New Delhi: Russia boasts that it is about to become the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, with mass vaccinations planned as early as October using shots that are yet to complete clinical trials – and scientists worldwide are sounding the alarm that the headlong rush could backfire.
“I’m worried that Russia is cutting corners so that the vaccine that will come out may be not just ineffective, but also unsafe,” Lawrence Gostin, a global public health law expert at Georgetown University, told a news agency. “It doesn’t work that way….Trials come first. That’s really important.”
According to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the effort, a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya research institute in Moscow may be approved in days, before scientists complete what’s called a Phase 3 study.
That final-stage study, usually involving tens of thousands of people, is the only way to prove if an experimental vaccine is safe and really works.
