News Article - International

 

Everything you should know about the Russian Covid-19 Vaccine

Russia recently announced its official Covid-19 vaccine in just six months since the pandemic started. But is it possible to have a vaccine this early? And how effective is it, let's try to find out

-        By Zeeshan Akhtar, 17/08/2020

    Photo Source: BBC

President Vladimir Putin on August 11 announced that Russia has created the world's first official Covid-19 vaccine which has been named Sputnik V and it will be ready for mass production in the next few days. The announcement comes at a point where the world has already seen 21.5 million confirmed cases and 770,000+ deaths due to the novel Coronavirus. But something about the vaccine raises important questions and speculations regarding its effectiveness and safety.

A successful vaccine must go through four major testing stages before it can be considered safe and effective. The phases are:

Pre-Clinical Trials: The vaccine is either tested on various cells in a laboratory or on animals to check it's behavior before the human trials start.

Clinical Trials: PHASE I - When trials of the vaccine are tested safe on animals, the dose is given to a minimum of 10-15 people in a small amount to check how the vaccine reacts to the human body.

Phase II – In this phase, the number of people increases to 100 and the researchers try to find out how the vaccine works, its ability to create antibodies and how it reacts to the virus.

Phase III – Now the number of people being tested increases to thousands and the goal is to identify any kind of side effect the vaccine might have on the human body and how safe the vaccine is by identifying the potential risks over a month and up to a year or two.

Phase IV – These trials can be skipped in urgent cases as these are done to ensure extra safety and effectiveness. Once the result is safe, the vaccine can be further sent for approval.

        Photo Source: Inventiva

Coming back to Russia, Sputnik V has been produced by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute ignoring the mandatory Phase – III trials and the vaccine also went through the Phase I & Phase II trials in just 2 months which in normal times might take up to a year or two to complete, making it difficult for the scientists and researchers around the world to speculate its effectiveness and safety. The race to find the vaccine as early as possible might come in between the safety of the masses.

As Putin approved the vaccine without conducting the mandatory Phase III trials, it can be said, that people taking the vaccine in the next few months after the mass production will complete and mass immunization will start, will indirectly become participants who will take part in a mass testing program. Which means, the people taking the vaccine will automatically turn into volunteers. This hoists important questions regarding the safety of the vaccine and its ability to create an immune response in the body against the Covid-19 virus, as phase one and two trials have not posted any results and there’s no evidence whether the Phase III trials have started or not.

This brings us to the point, where we cannot speculate whether the vaccine works or not, or if it’s safe, and does it even create an immune response in the human body. With everything haywire, the question is, what is the fuss all about? The notion is, there are multiple reports in the market regarding the vaccine’s effectiveness. Some researchers claim that the vaccine does create antibodies and its effect will last for at least two years in a person inoculated with the vaccine. While some claim that the vaccine might not show any positive result until the Phase – III trials are done properly under the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the latest, Dr. Bruce Aylward a senior adviser to WHO’s the director-general said that WHO is in talks with Russia over the vaccine's safety concerns and they are trying to gather all the information concerning Sputnik V. On the other side, Russia’s Gamaleya institute has already produced its first batch of the vaccine and it will be given to the doctors first. Many countries have already placed orders for the Russian vaccine and India is one of them. As mass immunization will begin in October as claimed by Russia, time will tell how Sputnik V works and fights the Coronavirus.