Does Russia really have a COVID-19 vaccine?

There are several reasons to be wary of reports that Russia has a vaccine for COVID-19, Veronika Wirtz argues.

Russia’s August 11 announcement that scientists had created the world’s first coronavirus vaccine for public use faced skepticism from the global public health community.

Researchers at the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow are developing the vaccine—named “Sputnik V,” a reference to an early Soviet victory in the Space Race. The researchers have yet to publish any peer-reviewed data.

Since the initial announcement, Russian authorities have reported that a Phase 3 clinical trial (or an equivalent) is underway with more than 2,000 participants. But Phase 3 trials are typically much larger, and required to go favorably, before a vaccine is approved for widespread use. One of the leading vaccine candidates from the United States, developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, is also currently beginning a Phase 3 trial.

“Really, [Russia has] released that they have a candidate,” says Wirtz, an associate professor of global health at Boston University’s School of Public Health and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Pharmaceutical Policy.

“World politics at the moment aren’t just being played out with nuclear weapons or trade wars. In this pandemic, countries that want to put themselves at the forefront on the world stage are now saying, ‘We have the coronavirus vaccine.'”

Here, Wirtz explains what she knows about the vaccine, the potential harms of prematurely announcing a coronavirus vaccine is ready for public use, and what concerns she has about political pressure to speedily get a vaccine approved for use here in the US:

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