On January 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin a nationwide inoculation against COVID-19 with the Russian-manufactured Sputnik V vaccine.
He claimed that Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) provides the best protection and safety compared to any other coronavirus vaccine worldwide.
"The Russian vaccine — it is now completely obvious, and now the actual application shows that it is, overall the best one worldwide," Putin said.
"No other preparations of a similar kind demonstrate such a level of protection and such a degree of safety.”
Putin’s claims are unsubstantiated.
There is as yet no evidence that Sputnik V provides better protection and safety than other vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed nearly 2 million people within a single year.
In a regular , the scientific evaluation and assessment of its efficacy, safety, potential flaws and side effects can take years.
With the pandemic death toll rising, the World Health Organization allowed manufacturers to accelerate the study and assessment stage and expedite vaccine rollouts right after final clinical trials. Putin’s claim cannot be verified because long-term data is not available.
Some two dozen countries vaccinations in mid-December, and more than 32 million people globally received doses of one of the several vaccine versions available by mid-January, according to the tracking site Our World in Data.
While Russia was the first country to approve its vaccine in August 2020, reportedly prior to completing its final clinical trial phase, mass vaccinations did not start until December.
is a two-shot vaccine delivered with three weeks between doses.
Sputnik V developer Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology that 22,714 people had volunteered for the Sputnik V clinical trial by December, and its efficacy rate was 91.4 %. (Efficacy measures the percentage of reduction in cases of disease compared to a group that did not receive a vaccine.)
Meanwhile, the vaccine Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases showed a 94.1% efficacy rate in its final phase 3 clinical study, which involved 30,000 participants. The vaccine proved 100% effective against “severe” COVID-19, Moderna said.
The BioNTech and Pfizer vaccine 95% efficacy in a study involving 43,661 participants.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine AZD1222 proved to be 70.4% effective, according to the results of a peer reviewed study based on a trial of 11,636 participants. The that figure could be “as high as 90% by tweaking the dose.”
The so-called “Oxford jab” is also cheaper and easier to store, making it better suited for global distribution.
China’s Sinovac Biotech vaccine has reported widely , with efficacy rates ranging from 50.4% to 91.25% depending on the trial.
Most SARS-CoV-2 vaccines require two shots. Johnson & Johnson to roll out a coronavirus vaccine in March.
The company efficacy rates exceeding 90%, and phase 3 clinical trial data for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is expected by late January.
Another selling point of vaccines is their storage temperatures. AZD1222, for example, can be refrigerator temperature of 2-8°C.
The by contrast, needs to be stored at -70°C, although Pfizer says it can be stored at 2-8°C for up to five days.
The Moderna vaccine may be stored at temperatures between -25°C and -15°C.
While the frozen version of the Sputnik V must be stored at -18°C, production of a version that can be stored at 2-8°C is expected to ramp up next month.
Cost is also an issue.
Sputnik V is set to sell for $10 per dose. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also $10 per dose, but only requires one shot. The Pfizer vaccine is sold for $19.50 per dose, while the Moderna vaccine price ranges from $25-$37 per dose.
The Sinovac Biotech vaccine has previously been administered for $60 in China. However, one Indonesian pharmaceutical firm contracted to buy the Chinese-made vaccine said it $13.60 per dose.
The Oxford vaccine, by contrast, is priced at $3-4 dollars per dose.
In the U.S., the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are initially by the government and are free to U.S. citizens. The U.S. government has also signed a contract to buy up to 300 million doses from Astrazeneca to be provided at no cost to U.S. citizens.
Sputnik V is also being provided to Russian citizens free of charge. When administering the Sinovac vaccine in October 2020, local health officials in the Chinese city of Jiaxing on whether the cost was being subsidized.