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WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 31: Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) wear protective masks while talking after a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on July 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump administration officials are set to defend the federal government's response to the coronavirus crisis at the hearing hosted by a House panel calling for a national plan to contain the virus.
Creating a COVID-19 vaccine is not the same as proving a vaccine is safe and effective, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This is his take on reports from Moscow that Russia has approved and is slated to market a novel coronavirus vaccine.
The infectious disease expert said that he hopes but "seriously doubts" that Russia has concocted a safe and effective vaccine prepared for usage.
Russia President Vladimir Putin declared earlier this week that the nation approved of the globe's first coronavirus vaccine months before a vaccine is anticipated to be made available globally.
The Russian vaccine will be named "Sputnik V" in honor of the globe's first satellite launched by the Soviet Union. It has not yet completed the last trials.
Since the declaration of Russia's president, experts have been concerned; Russia has stunned the globe with its declaration of statutory approval for the public use of the novel coronavirus vaccine.
According to the United States Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, it is essential to provide a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine. He was also dubious of Russia's claim, remarking a lack of transparency in trials and information to back that the vaccine is effective, reported Rappler.
"I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective. "I seriously doubt that they've done that," Dr. Fauci remarked as part of a keynote interview for Stopping Pandemics, an exclusive event slated to air August 13 via National Geographic, reported National Geographic.
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The Russian health ministry plans on mass-producing the said vaccine in the fall. However, there is a lack of prevalent testing to back the vaccine's safety and effectiveness. All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi Director Dr. Randeep Guleria also agrees that there is a need to assess its safety and effectiveness.
Guleria stated, "If Russia's vaccine is successful, then we will have to see critically whether it is safe and effective. There should not be any side effects of the vaccine and it should provide good immunity and protection. India has the capacity for mass production of vaccine," reported Hindustan Times.
According to Azar on Wednesday, August 12, phase 3 trials for the Sputnik V vaccine was only just starting. The process usually takes months to conclude.
Azar added, "And the data from the initial trials in Russia have not been disclosed, it's not transparent."
Russia has alluded the entire summer that it is developing fast on its vaccine candidate. The director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, where the vaccine is being concocted, said in May that he and other scientists had begun testing the vaccine on themselves prior to the human trials' first phase that started with 76 subjects a month later.
Dr. Fauci said connected to the Russian vaccine, while the US has in line some vaccines in development, "if we wanted to take the chance of hurting a lot of people or giving them something that doesn't work, we could start doing this, you know, next week if we wanted to."
The infectious disease expert said that is not the way it works.
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