Putin Announces Approval Of A 2nd Unproven Coronavirus Vaccine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the approval of a second new coronavirus vaccine in as many months – but neither has completed the kind of extensive and rigorous three-phase trials required in the U.S.

Speaking during a televised news conference, Putin said the new vaccine developed by Siberian biotech company Novosibirsk's Vektor [State Virology and Biotechnology Center], a former Soviet-era bioweapons lab.

Large-scale studies, such as those required for vaccines developed in the U.S., are designed to assess not only if a vaccine works, but whether it is free from dangerous side effects that might only show up once millions of people are immunized.

EpiVacCorona, described as a "peptide-based shot," has yet to even begin such trials and its "registration" — a bureaucratic procedure undertaken by the Russian Health Ministry, which amounts to regulatory approval — is likely to be viewed as risky, at best.

Early trials of the latest vaccine on 100 volunteers were successful, Putin said. He also said that Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova and the head of Russia's consumer safety watchdog, Anna Popova, had both received the vaccine known as EpiVacCorona.