After demanding March 8 an apology from Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency [EMA] Christ Wirthuumer-Hoche for disparaging the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine,. The Russian Federation got some good news today that it’s being reconsidered for use in the EU. Wirthhumer-Hoche called Sputnik V “Russian roulette,” due to the sparse Phase 3 trial data, unlike vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, supplying plenty of data But the proof is in the pudding, because Sputnik V has been reviewed carefully Feb. 2 by the British Journal Lancet and found safe-and-effective at about 92%. With the EU lagging behind the U.S. in vaccine delivery, the EMA can no longer justify disparaging a proven vaccine in Sputnik V. Putin introduced Sputnik V Nov. 11, 2020, the first Covid-19 vaccine to hit the market, over one month before Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
European Union has the responsibility of 450 million citizens across the vast Western and Eastern European continent. EU officials got some bad news with the U.K-based AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine creating blood clots in some patients, for the EMA and other regulatory bodies to pause the vaccine. EMA regulators have reconsidered Sputnik V after falsely condemning the product over its lack of Phase 3 trial data. Several EU countries, including Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia to order Sputnik V vaccines directly from Moscow-based Gamaleya Sciences, the Russian vaccine maker. Several EU countries, including France and Italy, have ramped up shutdowns in the absence of widespread vaccine availability. Western vaccine makers, Pfizer and Moderna, have not delivered the quantities yet to the EU to assure timely vaccine delivery to its citizens.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel have spent weeks slamming Russian President Vladimir Putin for his treatment of 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny, currently serving out a two-year-eight-month sentence at a penal colony some 50 miles east of Moscow. Germany has warned recently about a third wave of Covid-19 unless the government starts a widespread vaccination program. Von der Leyen and Michel have tried to isolate Putin for several years since the Russian Federation annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014. At the time, NATO did nothing to defend Ukraine, nor did the Obama administration offer military assistance to help return Crimea. Italy’s ReiThera vaccine plant was considering licensing Sputnik V for manufacturing injections in Italy to make up the gap in supply shortages.
For the EU and U.S. it’s embarrassing that Putin has produced a safe-and-effective Covid-19 vaccine before anyone else. While Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna look to supply the U.S. government, the EU has been left with supply shortages, prompting China’s SinoPharm to try to make up supply gaps. Unlike SinoPharm, Sputnik has no downsides, in terms to its 92% efficacy but also its safety protocol. China’s SinoPharm has an efficacy rate of around 60%, enough to satisfy the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA]. Von der Leyen questioned why Russia would export more of its vaccines when its not extensively distributed in Russia. “We should not let ourselves be misled by China and Russia, both regimes with less desirable values than ours, as they organize highly limited but widely publicized operations to supply vaccines to others,” Michel said.
Von der Leyen and Michel’s public remarks prove an undeniable anti-Russian and anti-Chinese bias, when both countries have beat the EU to the punch when it comes to Covid-19 vaccines. Von der Leyen and Michel have been forced to eat their words, now that the EU is hopelessly behind in vaccine delivery. Lancet’s Feb. 2 paper on the 92% efficacy and safety to Sputniik V started to change thinking in the EU. Former European Central Bank Chairman Mario Draghi, now Prime Minister of Italy, said the EU must do more to bring more vaccines to the continent. Italy has far less anti-Russia bias than Germany and France, both buy Russian natural gas and petroleum but somehow make exceptions when it comes to vaccines. “If a vaccine works and the regulators tell that it is safe, nationality is of little interest to me. Italy is ready to collaborate with the Russian government,” said Italy’s Health Minister.
Time for vaccines politics has long passed, demanding the Von der Leyen and Michel accept the fact that the EU needs more vaccines. Whether they ordered $1.3 billion does of Pfizer-BionNTech or Moderna, they need vaccines urgently to stop a possible third wave of the deadly novel coronavirus. Russia’s RDF sovereign wealth fund already signed agreements with India, Brazil and Argentina. If Italy’s ReiThera agrees with Draghi’s backing to start making Sputnik V in Italy, it would be a huge boost for Sputnik V as one of the world’s best Covid-19 vaccines. Splits in Brussels over the use of Sputnik V has been exposed, with several countries ordering Sputnik V vaccines directly from Gamaleya Sciences. Instead of squabbling over extraneous political matters, the EMA should proceed to corroborate Lancet’s findings and grant emergency authorization to Sputnik V.
