IS RUSSIAN VACCINE SAFE TO USE? EXPERTS NOTICE NEW PROBLEMS IN VACCINE! DETAILS

Russia is planning to release “Sputnik-V” before the completion of trials. This has led to concerns being raised by virus experts who warn that this move might encourage COVID-19 to mutate.

Viruses like the novel coronavirus are infamously known for their ability to mutate and often it does not pose a lot of risk but at the same time scientists are worried that adding “evolutionary pressure” to the pathogen by deploying a vaccine which is not fully protective might worsen things.

“Less than complete protection could provide a selection pressure that drives the virus to evade what antibody there is, creating strains that then evade all vaccine responses,”  Ian Jones, a virology professor at Britain’s Reading University told Hindustan Times..

“In that sense, a poor vaccine is worse than no vaccine, ”Jones added.

The developers of the vaccine as well as investors are positive that the vaccine is safe and the two months of small- scale human trials prove that the vaccine is efficient.

However, since the results have not been released for public to view, experts are sceptical about the efficiency of the vaccine.

Russia announced on Thursday that it is planning to commence a large- scale efficacy trial of the vaccine in a total of 40,000 people but it has also decided to begin distribution of the vaccine among high- risk groups.

Jones highlighted that vaccine-induced viral mutations are “a rare outcome”. “If (a vaccine) is completely sterilizing, the virus can’t get in, so it can’t learn anything because it never gets a chance,” he said.

“But if it gets in and replicates ... there is selection pressure for it to evade whatever antibodies have been generated by the inefficient vaccine. And you don’t know what the outcome of that will be,” he added.