Russian Scientists To Launch World’s First Coronavirus Vaccine

As the global pandemic of COVID-19 continues to spread worldwide, scientists and researchers are scuttling to come up with a vaccine to protect millions of people from this deadly virus. This highly contagious virus and its global impact is why the number of fatalities is inching closer to 6 lakh mark while the total number of COVID-19 cases crossing 13 billion. Considering such devastating and alarming numbers, Russia has recently announced the launch of coronavirus vaccine and treatment.

The announcement was carried out by Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund’s head. As per the coronavirus latest update, Russian scientists and medical experts are all set to supply over 30 million doses of novel COVID-19 vaccine by mid-august, reportedly. The initiative of vaccine development has been taken by Russia’s Sechenov University that claims that it is going to be the world’s first-ever vaccine of deadly coronavirus. Another update by the Russian scientists reveals that the country has also made an agreement with a drug Producer Company named AstraZeneca on its prospective vaccine, AZD1222, for COVID-19 treatment.

Expert researchers claim that the country and its medical scientists are done with their testing of this vaccine on volunteers.

A Glance At Clinical Trials Of Coronavirus Vaccine

The country effectively started its vaccine trials in mid-June when the contamination of this virus was at its peak. During this trial, the vaccine was injected in the first phase of 18 volunteers, and the second phase included 23 volunteers. The first dosage of coronavirus among these volunteers was injected at the Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. The volunteers aging between 18 and 65 years were asked to spend over 28 days in isolation. It was done to save the volunteers from catching other possible infections. Such patients will be kept under observation and monitoring for six months after discharge from the medical facility.

WHO On Coronavirus Vaccine Russia

As per the coronavirus vaccine’s latest update, the World Health Organization (WHO) agreement confirms that the COVID-19 vaccine will go through different stages of research before it gets approval for the treatment of affected patients. Besides this, the WHO coronavirus vaccine viewpoint project lists the study of Russian vaccine candidates as the initial phase of vaccine trials. As per the WHO experts, perhaps it has not approved any vaccine for mass use. The reason behind the same is that the approval would not be given without passing the third phase of testing. The third phase of vaccine testing, which is the one that will comprise the most significant number of participants.

The approval will depend on the analysis of the final stage of the testing and decisive evidence of its efficacy and safety; the candidate vaccine will further undergo in industrial production. On July 3, the Russian Ministry of Health confirmed that the coronavirus vaccine supply would depend on the final testing results of the biochemical tests.

Is The Vaccine Candidate Safe?

The head and chief researcher at the Sechenov University stated that the coronavirus vaccine candidate led to some short-term side-effects in some of the tested volunteers during the vaccine trials. The minor side-effects as per the head and chief researchers were minor headaches and low-grade fever. These symptoms in the volunteers were settled down within 24 hours, he added.

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Dosage Of Coronavirus Vaccine And Treatment

The first phase of 18 volunteers was given dosage with the vaccine candidate in June, while the second phase of 20 volunteers was injected in the later month. As per the World Health Organization experts, the vaccine candidate will have to pass three phases of clinical testing effectively before getting the green flag for mass production for public use.

Russian scientists confirm the vaccine’s availability by mid-august and are optimistic about the coronavirus vaccine and treatment. The scientists are also claiming that mass production and supply of the vaccine by the drug makers shall begin by September 2020.

Final Words

It is significant to comprehend that the World Health Organization still does not give a clean chit to the Russian scientists’ vaccine candidate. According to them, it has not yet passed phase 1 of clinical trials and is not ready for large-scale production. For mass supply and production, the vaccine candidate must successfully pass all three phases of human trials (after biochemical trials).