In the latest move, the Russian health officials onThursday approved the use of a single-dose version of the Sputnik V Covid-19vaccine.
In a statement issued by the Russian DirectInvestment Fund, which helped finance the vaccine said, “Sputnik Light showed79.4% efficacy”, compared to 79.4% of two shots of Sputnik V.
It further added that the results were drawn from “datataken 28 days after the injection was administered as part of Russia’s massvaccination drive between 5 December 2020 and 15 April 2021.”
It may be noted here that the Russian vaccine againstthe contagious coronavirus has been approved for use in more than 60 countries.However, it has not received approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA)or the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The rationale behind this could be that some Westernnations are enraged by the vaccine name ‘Sputnik V’ which has been named afterthe Soviet-era satellite fearing thatthe Kremlin would use it as a soft power tool to advance its interests.
According to the leading vaccine studies, Sputnik Vtwo doses has shown over 90 percent efficacy in August 2020 before thelarge-scale clinical trials. Presently, the third-phase trials of vaccinetrials concluded in February in which 7,000 people were inoculated. Theirinterim results are expected this year, said the developer of the Russian vaccine ‘GamaleyaResearch Institute,’
It may be reiterated here that over 20 millionpeople across the globe have already received their first jab of Sputnik V.