Aussie experts reveal why we shouldn’t believe the hype on Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine
Melbourne scientists have questioned Russia’s claims that it has created a COVID-19 vaccine, suggesting President Vladimir Putin wants to win the vaccination race at any cost. But there is hope on the horizon for an effective immunisation.
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Melbourne scientists have raised eyebrows over Russia’s first coronavirus vaccine, suggesting the country was more concerned about being first rather than creating the most effective COVID-19 immunisation.
President Vladimir Putin plans to vaccinate Russians en masse by October with ‘Sputnik V’, yet local immunology experts say the process had been “fast-tracked very quickly”.
But they said Australians would most likely see a coronavirus vaccine within the next 12 to 18 months — and in a best-case scenario, by the end of the year.
Doherty Institute’s Professor Dale Godfrey is currently working with scientists to create a COVID-19 vaccine and said the process was a lengthy one.
“Normally, vaccines take several years from start to phase 1 trials, and the trials can take additional years,” he said.
“There are quite a few (other institutes) who are well ahead of that, in part because they have been working on other coronavirus vaccines like SARS and MERS up until that point.”
More than 160 institutes and companies are working on a COVID-19 vaccine around the world and only eight are in phase 3 trials including Oxford University, US company Moderna, a joint venture between US company Pfizer and Germany’s BioNtech and Chinese-based canSino.
Prof Godfrey said Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute had yet to begin phase 3 clinical trials on the vaccine — which was a crucial step in testing a vaccine’s efficacy.
“It seems Russia wants to be the first to put out a vaccine for general widespread use. They say they have passed phase 1 and 2 trials, but haven’t published any of their results so we can’t really assess how their vaccine stacks up against others” Prof Godfrey said.
“While they may have found the vaccine isn’t dangerous and not causing any serious side effects, the gamble is the level of safety when you start immunising more broadly.”
Monash University head of microbiology professor Stephen Turner said Australia’s best hopes for a vaccine lay in securing a licence to manufacture an overseas vaccine or to develop our own.
Both options appear feasible as the Doherty Institute is in preclinical trials and the University of Queensland has entered phase one.
“The silver lining in all of this is coronavirus is relatively stable virus and doesn’t mutate at the same rate the flu does,” Prof Turner said.
“While I don’t think it’ll be a cure, there is enough to suggest the vaccine will work. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
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