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(CNN) – Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the approval of Russia’s Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine on August 11 amid much fanfare, saying that it works “quite effectively” to form stable immunity.
How was I to know this? Because the Russian president revealed that one of his daughters had already taken him away.
Speaking to Russian state television at the time, Putin said his daughter had a slightly higher temperature after each dose of the two-stage coronavirus vaccine, but that she “feels fine now.”
Russian authorities have singled out teachers, as well as doctors, as key workers who will have access to the vaccine first, even before the phase 3 human trials have ended.
But that did not sit well with some sections of these front-line workers who do not buy into Putin’s claims about the efficacy of the vaccine and are reluctant to be used as human guinea pigs.
On September 1, Russian classrooms reopened for the first time since March amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the same day the country surpassed one million coronavirus cases. Teachers were to be among the first to benefit from Russia’s new coronavirus vaccine, especially given the close contact with hundreds of children they are exposed to on a daily basis. But CNN is learning that few, if any, have so far accepted the offer to get vaccinated.
Developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute, the Sputnik-V vaccine got its name from the surprise launch in 1957 of the world’s first satellite by the Soviet Union.
Russia’s claim of victory by being the first to approve a coronavirus vaccine in a global pandemic was initially met with widespread concern and unanswered questions about its safety and efficacy, and not just from outside the country.
A Russian teachers’ union, “Uchitel”, started an online petition asking members to reject the vaccine for safety reasons and expressing concern that vaccination, currently voluntary, should not be mandatory unless clinical trials are complete.
Reality may differ from promises
Yuri Varlamov, a teacher in Moscow and a member of the union, said he does not want to get vaccinated because he does not think it is safe at the moment.
“Before the end of the trials, they can’t make it mandatory. But I know that in some schools and state bodies, people are talking about the mandatory status of this vaccine by the end of this year,” Varlamov said.
Marina Balouyeva, co-president of the union “Uchitel”, said that a petition against mandatory vaccination for teachers was more of a precaution.
Balouyeva said she distrusts Sputnik-V for several reasons. “First, it is generally known that the quality of domestic vaccines is worse than that of foreign ones,” she said.
“Second, the vaccine was created at railroad speed, which already raises concerns. It was created in a hurry.”
Despite promises from the authorities that receiving the vaccine will be voluntary, he said he fears that things may be different in reality, as is often the case in Russian state institutions.
Balouyeva said that no complaints have yet been made to her union by teachers claiming they are forcing them to get vaccinated. However, previous experience indicates that there have been such problems with other vaccines, he says.
For example, officially, the seasonal flu vaccine is not mandatory for Russian educational workers, it is voluntary. But according to Balouyeva, some schools demand it of their employees without fail.
Whether there will be penalties for those who are unwilling to get vaccinated with Sputnik-V is up to the director. Most schools have a so-called “incentive bond”, a fund of money that the administration can distribute as it sees fit. Some teachers could be deprived of this payment if they do not receive the vaccine.
Balouyeva is very familiar with the consequences of going against the school administration.
After working successfully for 15 years as an English teacher at a correctional school for children with cerebral palsy in St. Petersburg, Balouyeva says she was fired last year for an “unexplained absence” for not working during school holidays.
It happened shortly after she publicly said that teachers’ salaries were lower than the figures published in official documents.
“Teachers are a very disenfranchised category, just like doctors,” said the former teacher, adding that the temptation to test the vaccine on them is immense. “It’s cheap and practical, why not do it, from the authorities’ point of view?”
Local authorities gave CNN access to one of the best public schools in Moscow, where some measures have been implemented, such as tests and teachers with masks.
But no one CNN spoke to at School 1363 said they had been vaccinated, although they say they “definitely” will 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 be healthy. That is why I hope we are responsible people, and we should [all] be vaccinated “.
Political pressure
Critics like Anastasia Vasilyeva, a Russian doctor who became a prominent activist and ally of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, say the country’s push for a vaccine comes amid political pressure from the Kremlin, which wants to portray Russia. Russia as a world scientific force. Navalny is currently being treated at a Berlin hospital after an alleged poisoning attempt in Siberia last month.
“I think it is to show that Russia is a great strong country, that Putin is a great president,” Vasilyeva told CNN.
His colleague, a surgeon at a hospital in northeast Moscow, shared his concerns about the vaccine with CNN, strictly on condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions at work if he spoke out publicly against the vaccine. When she was offered the vaccine in early August, she began consulting with experts.
“I am not a specialist in vaccines,” he admits. “So, I called the doctors who deal with the vaccines, I called the immunologists. They told me: ‘don’t do it, no way, the vaccine is raw.’
It was a friendly offer, he says, without pressure, without obligations. But as much as the deputy chief physician tried to persuade the surgeon that the vaccine is “perfectly normal, good, amazing,” the physician was still reluctant to try it on himself.
“Explain to me: how is it possible that such powerful European and international organizations cannot do it, but a relatively small Gamaleya Institute can? I cannot understand it,” said the surgeon.
He did not know when the vaccine would be delivered to his hospital, but said that very few of his colleagues would have the courage to refuse it.
“Totalitarianism remains [in Russia]. The two most underprivileged sectors are education and health. Here everything is done with force. Last year I got the flu shot, everyone was told to get vaccinated. And they all did, because if you don’t, there will be penalties. “
But it was not just doctors and teachers who expressed concern that Russia may have taken essential shortcuts in development.
Polls suggest that about half of Russian citizens have doubts about the vaccine, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said during a video conference with Putin on Friday. However, he added that two months ago the figure was almost 90%.
Sobyanin, who revealed that he had been vaccinated with Sputnik-V, spoke moments after Russia published its peer-reviewed data from phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials in The Lancet medical journal, suggesting that the vaccine Russian has a good safety profile and did not produce serious adverse side effects.
Scientists who were not involved in the study said that while the results are a positive sign, only the largest Phase 3 trials can confirm whether the vaccine actually prevents Covid-19 disease.
The Russian Defense Minister was also shown being shot. It seems that Russia’s messages about the vaccine have accelerated after the publication of its scientific data. It remains to be seen whether the tide of public opinion and front-line workers will also turn over time.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Putin’s vaccine meets opposition from frontline workers in Russia.”
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