Elisabeth Mahase
BMJ, 2020
The Russian government has approved a covid-19 vaccine for widespread use despite it apparently undergoing only a phase I trial (38 people) with no published results. The announcement was made on national television when the president, Vladimir Putin, said, “I know that it works quite effectively, forms strong immunity, and I repeat, it has passed all the needed checks.”1 He claimed that one of his daughters had been given the vaccine. Members of the Russian elite have reportedly also received doses of the vaccine since April.2 The chief of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, has said that a phase III trial will start in August and will involve thousands of people in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The vaccine could then be distributed as early as September. The approval of a vaccine without large scale testing has caused concern, and researchers have called for the results to be published for scrutiny and for further trials to take place before the vaccine is rolled out to the public. “Russia has granted a licence based on phase I data: this would not be done anywhere else in the world,” said …
Cited by 17 publications.
Field of study: Political Science