Science and politics are linked to global vaccine competition

Washington-No, Russia has no Sputnik moment.

Tuesday’s announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin Coronavirus The vaccine did not cause the awe and wonder that the Soviet Union launched its first satellite in orbit in 1957. Instead, they faced questions about science and safety.

But this claim emphasizes that, like the space race, the race to get the first vaccine is about international competition and science. The first country to develop a new method of defeating a coronavirus achieves a sort of moonshot victory and the associated worldwide status.

This is valuable for Putin, whose domestic popularity has declined due to the economic downturn and the damage caused by the outbreak of viruses.

Timothy Fry, a professor of political science at Columbia University who specializes in post-Soviet politics, said, “It would be true to block from the beginning with the coronavirus vaccine.

Russia is not the only one looking at vaccines from this perspective. China, where the virus first emerged, also raced for vaccine advances. State-owned Chinese companies boast that employees, including their executives, received shots even before the government approved people’s tests.

President Donald Trump, who has put his political destiny in serious danger in responding to the coronavirus pandemic, is eager to advance his regime against a vaccine ideally arriving before Election Day in November. I look forward to your achievements.

Whether Putin has beaten Mr. Trump to this medical milestone is not clear at this time.

Putin said one of his two adult daughters had been vaccinated, saying the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare gave approval after a vaccine named “Sputnik V” had undergone the necessary tests. It’s very important to the country and the world at large,” he said.

No evidence was provided, and Russian scientists warned that further testing would be needed to prove it is safe and effective. Nevertheless, officials said vaccinations for doctors could start earlier this month, and mass vaccinations might begin as early as October.

Scientists around the world warn that even if a vaccine candidate proves to work, it will take longer to know how long the protection will last.

Dr. Michael Head, a senior researcher at Global Health at the University of Southampton, said: “It’s too early to really evaluate whether it works or not.

It was also premature to reject Russia’s claims without fail.

Although the country economically relies on the export of natural resources, it has a proven track record in science, medicine and aerospace, including the first time humans were introduced into space in 1961.

“It’s possible they were focused and able to do this,” said retired senior US diplomat Daniel Fried. “I’m not insulting it, but that doesn’t mean the Russian economy is on the move.”

Vaccines will be a huge success, boosting Putin both domestically and internationally.

“I hope they can claim credibility because the first country that developed the vaccine gets a lot of fame,” said Fried, Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, now a prominent fellow of the Atlantic Council. Said.

It is possible that Russia helped. The US, UK and Canada last month accused hackers of Russian intelligence agencies of trying to steal information about coronavirus vaccines from academic and pharmaceutical research institutions.

In any case, with more than 730,000 deaths from the virus worldwide, the public is keen on vaccines. If you pass the Food and Drug Administration, which also approves the approval from Russia, some people welcome the approval from Russia. vaccine Used in the US and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I can’t stand it anymore, I’m mad,” said Fernanda Henderson, who tied her baby to a car seat in a park outside Maryland, Washington and stopped her isolation at home. “I don’t think we’ll approve that CDC or FDA doesn’t work.”

But for Bethna Jezik, a Croatian-79-year-old Croatian immunologist with grandchildren in the same park, the suspicious progress of the vaccine announced by Putin was suspicious. “You can imagine we don’t trust what comes from Russia,” she said.

The Russian president may face similar questions domestically. In a 2018 Gallup poll, Frye noted that the former Soviet nations had the highest vaccination sentiment in the world.

“If it turns out to not work, it will have real black eyes,” he said.

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The Associated Press wrote that Michael Kunzelman of Wheaton, Maryland and Maria Chen of London contributed to the report.