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| - Fact Check: Do not pin your hopes on that 'successful' Russian vaccine
On Monday evening, news portals and social media were suddenly flooded by the news that a Russian medical university has completed the trial of the world's first Covid vaccine. People were elated and perplexed at the same time as the news broke. So is the wait really over for an effective Covid-19 vaccine?
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India Today Fact Check
They have just completed the first stage of the first phase of trial on just 18 volunteers. This vaccine has a long way to go.
Has Russia turned out to be the dark horse in the race to develop the world's first successful Covid-19 vaccine?
On Monday evening, news portals and social media were suddenly flooded by the news that a Russian medical university has completed the trial of the world's first Covid vaccine. People were elated and perplexed at the same time as the news broke.
Elated, because the world is desperately waiting for a successful vaccine. And perplexed, because each and every development about prospective vaccines is being widely monitored and reported, and this little-known vaccine candidate from Russia was never among the front-runners.
So is the wait really over for an effective Covid-19 vaccine - thanks to Russian scientists at the Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology?
The short answer is NO. They have just completed the first stage of the first phase of trial on just 18 volunteers. This vaccine has a long way to go.
Vague news reports created confusion
The primary source of this 'breakthrough' was this news report from Russian news agency "Tass". The report says that "the research has been completed and it proved that the vaccine is safe". But it fails to mention clearly that this was just the first stage of a two-stage first phase of clinical trial. Each vaccine has to go through three phases of trials on humans before it is approved for the masses.
The impact of this somewhat vague news was amplified in India as it was also reported by the Russian state-controlled news agency "Sputnik News" and tweeted by the Russian embassy in India.
#Sechenov University has successfully completed tests on volunteers of the world's first vaccine against #COVID19.
"The #vaccine is safe. The volunteers will be discharged on July 15 and July 20", chief researcher Elena Smolyarchuk told TASS https://t.co/jVrmWbLvwX pic.twitter.com/V8bon4lieR — Russia in India (@RusEmbIndia) July 12, 2020
Actual status of the Russian vaccine
All reports regarding the Russian vaccine claim that the trials have been completed by Sechenov University in Moscow. However, when we checked its website, it clearly said in a news report dated July 10 that "after the first phase of testing, the vaccine developer will prepare a report. In the next stages of the study, more volunteers will be conducted". This means the trial is yet to be completed and this was just the first phase.
The United States National Library of Medicine has details about each vaccine under trial on its website. This vaccine candidate is listed as "Gam-COVID-Vac Lyo" as it is being developed by Gamalei institute. The website clearly says that at present, it is under Phase-I trial.
The World Health Organization document on Covid-19 vaccine candidates also lists the vaccine being developed by Gamalei institute in Phase-I which is being done in two stages.
As of July 13, Russia is the fourth-worst Covid affected country in the world after the USA, Brazil and India. So far, 11,439 people have lost their lives in Russia due to coronavirus.
According to "The New York Times" vaccine-tracker, three new vaccines in the third phase of clinical trials are front-runners. These are AstraZeneca-University of Oxford from England, Sinopharm and Sinovac from China. There is also a fourth vaccine in the final phase of testing, but this is an old vaccine for tuberculosis, being tested to see if it can also protect against coronavirus. This vaccine is being tested in Australia at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute.
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