Russia Sputnik V vaccine goes to 40+ countries as West shots

• The Russian Sputnik V vaccine has been approved in more than 40 countries, the manufacturers said.
• Many have little access to shots made by Western companies such as Pfizer and Moderna.
• An expert told Insider that Russia would give a geopolitical advantage on this.
• Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.

The Russian Sputnik V vaccine is gaining ground in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.

More than forty countries have agreed with the vaccine manufacturers, very few of whom have access to the requested surveys from Western companies that drive vaccination in the US and Europe.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund, the body that supports the vaccine and handles its marketing, listed the countries in a press release on Wednesday.

They are:

• Europe: Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary, Armenia, Montenegro, San Marino, Moldova.
• Asia: Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Syria, Mongolia, Sri Lanka.
• America: Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Honduras, Guatemala.
• Africa and Middle East: Algeria, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Bahrain, Lebanon, Gabon, Egypt, Ghana.

The vaccine is also being approved by the Palestinian Authority and by an entity from Bosnia and Herzegovina called the Serbian Republic, according to the press release.

Of course, this is not just about public health. There is also an advantage for Russia. The pursuit of vaccine distribution around the world is an opportunity to burn its image abroad and strengthen alliances, while most Western countries are laser-focused on their own populations.

The Sputnik deal – which is being printed on social media and in PR-friendly photo posts – appears to be part of the trend to call it ‘vaccine diplomacy’.

RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev told Insider on February 2 that he had little interest in seeing the vaccine used in the US, and only a moderate interest in sending it to Europe.

Outside of these markets, however, there is a wide field. Outside the US and Western Europe, relatively few doses are available from vaccine manufacturers such as AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

Nations, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, have ordered enough doses to vaccinate their populations several times, causing accusations of storage. They also get their doses sooner.

A mechanism designed to provide access to the poorest countries, the World Health Organization’s COVAX program, has been slow to deliver the vaccines. The first reached Africa on Monday.

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of medicine at Georgetown University, who is director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, said in an interview with Insider that the distribution of doses was obviously unfair.

“What should be a politically neutral scientific life-saving medical resource is being distributed around the world according to political and geostrategic spheres of influence,” he said.

This created a vacuum in poorer countries.

The RDIF makes no secret of its intentions. “Our priority is the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, Africa, the countries that are very eager to acquire Sputnik,” Dmitriev said in an interview with the Arab Support Office on January 18.

“Russia is selling to desperate people,” Gostin said. “Governments realize that people are dying, it [COVID-19] is absolutely crushing their economies, and that they are losing public confidence.

“If it were an informed and competitive market, countries could choose between a number of equally effective or more effective vaccines,” Gostin said. “They probably won’t take the Russian one.”

The shot has been shown to be very effective in clinical trials, with 91.6% efficiency. But then the shot was caught in distrust because the Russian government decided to use the shot on its population months before the trials were completed.

“Once a country has blatantly violated all the scientific and ethical rules regarding the use of a vaccine, it is difficult to regain trust, at least with people who have a choice,” Gostin said.

“They have the choice to do nothing or give their country hope. And the Russian vaccine represents hope. ‘

Some countries have already received doses.

Argentina is the leader in terms of the number of Sputnik V vaccines administered in Latin America, where the vaccine is advancing. As of January 28, Reuters had already administered more than 270,000 first doses and 45,000 second doses. 20 million doses of the vaccine have been ordered.

Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia and Paraguay have also received some doses and expect more.

Edgard Garrido / Reuters

The vaccine is also gaining ground in Europe, especially among Eastern European countries, which are historically closer to Russia.

The BBC received a dose of Sputnik V vaccine in December, the BBC reported on 10 February.

The country vaccinated about 1.5 million of its people with a combination of the Pfizer BioNTech shot, China’s Sinovac shot and Sputnik V. Within the figure, it was not clear how many Sputnik jabs were.

“We do not care as long as they are safe and we will get them as soon as possible,” Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told the BBC on February 10 about the origin of vaccines.

The small European countries of San Marino and Montenegro also received several thousand doses of Sputnik V.

Some European countries have expressed interest in the vaccine, but appear to be waiting for the influential European Medicines Agency to approve it. Countries can move without EMA approval, but tend not to do so.

The EMA has announced that it will begin an ongoing review of the Sputnik V vaccine on Thursday.

Frustrated by the delays, some EU member states decided not to wait for the EMA. Hungary was the first member state to splinter out of the bloc.

“Every day we would wait to wait in Brussels, we would lose a hundred Hungarian lives,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Hungarian radio. The Irish Times reported on 14 February. “I do not trust a [vaccine] analysis in Brussels more than I in a Hungarian. ‘

According to Thursday, Hungary administered 19,582 doses, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Slovakia followed suit. It bought 2 million doses of Sputnik V and received 200,000 doses of the vaccine on Wednesday.

“It is right to buy the Russian vaccine, as COVID-19 knows nothing about geopolitics,” Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic told The Moscow Times on Monday.

The former Soviet states of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan also began to administer Sputnik V.

Pavel Aleksandrov / TASS via Getty Images

Russia is keen to capitalize on the publicity opportunities offered by the distribution of vaccines, often with some plays.

The scene is virtually the same in several countries. Journalists are invited to the airport runways to witness the unloading of crates with vaccine, stamped with the Sputnik V and the RDIF logo or draped with a Russian flag.

Here is Paraguay:

And here is Slovakia:

Africa could have been a tougher sale for the Russian vaccine, as the continent has a close relationship with the Chinese government, which has invested heavily in infrastructure development in Africa.

However, China has been slow to deliver vaccines there, and the African Union has already obtained 3 million doses from Russia that would arrive in May.

It costs a price. The RDIF announced that the vaccine would be ‘two or more times cheaper’ than mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer’s. The price, with just under $ 10 per shot, ended up being much more than what the AU paid for shots from AstraZeneca ($ 3) or Pfizer ($ 6.75), the Financial Times reported last week.

Algeria started vaccinating with Sputnik V on January 30, and Egypt gave the authorization for emergency use on February 24.

In the Middle East, Iran vaccinated Sputnik V on 9 February. The first dose was administered to the son of Iran’s health minister to alleviate public mistrust of the vaccine, Al Jazeera reported.

The United Arab Emirates gave the vaccine emergency permission on January 21 before the results of the late stage of the trial were published.

The Palestinian Authority also administered several doses of the shot, after Russia sent 1,000 doses of Sputnik V and the UAE a further 20,000 doses of Sputnik V.

SID KHATIB / AFP via Getty Images

For Gostin, the health expert, geopolitical advantage is not the only driving force behind Russia’s strategy.

“This is a way to show that Russia’s technological prowess is similar to that of the West,” Gostin told Insider.

“It is no coincidence that it was called Sputnik, because it is very reminiscent of the race to the moon with the United States.

“The truth is that you let Russia play with vaccines, try to gain a geostrategic advantage and strengthen their image abroad. Then you have Europe, the USA, the United Kingdom and Canada storing vaccines and robbing lower income. countries.

“I do not know that leaders of Europe and the USA can look at themselves in the mirror and experience any form of ethical superiority.”