MINSK, 7 July (BelTA) – Mounting evidence suggests that the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Russian Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology is safe and effective, Nature, a leading multidisciplinary science journal, reads, TASS reports.
The journal noted that despite the absence of approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the World Health Organization (WHO), several countries, including South Korea, Argentina and India, are already manufacturing Sputnik V. Many other countries, such as Hungary and Iran, are importing Sputnik V, and it has become a key plank of their vaccination campaigns.
Nature cites data from an April press release of the Gamaleya Institute. The journal points out that the data from 3.8 million Russians vaccinated with two doses point to an efficacy of 97.6%. Figures released by the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Health from some 81,000 individuals who had received two doses of the vaccine, suggested 97.8% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 100% efficacy in preventing severe disease.
The journal also mentions a study from the Ministry of Health in Argentina. The study involved 40,387 vaccinated and 146,194 unvaccinated people aged 60-79. The study found that a single dose of Sputnik Light reduced symptomatic infections by 78.6%, hospitalizations by 87.6% effective and deaths by 84.7%.
Sputnik V was approved in 67 countries with a total population of over 3.5 billion people. The data obtained during vaccination campaigns by public health watchdogs of a number of countries, including Argentina, Serbia, Bahrain, Hungary, Mexico, suggest that Sputnik V is one of the safest and most effective vaccines against coronavirus.
