Here’s what we know about Russia’s unverified coronavirus vaccine
Russia has launched a new Sputnik — this time, a vaccine to combat the coronavirus. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a televised cabinet meeting August 11 that the country is ready to roll out the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine to the general public. Teachers and doctors may be among the first inoculated. Dubbed Sputnik-V, after the first artificial satellite, the vaccine has been tested in only a small number of people. The announcement came even though no published information is available about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, and scientists have yet to complete the final phase of clinical testing to determine whether it works. Nonetheless the vaccine has been submitted to the health ministry for registration, comparable to applying for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It “works quite effectively. It forms a stable immunity,” Putin declared. Researchers around the world have been racing to create a vaccine (SN: 7/10/20), but...