Tuesday that it will approve a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, prompting alarm among global health experts.
According to Reuters, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the vaccine was safe and that one of his daughters had already taken it. However, several experts have expressed concern, as it may possibly endanger human lives.
Experts warn that an early, flawed vaccine may make those who do take it more vulnerable to severe forms of Covid-19, as opposed to a vaccine which is tested on thousands of people.
Reuters reported that Peter Kremsner, an expert at Germany’s University Hospital in Tuebingen who is working on clinical trials of a vaccine candidate from CureVac, said Russia’s move was “reckless”.
“Normally you need a large number of people to be tested before you approve a vaccine,” he said. “I think it’s reckless to do that if lots of people haven’t already been tested.”
The approval of the vaccine by the Russian Health Ministry comes before what is commonly known as a Phase III trial. Commonly, vaccines need to undergo these trials to be approved officially.
