Photo copyrights: Sputnik / Russian Defence Ministry
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has told reporters that a Russian made vaccine for CoVid-19 is showing huge promise and that it may be the first vaccine in the world to be distributed on a large scale.
Since the mass outbreak of CoVid-19 in early 2020 hundreds of companies and governments around the world have been searching for a vaccine to prevent the spread of the deadly disease. It is believed by many that until a vaccine is produced and distributed on a mass scale normal life will not return. This is because serological tests have shown so far that less than 10% of people in the worst affected countries have gained any sort of immunity and that the mortality rate sits between 0,5 and 2%. Meaning that should the virus spread uncontrolled the death toll worldwide would be in the tens of millions and cripple national health infrastructures.
Phase 2 trials of the new Russian made vaccine will end on the 3rd of August and then go on to a final stage 3 test. Many countries developing vaccines, such as those in the UK, have had to move their vaccine experiments to harder hit countries, such as Brazil, as the spread of the disease in the UK and other places is now too low for accurate mass community vaccines to be properly tested. It is believed that the Russian vaccine will also be tested in countries where the spread is higher, despite levels of infection in Russia still being at a moderately high-level.
The head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev, stated:
"The third phase will not only take place in Russia, but also in a number of other countries. We expect to receive regulatory approval to start using the Russian vaccine in August-September."
He added, that the vaccine may be:
"… possibly the first vaccine to be approved in the world."
The Russian Ministry of Defence who is involved in the project has stated that none of the participants in the trial have experienced any side-affects after receiving the test vaccine. The RDIF plan to create 30 million vaccines domestically in 2020 and for another 170 million to be made abroad, with the assistance of labs in Saudi Arabia.
Despite this optimism, other vaccines have been thus far believed to be leading the race, notably the Moderna vaccine in the United States and a vaccine developed by Oxford University in the UK. The Oxford vaccine is also starting end-stage trials, and some have even speculated that it could be ready by October 2020. Testing has shown that it produces both an antibody response and a T-cell response and researchers have said they are 80 to 90% certain it will work. Drug firm AstraZeneca is already mass producing the vaccine, even without certainty it will work, and hopes to over the course of a year produce 2 billion vaccines.
China has already authorised one of their vaccines for use in their military.
Regardless of who 'wins' the vaccine race, the most important thing is that all nations work together to bring an end to this devastating pandemic.
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