Moscow doctor on Putin vaccine: would not vaccinate in any way

How could I know that? Because the Russian president revealed that one of his daughters had already been vaccinated with this vaccine.

Speaking to Russian state television at the time, Putin claimed his daughters had a slight rise in temperature after each two-stage dose of the coronavirus vaccine, but “now he feels fine.”

The Russian authorities have pointed to teachers and doctors, and have stressed that they are the personnel necessary to be vaccinated with the vaccine before the end of the third phase of human testing.

However, this did not convince the sector of some of these essential services at all: They do not believe Putin’s explanations of the effectiveness of the vaccine and do not want to become test rabbits.

September 1 Classes in Russia for the first time since March, when it closed due to a coronavirus pandemic, received students. That same day, the country crossed the threshold of one million cases of coronavirus. Teachers should therefore be among the first to be contacted about Russia’s new coronavirus vaccine, especially given the close contact with the hundreds of children they experience every day. However, CNN has found that few, if any, have accepted the vaccination offer so far.

The Sputnik-V vaccine, developed at the Gamalay Institute in Moscow, is named after the first artificial earth satellite launched by the Soviet Union. Russia’s claims of victory in the approval of the first coronavirus vaccine during the global pandemic have been met from the beginning with great concern and unanswered questions about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. This reaction was not limited to outside the country.

Russia’s Teachers Union Uchitel has launched an online petition urging union members to abandon vaccination in any case for safety reasons and expressing concern that vaccination, which is currently voluntary, should not be mandatory. until clinical trials are completed.

Differences between reality and promise

Yuri Varlamov, a Moscow teacher and union member, says he doesn’t want to get vaccinated because he doesn’t think the vaccine is safe at the moment.

“The vaccine cannot become mandatory until the studies are completed. But I know that in some schools and state institutions, people say that the vaccine will be mandatory by the end of this year,” explains Varlamov.

Marina Balujeva, one of the presidents of the Učitel union, says that a petition against mandatory vaccination of teachers is more of a precautionary measure.

Balujeva says that Sputnik-V hesitates for several reasons. “First, it is generally known that the quality of domestic vaccines is lower than that of foreign vaccines. Second, the vaccine was developed simply at lightning speed, which is also concerning. It was created in a hurry.” says M. Balujeva.

Despite government promises that vaccination will be possible on a voluntary basis, the woman says she fears that things are actually completely different, as is often the case in Russian state institutions.

According to Balujeva, her union has yet to receive any complaints from teachers about forced vaccination. However, past experience has shown that other vaccines have had such problems, says one of the presidents of the teachers’ union.

Suppose that a formal vaccination against seasonal flu is not mandatory for workers in the Russian education sector; it is an optional subject. However, according to Balujeva, some schools require their staff to be vaccinated.

It will be up to the principal to decide whether penalties will be imposed for refusing to receive the Sputnik-V vaccine. Most schools have so-called “incentive bonds,” a pool of funds that the administration can distribute at its discretion. Some teachers will not be able to receive these benefits if they do not get vaccinated.

Ms. Balujeva is well aware of the consequences of opposing the school administration.

She says she worked successfully as an English teacher for 15 years at a school for children with cerebral palsy in St. Petersburg, but was fired last year for “truancy” because she did not work during school holidays.

This happened shortly after Ms Balujeva publicly stated that teachers’ salaries were lower than those indicated in official documents.

“Teachers are a category whose political rights are very limited, like doctors,” explains the former professor. He added that the temptation to test the vaccine with them is enormous. “It’s cheap and practical, so why shouldn’t the government do it?” Said Balujeva.

Local authorities gave CNN the opportunity to interact with representatives of one of Moscow’s most important public schools, which has some measures, such as tests and mandatory face masks for teachers.

But none of the 1,363 schools I had to speak to on CNN said they had been vaccinated, but they said they would “definitely” do so soon. Assistant Principal Maria Zatolokina said, “I believe that all teachers understand how important it is to be safe and create a safe environment for our students to stay healthy. That is why I hope that we are responsible people and [visi] we have to get vaccinated ”.

Political pressure

Critics of the vaccine, such as Anastasia Vasilyeva, a Russian doctor who has become a prominent activist and ally of opposition leader Alexei Navaln, say the promotion of vaccination in the country is due to pressure from the Kremlin. The Kremlin wants to present Russia as a world scientific force. Navaln is currently being treated at a Berlin hospital after an alleged poisoning attempt in Siberia last month.

“I think the goal is to show that Russia is a big and strong state and Putin is a big and strong president,” Vasilyeva told CNN.

His colleague, a surgeon who works at a hospital in northeast Moscow, told CNN about his concern about the vaccine. Fearing the possible consequences at work of publicly criticizing the vaccine, the doctor agreed to speak only if her identity was not revealed. When he was offered a vaccination in early August, the surgeon began consulting with experts.

“I’m not a vaccine specialist,” admits the man. So he turned to doctors who deal with vaccines, called immunologists. “They said that I would not vaccinate in any way; after all, the vaccine has not been tested,” said the doctor.

According to him, the offer was friendly, there was no pressure, there was no commitment. However, despite the chief physician’s efforts to convince the surgeon that the vaccine was “completely normal, good, amazing,” he still did not want to test it on his fur.

“Please explain to me: how could such a powerful European and international organization have failed to develop a vaccine and the relatively small N. Gamalay Institute succeeded? There is no way I can understand that,” said the surgeon.

He doesn’t know when the vaccine will be delivered to his hospital, but he claimed that only a few of his colleagues would have the courage to refuse the vaccination.

„Totalitarizmas [Rusijoje] it remains. The two most powerless sectors are education and health. In these areas, everything is implemented by force. I was vaccinated against the flu last year; all were told that vaccination was necessary. And they all got vaccinated, because if they don’t get vaccinated, there will be penalties, “said the doctor.

However, it is not only doctors and teachers who are concerned that the hasty development of the Russian vaccine may have missed some important stages in its development.

Polls suggest that about half of Russian citizens have doubts about the vaccine, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said during a video conference with Putin on Friday. He added that after all, two months ago, the figure was almost 90 percent.

Sobianin, who revealed that he had been vaccinated against Sputnik-V, spoke shortly after Russia published peer-reviewed data from the first and second phase of clinical trials in the medical journal The Lancet, suggesting that the Russian vaccine is safe and does not cause serious damage. side effects.

Researchers outside the study say that while these results are a positive sign, only the largest phase III studies can confirm whether the vaccine can actually protect against COVID-19.

Images also appeared of the Russian Defense Minister being vaccinated. Russia appears to be trying to spread the word about the vaccine as widely and loudly as possible after the release of scientific data on the vaccine. However, it will be seen whether the views of the public and essential services staff will also change over time.