COVID-19 VACCINE UPDATE : RUSSIA, CHINA ENTER INTO “JOINT TRIALS”, MEXICAN PRESIDENT APPROVES RUSSIAN VACCINE – DETAILED REPORT

According to a report published in South China Morning Post, China has offered to conduct joint human trials of the novel coronavirus vaccines with Russian scientists.

Last week, Russia approved and launched its coronavirus vaccine, named Sputnik V, which was claimed to be the world’s first vaccine. It was approved for use without having gone through a proper channel of trails. According to reports, the final phase III trials were not completed, as testing thousands to understand the possible repercussions of the vaccine was skipped altogether.

Similar to the Russian Vaccine, China had also approved a vaccine without completing stage III trials. However, it was limited to military use only. Further, the Indian Express reported that there are a minimum of six vaccines which are currently being developed in China.

The Morning Post reported that a new joint trial is initiated by a top Chinese respiratory disease expert. Although the joint trials are likely to begin, no mention of which candidate vaccine will undergo trials is unknown. It is also not known if these trials are being planned to take place in Russia or China. Several speculations have been raising regarding the effectiveness and safety of these vaccines as they have not completed all stages yet.

American infectious disease specialist Fauci said, “Having a vaccine… and proving that a vaccine is safe and effective are two different things. So, 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. But that’s not the way this works.”

Meanwhile, the President of Mexico said that he will get the Russian Vaccine for himself. He was quoted saying, “I would be the first to be vaccinated,” by Reuters on Monday.