Nataliya Vasilyeva, a correspondent for The Telegraph receives an injection of the Sputnik V vaccine
Credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr
Moscow unveiled the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine on December 5, and at first it was only offered to emergency workers and teachers.
But as of this week the vaccine, which has yet to complete clinical trials, was made available for other professions, including journalists, so I put my name down for it.
I signed up for a Sputnik V jab online and headed to my local state-run clinic in a Stalin-era building, on a Saturday morning.
As I arrived, I knew I wouldn’t be stuck in a long queue — a recent survey found that 52 per cent of Russians do not want to receive the vaccine due to safety concerns.
The clinic, with its creamy walls and Nineties furnishings, had clearly missed out on Moscow’s recent campaign to spruce up its state-run healthcare centres.
After signing a disclaimer saying that I was aware of possible side-effects I was given a check-up by an attentive young female doctor and taken to the room with the bright green sign, “vaccination for civilians."
A medical worker talks with our reporter Nataliya Vasilyeva as she receives the Russian vaccine
Credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr
Before I had the time to ask if it was going to hurt, a middle-aged nurse in heavy make-up had injected the coronavirus vaccine into my left shoulder, leaving no mark.
I am one of only a handful of people receiving the vaccine, and tens of thousands of unused doses are sitting in freezers at a nearby clinic.
Russians, who harbour a deep-seated distrust towards the government and anxieties about the safety of the virus, have not been eager to be innoculated.
Even though coronavirus kills around 70 people every day in Moscow, my local clinic has received such little demand that it must carefully arrange appointments in batches of five. This is so that the vaccine bottle’s five doses can be used up quickly, before they warm up and become unusable.
Dr Dmitry Kulnev, head of the clinic, says that they have received enough doses to immunise nearly 1,600 people, but have not used them up yet, even though their catchment area is about 24,000 people.
Nevertheless, the clinic is continuing to place orders and hopes to eventually overcome skepticism about the Russian jab.
“People are scared of possible side-effects but as they begin to see more and more people who’ve taken the vaccine and feel fine, the attitude is changing,” Dr Kulnev says.
Clinical trials, which are still underway, have shown that Sputnik V is 90 per cent effective, a similar rate of success to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
While data from Phrase I and Phase II clinical trials is promising, there were concerns about the relatively small sample size of coronavirus patents, which was just 20 compared to Pfizer’s 94.
Last week, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, announced a partnership between Sputnik V and AstraZeneca to test a combination of the two jabs, a long-awaited vote of confidence vote in the Russian-made vaccine.
And, in a significant publicity coup for the Kremlin, Russia recently delivered 300,000 doses of the vaccine to Argentina, which is expected to start its own immunisation drive in January. There are also distribution and production deals pending with other countries.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, says he will receive his own vaccine jab in the near future
Credit: Reuters
About 300,000 people have already received Sputnik V in Russia which posted a record-high number of new infections, just shy of 30,000, on Thursday.
The sluggish start to the vaccination highlights the public’s lack of trust in Russian science, as well as in their government.
Mr Putin’s apparent reluctance to be among the first to receive the vaccine, combined with some confusing Russian government advice to the public, has not helped to change those attitudes.
It was only on Sunday that Mr Putin at last confirmed he would receive the jab, with a spokesman announcing that “he said he will be vaccinated, he made this decision and was waiting until all formalities are completed."
Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, also announced on Sunday that all Russians over 60 can begin applying for the virus from Monday.
Based on my experience in receiving the vaccine, I do have one piece of advice for the president — if Russians continue to spurn the vaccine, he needn’t worry about spending too long in the waiting room.
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