[ad_1]
“Commenting on the accusations against Russia is becoming more and more like a circus,” Peskov said in a conference call with journalists on Friday. “Russia is not misinforming anyone, Russia speaks with pride of its successes and Russia shares its successes regarding the first record [coronavirus] vaccine in the world. ”
“We know that Russia has a track record in this area. We have previously discussed and called them,” Raab said in an interview with Sky News.
“But anyone who basically tries to sabotage the efforts of those trying to develop a vaccine, I think it is deeply reprehensible. It is unacceptable and unjustified under any circumstances.”
The Times said a “whistleblower” “involved in the campaign” passed the images to the newspaper out of concern about the potential harm to public health efforts. The newspaper notes that it is not clear whether the campaign was directly authorized by the Kremlin, but added that “there is evidence that some Russian officials were involved in organizing and disseminating it.”
“Disinformation is an obvious public health risk. This is especially true during the current pandemic that continues to claim tens of thousands of lives, significantly disrupts the way we live and damages the economy,” said Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca. , it’s a statement. statement.
“I urge everyone to use reliable sources of information, to trust regulatory agencies, and to remember the enormous benefits that vaccines and drugs continue to bring to humanity.”
Disinformation is “reckless and despicable behavior that could cause real harm to people’s health,” said a source in Whitehall, the area in central London where key UK ministries are located. “This type of lie fundamentally harms us all around the world and we must be vigilant to identify and counter this type of activity to support the provision of objective information for all people about Covid-19 and vaccines.”
When asked to comment on the article, the Kremlin spokesman in turn accused the UK of spreading disinformation about the Russian vaccine, suggesting it is a testament to unfair competition in the vaccine race.
“Russia already has documents of intention to sell or jointly produce this vaccine in several countries and, of course, in these countries Russia does not shy away from informing [the public] about the advantages of our vaccine, “said Peskov. [producers] What could be called contests, they are the ones dedicated to disinformation, disinformation agents are sitting in the UK, among other places. ”
According to the Times, the campaign was aimed at “countries like India and Brazil, where Russia was trying to market its own vaccine,” as well as Western countries that are developing their own vaccines. To date, the Russian sovereign wealth fund (or RDIF), which sponsors the vaccine, said it reached deals to supply Sputnik V to India and Brazil, among others.
RDIF said it condemns social media attacks on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“We condemn social media posts intended to denigrate the AstraZeneca vaccine described today by The Times. We believe that any attempt to spread any vaccine is wrong, including those against Gamaleya’s Sputnik V vaccine,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO, told CNN. of RDIF, in a statement. statement on Friday. “All vaccines should, of course, be subject to the most rigorous scientific investigation.”
However, the “monkey vaccine” narrative has previously been voiced by Russian officials and state media.
On September 9, following news of a pause in AstraZeneca’s global trials due to an unexplained illness, Dmitry Peskov said that the British vaccine is less safe as it is a “monkey vaccine” while the Russian development is a ” human vaccine “and is believed to be” much more reliable “by Russian scientists.
Raw images showing monkeys with captions like “The monkey vaccine is fine” and similar memes have appeared in Russian state media two days after AstraZeneca announced the hiatus. On September 10, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published an editorial titled “Why the West is Losing the Vaccine Race: Russia Has Been Exposed,” which contained four cartoons about the monkey vaccine with English subtitles.
Since then AstraZeneca has resumed testing in the UK. In the US, the FDA is considering allowing AstraZeneca to restart its trial after a participant became ill. What is at stake is whether the disease was a fluke or could have been related to the vaccine.
The head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund, which is sponsoring the development of Sputnik V, said in September that the company is “delighted” to see AstraZeneca’s trials progressing, but called the approach “unacceptable” due to the ” over-reliance on unverified new products. ” technologies “, including the use of a monkey adenovirus vector or mRNA technology.
In July, however, the RDIF announced that one of its portfolio companies, drug maker R-Pharm, reached an agreement with AstraZeneca to produce the Oxford vaccine in Russia. The announcement came after warnings that Russian-linked actors are attempting to hack into UK, US and Canadian research centers to gather information on vaccine production. Russia denied any involvement.
RDIF chief Kirill Dmitriev told Reuters at the time that Moscow did not need to steal any secrets, as it already had an agreement with AstraZeneca to manufacture the possible British vaccine in Russia.
“Transfer of the adenovirus cell line and vector to Russia has been carried out; it is planned to produce the antigen here and produce the finished doses,” R-Pharm said in a July statement. “At the same time, Russia will be one of the centers for the production and supply of the vaccine to international markets.”
When asked on Friday to comment on whether AstraZeneca’s pause in trials and technology threatens the deal with a Russian producer, Dmitriev said: “One of our portfolio companies is manufacturing the AstraZeneca vaccine. We believe that both the vector approach human adenoviral using Sputnik V as The chimpanzee adenoviral vector approach used by AstraZeneca are both very promising approaches based on a solid scientific basis. ”
Gamaleya is using adenovirus in its Covid-19 vaccines; this is the same approach used in the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. Adenovirus delivers genetic material for the spike protein on top of the virus that causes Covid-19, and that genetic material is designed to generate an immune response to the virus.
Adenoviruses can cause a variety of symptoms, including the common cold. Researchers manipulate the virus so that it does not replicate and cause disease.
The Gamaleya vaccine is given in two doses, and each dose uses a different adenovirus vector.
Russia registered its first Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in August after testing it on 76 volunteers and before large-scale phase 3 trials. The announcement received much fanfare from Russian state media, but generated widespread skepticism from the international community regarding its security and the idea that the approval might have been rushed by political objectives. Sputnik V is now in its test phase 3, which so far has involved 13,000 people and seeks to enroll up to 40,000, according to Russian officials.
AstraZeneca began large-scale phase 3 human clinical trials in August with the goal of enrolling up to 30,000. These trials are the last step before a vaccine manufacturer seeks approval from regulators.
Another vaccine, EpiVacCorona, developed by a former biochemical weapons laboratory, Vector, was registered in Russia this week before undergoing phase 3 testing. The third possible Russian vaccine, from the Chumakov Institute, began phase I trials. last week.
