Russia Defends First Covid-19 Vaccine as Safe Amid Skepticism
- First vaccinations of health workers to start in two weeks
- Health minister blames Western jealousy for criticism
A worker holds a tray containing unlabeled ampoules of the 'Gam-COVID-Vac' COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), in Zelenograd, Russia.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergRussia brushed aside international concerns about the safety of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine and announced it will start mass inoculation this month before clinical testing is completed.
“Western colleagues, who can sense the competitive advantage of the Russian drug, are trying to express some opinions that are completely unjustified in our view,” Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told a briefing on Wednesday. “This vaccine is a platform that is already well-known and studied,” he said, adding that other countries have developed antidotes under accelerated testing programs.