The Russian Sputnik V vaccine is one of the most effective drugs against coronavirus, but its widespread use is hampered by politics, experts from Australia in the field of epidemiology and virology said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, TASS reports.
“This is an excellent vaccine that is over 92% effective in preventing [disease] COVID-19. The rapid creation of the drug should not raise doubts about its effectiveness, since it is known that the scientists who developed the “Sputnik V” already had a base in the form of “vaccines against MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) and SARS (SARS), which they had worked on before”, – said Michael Toole, professor at the Burnet Medical Research Institute.
The expert noted that not a single country using Sputnik V to immunize the population against coronavirus infection has reported problems with blood clotting either during clinical trials or during the use of the drug. Toole stressed that the good results of the vaccine should have convinced the World Health Organization (WHO) to register the Russian drug as soon as possible.
“Politics plays a role in the fact that Sputnik V has not yet received wide distribution. This is a manifestation of inequality. We need to know about all vaccines and understand how they work, so as not to end up in a limited store”, -concluded epidemiologist Catherine Bennett of Deakin University.