Russia declared that it has registered the first COVID19 vaccine in the world on Tuesday, even as experts raised doubts over hasty clinical trial of the vaccine. “As far as I know, for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection was registered this morning.” President Vladimir Putin was quoted in reports as saying in a government meeting.
“I hope we will be able to start mass production of this medication in the near future, which is very important,” he added.
Russian President revealed that one of his daughters also participated in clinical trials. “One of my daughters got vaccinated. In fact, she took in an experiment. After the first vaccination, she had a temperature of 38 degree [Celsius, equivalent to 100 degree Fahrenheit], the next day slightly higher than 37 [Degree Celsius], that’s all,” he said.
Clinical trials of the vaccine kicked off on 18 June and included 38 volunteers. All of the participants developed immunity. The first group was discharged on 15 July, the second group on 20 July, reported Sputnik.
Earlier, Russia’s Sechenov University claimed on July 12 that it had successfully completed the clinical trials of first ever COVID19 vaccine on human. After the claim, several experts have raised suspicion over the less number of participants in clinical trial as well as the short span of time in which the outcome was declared successful.
In first week of July the WHO had claimed that the Russian vaccine is in the first phase of trail. Thus, questions are being raised as to how 3-4 trials, that is required for a vaccine to go through before getting certified as safe for human consumption, completed.
Meanwhile, According to registration certificate the vaccine would be available to the civilian use by coming New Year. According to latest worldometers.info data, 20,281,372 people across the globe have infected from the highly contagious virus; 730770 among them died, while 13,205,799 recovered.
