The Israeli Hadassah hospital has pre-ordered 1.5 million doses of the Russian coronavirus vaccine. The general director of the hospital, Professor Zeev Rothstein, told the Israeli edition of Haaretz about this.
Already this week, Hadassah intends to apply to the Ministry of Health for permission to use the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine in Israel.
Professor Rothstein is convinced that the fears expressed about the Russian vaccine are unfounded, and the criticism against it is related to the competition between Russia and the United States in the “vaccine race”.
The Russian vaccine “Sputnik-5”, created on the basis of adenoviruses, has now been registered in Russia and introduced to tens of thousands of people. Earlier it was reported that a medical center in Skolkovo, operated by the Hadassah hospital, is involved in vaccine trials and patient monitoring.
According to Rothstein, it was the Russian government that asked him to apply for permission to use the vaccine from the Israeli Ministry of Health.
He also noted that if clinical trials of the Russian vaccine in humans are successful and the Israeli Ministry of Health approves its use, then Sputnik-V can be offered to the Israelis within 2-3 months.
Rothstein is confident that some of the criticism of the vaccine is due to the difficult relationship between Russia and the United States.
“It’s like a space race. Not surprisingly, the Russians named their vaccine Sputnik V. They wanted to remind the Americans who were the first to go into space”, – said the Hadassah CEO.
Rothstein acknowledges that regulatory mechanisms in Russia are less stringent. However, according to him, on a personal level, he is familiar with high-ranking Russians who were vaccinated with the Sputnik-V vaccine.
“They haven’t had horns grown. They go without masks. They told me that they were tested for the level of antibodies to coronavirus, and it is high”, – said Rothstein.
At the same time, he stressed that he was not talking about scientific data – but about the words and behavior of specific people.