Russia Approves Third COVID-19 Vaccine

Russia approved its third domestically produced vaccine on February 20. While it has not yet conducted large-scale clinical trials, initial reports suggest a 90 percent efficacy rate.  

“Today we note that a third vaccine, CoviVac, has been registered,” Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishushtin commented during an interview. “Russia is the only country in which there are already three vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19.”

Last August, Russia approved Sputnik V, the first registered COVID-19 vaccine in the world. However, the international scientific community immediately criticized it for not having undergone large-scale trials needed to rule out potentially dangerous side effects. Only this month did the Lancet publish details confirming the vaccine’s safety. 

Despite having started public inoculations before any other county, Russia’s vaccination rate lags behind that of the United Kingdom, the United States, and several other Western countries. The most recent update, released on February 10, noted that 2.2 million Russians, or 1.5 percent of the population, had received at least one dose. For comparison, by the same date, the United States had vaccinated ten percent of its population. 

Production issues early in the development process can partly explain the slow rollout. While Russia had expected to produce 30 million doses of Sputnik V by the end of 2020, it had only produced 2.5 million. 

Health experts worry that approving additional vaccines could exacerbate inefficiency in the distribution process. Vitaly Shakhnazarov, a quality director at COREX (a pharmaceutical logistics firm) remarked, “The two new Russian vaccines might actually hinder production as they divert the logistical resources needed to produce and transport Sputnik… I am not sure Russia has the capacity to roll out all three vaccines.”

Another contributing factor to the slow rate of inoculation relates to a permeating culture of vaccine hesitancy amongst Russians. In October, independent polling suggested that upwards of 59 percent of the population would refuse a COVID-19 vaccine even if it were offered free of charge. Unlike in other countries, however, the government has not undertaken any efforts to sway public opinion, and Vladimir Putin himself, at 68 years old, has not received the vaccine. 

Meanwhile, Russia has sold 1.2 billion doses of Sputnik V to over fifty other countries, 700 million of which should be delivered in 2021. “We still wonder why Russia is offering, theoretically, millions and millions of doses while not sufficiently progressing in vaccinating its own people,” said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. “This question should be answered.”