Putin says he will take Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine when it 'becomes possible' for his age

Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 17 said that he will take the nation-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate ‘Sputnik V’ “when it becomes possible” for people of his age to take it. The 68-year-old leader praised the safety and efficacy of Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine but during the annual end-of-year press conference, he admitted that he had not yet been immunised from the highly infectious disease. Further, he reportedly said, he will be inoculated as per expert advice. 

As per reports, Putin claimed that Russia was the first nation in the world to “invent” and start production of a vaccine with 96-96% efficacy. Russian President in August announced the registration of the Sputnik V naming the COVID-19 vaccine after the Soviet-era satellite, even before the large-scale clinical trials including 40,000 participants. Following the clinical trials, the vaccine’s developers had recently said that the vaccine is more than 90% efficient against COVID-19. Earlier this month, Russia had even started a mass vaccination drive, offering disease initially to people belonging to vulnerable groups. 

Read - Russia’s COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Draws Wary, Mixed Response

Read - Russia's Vaccine Roll-out Draws Wary Response

Russia’s vaccine rollout gets mixed response

Even though more and more nations across the nation have developed a vaccine rollout plan, Russia’s COVID-19 immunisation plan has drawn a reportedly mixed response. While the development of the vaccine by Western nations triggered the exhilarated response, the case was not the same for Russia-made version of the jab. As per Associated Press report, there were also cases of empty Moscow clinics that offered inoculation to medical professionals and teachers, the first ones designated to receive the vaccination. 

Even months ago, following Russia registering the vaccine, it drew criticism from world leaders for rushing the process in a bid to stay ahead in the race to develop a vaccine. With the world being sceptic over hailing the vaccine without the large-scale trials, Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya Institute that developed the vaccine recently said that just last week over 150,000 Russians have received the doses.

“We’ve been working with COVID-19 patients since March, and every day when we come home, we worry about infecting our family members. So when some kind of opportunity to protect them and myself appeared, I thought it should be used,” said, Dr. Alexander Zatsepin, an ICU specialist in Voronezh who received the vaccine in October. 

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