After an initial dose of skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccine in Russia, Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted that the data on the Sputnik V-jab made him believe it was “very effective”.
‘I looked at some of the reports. It looks pretty good, “Fauci said on Monday in the Hugh Hewitt radio program, Bloomberg News reported.
In February, a study published in the British medical journal The Lancet found that Sputnik V was approximately 91 percent effective and prevented severe cases of infection.
Concerns about the safety of the two doses of vaccine that have increased since Russia approved the sample in August 2020 – ahead of its Western rivals and before the start of large-scale clinical trials.
At the time, President Vladimir Putin said one of his daughters had been vaccinated with it, although it had only been tested in a few dozen people.
But Fauci expressed skepticism about the Russian shot.
“I hope the Russians have definitely proven that the vaccine is safe and effective,” Fauci told ABC News at the time. “I seriously doubt they did.”
In January, the US Department of Health and Human Services said it wanted to persuade global affairs office Brazil not to allow Sputnik V – accusing Moscow of extending its influence in the United States to the “detriment of the United States”. safety and security “according to Bloomberg.
In the new interview, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Biden’s chief scientific adviser, said he had no chance of reviewing a Chinese vaccine, but it could also be ‘good’.
“But the Russians are pretty effective in my opinion,” he said.
The Russian vaccine is similar to one developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
Both use a modified version of the cold that causes adenovirus to carry genes for the ear protein in the coronavirus, to make the body respond to a COVID-19 infection.
But unlike the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Russian version uses a slightly different adenovirus for its second shot.
On Monday, AstraZeneca trial data from a U.S. study on the vaccine announced that it was 79 percent effective.
His experts are also said to have identified no safety concerns regarding the vaccine, including a rare blood clot identified in Europe.
Experts found no increased risk of blood clots in the more than 20,000 people who received at least one dose of AstraZeneca shot.