Vladimir Putin’s daughter a guinea pig of world-first COVID-19 vaccine

Vladimir Putin says a COVID-19 vaccine developed in Russia is ready for use and one of his daughters has been inoculated.

Vladimir Putin announces the breakthrough on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin says a COVID-19 vaccine developed in the country is ready for use and one of his daughters has been inoculated.

Speaking at a government meeting on Tuesday, Mr Putin emphasised that the vaccine underwent the necessary tests and has proven effective, offering a lasting immunity from the coronavirus.

Scientists at home and abroad, however, have been sounding the alarm that the rush to start using the vaccine before phase-three trials that normally last for months and involve thousands of people could backfire.

“This morning, for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the new coronavirus was registered” in Russia, Mr Putin said during a televised video conference call with his ministers.

“One of my daughters had this vaccine. I think in this sense she took part in the experiment.”

The breakthrough came as global caseload topped more than 20 million. At least 20,002,577 cases and 733,842 deaths have now been reported. More than four out of 10 coronavirus cases have been in the US and Brazil, the two most affected countries in the world. While the US has logged 5,075,678 cases and 163,282 deaths, Brazil has recorded 3,057,470 infections and 101,752 deaths.

The pace of the pandemic appears to be stabilising across the world, with an additional one million cases detected roughly every four days since mid-July. It took 94 days for one million infections to be registered, after the announcement of the first official case in China. Eighty-six days later, on June 28, the 10 million barrier was broken. The number of known infections has since doubled in six weeks.

Russia has been pushing hard to quickly develop a coronavirus vaccine and said earlier this month it hoped to launch mass production within weeks and turn out “several million” doses per month by next year.

The World Health Organisation last week urged Russia to follow established guidelines and go “through all the stages” necessary to develop a safe vaccine.

The pandemic has seen an unprecedented mobilisation of funding and research to rush through a vaccine that can protect billions of people worldwide.

Indonesia on Tuesday launched human trials of a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine with some 1600 volunteers slated to take part in the six-month study. The vaccine candidate, produced by Sinovac Biotech, is among just a few in the world to enter Phase 3 clinical trials

The treatment, known as CoronaVac, is already being tested on 9000 health workers in Brazil.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, has been struggling to contain its mounting virus cases, with more than 127,000 confirmed infections and over 5,700 deaths.

But the true scale of the public health crisis is believed to be much bigger, given the Southeast Asian nation’s low testing rates.

AFP