The Russian Fund for Direct Investments (Rdif) presented the results of the vaccination campaign with Sputnik V in San Marino and declares itself ready to provide a large quantity of doses to also support a “vaccine tourism” initiative and make so that, pending a green light from the international regulatory bodies, anyone who wants to get immunized with the Russian vaccine can go and do so in San Marino.
Data from the San Marino vaccination campaign
“The daily statistics of the number of cases show that the vaccination campaign with Sputnik V has allowed San Marino to eliminate the cases”. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Rdif.
According to what Dmitriev reported from April 27 in San Marino there are no more deaths and from May 4 not even new cases. “San Marino is the first country – small it is true, but it is still a country – to have defeated Covid in Europe. They were courageous. San Marino is the example – together with Israel – that the vaccination campaign works, in real terms. It is a positive example for the world. And it is for Sputnik V, because 90% of vaccinations in San Marino were done with our vaccine “.
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“These results – he continues – demonstrate the effectiveness of Sputnik V against the British strain that is spreading in Europe, even in neighboring Italy. In San Marino, 74% of the population aged 16 and over was vaccinated with the first dose of a Covid vaccine and “90% of these vaccinations were carried out with Sputnik V”.
Moscow, concluded Dmtriev, is ready to “provide other doses” to San Marino if it decides to open its vaccination campaign to “non-residents”, whether they are frontier workers or, in a second phase, tourists.
The times for the approval of the EMA
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) launched the review procedure in March, i.e. the evaluation of production data, the analysis of the medical records of the volunteers who participated in the trials and the inspection of the production facilities. The verdict could arrive by June: if Ema’s verdict is positive, the Moscow vaccine can also be used for European citizens. According to Dmitriev, some European and Italian regions have in any case already started negotiations for the supply. “We are ready to deliver doses for 50 million people to Europe between June, July and August. If Europe wants to”. The doses in question “will be produced entirely in Russia”, in a center “visited by the EMA”, and not in other non-European countries such as India or South Korea, assured the CEO of Rdif.
For Moscow, “it is an important case because it demonstrates how” the battle against Covid “is not about political issues or propaganda, but only the possibility of saving lives”.
Data skepticism
The announcement of the recording of Sputnik V aroused the suspicions of international experts also because Gamaleja had not shared the data of Phase 1 and 2 of his experiment (published on The Lancet only at the end of September 2020), based on a sample of only 38 cases, and had not even started Phase 3 which was to involve tens of thousands of volunteers.
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The fears that the rush to create the vaccine and its geopolitical significance could have put aside the primary attention to efficacy and safety were allayed only after a study by The Lancet set the effectiveness of Sputnik V against symptomatic forms at 91.6%.
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