The overall number of global coronavirus cases has crossed the 20 million-mark – 20,521,644 to be specific, while the death toll has reached 745,918. The US accounted for the world’s highest number of infections and fatalities at 5,085,821 and 162,919, respectively. The World is looking forward to the known remedy – a vaccine, and yet when one was announced, Scientists have poured scorn !!
Katerina
Tikhonova is a Russian acrobatic dancer,
and director of two initiatives at Moscow State University: the National
Intellectual Development Foundation (NIDF) and the National Intellectual
Reserve Centre (NIRC). Her sister is in
news! More so because – she has had immunization with the latest vaccine !
and she is the daughter of Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Vladimirovich
Putin (1952) is a former officer of the KGB who has served as
President of Russia since 2012, previously holding the position from 1999 until
2008. He was also the Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from
2008 to 2012.
Putin was born in
Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and studied law at Leningrad State University,
graduating in 1975. Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16
years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, before resigning in 1991 to
begin a political career. He later moved to Moscow in 1996 to join the
administration of President Boris Yeltsin. He served as Director of the Federal
Security Service (FSB) and Secretary of the Security Council, before being
appointed as Prime Minister in Aug 1999. After the resignation of Yeltsin,
Putin became Acting President, and less than four months later was elected outright
to his first term as president and was reelected in 2004.
During his first tenure as
president, the Russian economy grew for eight straight years, with GDP measured
by purchasing power increasing by 72%, real incomes increased by a factor of
2.5, real wages more than tripled; unemployment and poverty more than halved
and the Russians' self-assessed life satisfaction rose significantly. The growth was a result of a five-fold
increase in the price of oil and gas which constitute the majority of Russian
exports, recovery from the post-Communist depression and financial crises, a
rise in foreign investment,and prudent economic and fiscal policies.
He is seen as a
charismatic macho man – few years back, he was
awarded the highest rank in taekwondo, giving him honorary grandmaster
status. It meant that the fit President attained a higher ranking than former
US martial artist Chuck Norris. The actor has an eight-degree black belt, while
Mr Putin has a ninth-degree. Putin also holds a black belt in Judo and has been
awarded an eighth Dan in the martial art by the International Judo Federation.
Now read the
article in MailOnline – the caption itself shows the prejudice – ‘Global scientists pour scorn on Putin's 'reckless, foolish and
unethical' claim that Russia has won Covid-19 vaccine race
with 'Sputnik V' jab already given to his daughter which he claims offers 'two
years' immunity' but has not been fully tested.
Vladimir Putin was savaged by scientists today for his 'reckless and
foolish' claim that Russia has developed the world's first effective
coronavirus vaccine.
Putin says the vaccine
offers 'sustainable immunity' against Covid-19 and says his daughter has
already been given the jab, with Russia eyeing up mass injections as soon as
October - causing widespread alarm because it has not yet passed clinical
trials. One scientist blasted Putin's
move as 'unethical' because an 'improperly tested vaccine' could have
'disastrous' effects on public health, while others warned that there is 'no
data' to tell whether the Russian vaccine is effective. Another expert warned
that 'the damage from release of any vaccine that was less than safe and
effective would exacerbate our current problems insurmountably'. While small trials can show whether a vaccine
is likely to be safe, the usually months-long Phase III tests which measure its
effectiveness have not yet taken place, while the WHO has not yet granted
approval for the jab.
Nonetheless,
Russia claims that 20 countries have already ordered a billion doses of the
vaccine, which has been named Sputnik V after the former Soviet space
satellites. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has already
struck a deal for millions of doses while India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia have
previously expressed an interest in the drug, according to Russian officials. The
Kremlin and its state-controlled media have touted Russian scientists as global
pioneers and turned the vaccine race into a matter of national prestige -
leading to fears that safety could be compromised for the sake of Russia's
image.
Putin said
one of his daughters Maria and Katerina had
been injected with a coronavirus vaccine. Reports in Russia say it was the
younger Katerina who was inoculated. The Russian jab is a type
called a viral vector vaccine, meaning it uses
another virus to carry the immune agent - damaged parts of the real
coronavirus, which can trigger a reaction but not cause an infection - into
human cells. Putin's vaccine uses an adenovirus, a type of virus best known for
causing the common cold, which has been weakened so it cannot trigger illness. Oxford
University's vaccine candidate uses the same method. Russia claims the jab sped
through early trials on monkeys and humans, known as Phase I and II trials, and
was safe and effective at producing antibodies against Covid-19.
According to some reports, there are currently 19 vaccines that have been tested for the ability to generate antibody (Phase I), another 11 that have passed this stage and gone on to expended testing (Phase II), eight at Phase III and one vaccine approved for limited use. Speaking at a government meeting today, Putin claimed that the vaccine has undergone proper testing and been proven safe to use. 'I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests,' he said. 'The most important thing is to ensure full safety of using the vaccine and its efficiency.'
Putin said his daughter
had a temperature of 100F (38C) on the day of the first vaccine injection,
which then dropped to 99F (37C) on the following day. After the second shot she again had a slight
increase in temperature, but then it was all over, Putin said. He did not reveal whether it was his daughter
Maria or Katerina who received the vaccine. However, reports in Russia said it
was the younger Katerina who was inoculated. Further reports last month claimed
that some of Russia's business and political elite had been given access to
experimental vaccines as long ago as April. The Russian president said he hoped the
country would soon start mass producing the vaccine. Russia has suffered nearly 900,000 coronavirus
cases, but the daily infection rate has been slowly falling for several months.
Billionaire tycoons and government
officials began getting jabs developed by the state-run Gamaleya Institute in
Moscow in the spring, sources told Bloomberg.
Sputnik or
спутник literally means 'fellow traveller', but has held a special
place in Russian history. Sputnik was the first-ever artificial Earth satellite
launched mankind. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth
orbit on 4 Oct 1957. At the time, Sputnik was an invention way ahead of its
time and had left the USSR’s then adversary USA in a state of shock. Sputnik
gave birth to the space age. The successful launch shocked the world, giving
the former Soviet Union the distinction of putting the first human-made object
into space.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
12.8.2020
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