Russia to Begin ‘Large-Scale’ Rollout of Dubious Coronavirus Vaccine for Doctors, Teachers

President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday that Russia would begin mass injections of doctors and teachers with “Sputnik V,” a Russian coronavirus vaccine candidate whose efficacy international experts have questioned.

In a virtual address to the opening ceremony of multifunctional medical centers of the Russian Defense Ministry, Putin announced that around 2 million doses of Russia’s own vaccine were ready to be deployed, with the “first two risk groups” being doctors and teachers.

“This gives us an opportunity if not to begin mass inoculation, then at least to roll it out on a large scale,” he told Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. “If you think that we came close to this step, I would like to ask you to organize the work in such a way that by the end of next week we could already begin this large-scale vaccination.”

“We have to exercise caution, this is correct, but I know that on the whole, both the industry and the [medical] network are ready for this,” he continued. “Let’s make this first step.”

Putin’s insistence on rolling out Russia’s domestically produced vaccine comes despite widespread concern that it is unsafe and has not met the necessary standards set out by credible medical regulators. According to the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, the “Sputnik V” vaccine has an efficacy of 94 percent, proving it is an “efficient solution to stop the spread of coronavirus infection.”

Science magazine noted in a recent report on the vaccine that their review “covered just 20 total COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] cases in the vaccinated and placebo groups — far too few for the claim be convincing.” In September, more than 30 Europe-based experts signed an open letter publicly voicing their concerns about the Russian research, noting “potential data inconsistencies,” although such doubts have been firmly dismissed by the Kremlin.

Despite concerns over its efficacy, it is not just Russia that plans to take advantage of its home-grown vaccine candidate. Both Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime in Venezuela and the left-wing government of Argentina have agreed to purchase millions of doses to help inoculate their populations.

Russian state media has also concurrently engaged in a disinformation campaign against Western vaccine candidates, reports indicate. Following a review into the issue, Politico found that “in state-backed media articles in multiple languages, the Kremlin has pushed claims that Western vaccines are experimental, unsafe and will likely fail.”

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