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Scientists express concern after Russia gives its go-ahead before full trials to test safety and efficacy have been completed.
Moscow has begun vaccinating workers at high risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus at newly opened clinics across the city.
The distribution of the Sputnik V COVID-19 injection began through 70 clinics on Saturday, marking Russia’s first mass vaccination against the disease.
The vaccine, made in Russia, would first be made available to doctors and other medical workers, teachers and social workers because they had the highest risk of exposure to the disease.
A nurse wearing a mask proceeds to vaccinate against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with the Sputnik V vaccine at a clinic in Moscow amid the ongoing coronavirus disease pandemic. [Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP]
It works similarly to the vaccine being developed by the Oxford-AstraZeneca team in the UK, using other viruses to deliver molecules of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 into human bodies to stimulate an immune response.
It is given in two injections 21 days apart.
The move comes as Russia reported a record 28,782 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, including 7,993 in Moscow, bringing the national total to 2,431,731 since the pandemic began.
Authorities confirmed 508 COVID-19-related deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the official death toll to 42,684 nationwide.
A man and a woman wearing face masks to protect against the coronavirus disease walk through Zaryadye Park, with the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower and St. Basil’s Cathedral in the background, in central Moscow [File: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP]
“During the first five hours, 5,000 people signed up for the jab: teachers, doctors, social workers, those who today are risking their health and their lives the most,” Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on his personal website on Friday.
Al Jazeera’s Aleksandra Godfroid, reporting from Moscow, said there is an allotted time for each patient.
“The first 10 minutes are for a general health check,” he said. “The next 15 minutes are to prepare the vaccine because you have to keep it at -18 ° C, and then half an hour to observe the person.”
Those who will receive the vaccine must return in three weeks for their second injection.
“According to Russian officials, they should develop their full immunity after 42 days,” he added.
The age for those who receive vaccines is limited to 60 years. People with certain underlying health conditions, pregnant women, and those who have had a respiratory illness in the past two weeks cannot get vaccinated.
Skepticism about vaccines
Russia has developed two COVID-19 vaccines: Sputnik V is backed by Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and another developed by the Siberian Vector Institute.
Final tests for both have not yet been completed.
Scientists have raised concerns about the speed at which Russia has worked, giving regulatory go-ahead for its vaccines and launching mass vaccines before full trials were completed to test safety and efficacy.
“The skepticism around this stems from the fact that it has developed very rapidly and appears to be targeting the general population much earlier than it would if it had developed, say in the UK,” said Simon Clarke, Professor assistant at the University of Reading.
“Because they have used such small study groups, claiming 95 percent efficacy at this stage may be a bit premature,” he added. “It should be remembered that they are not administering it to people over the age of 60 and, in fact, they are the highest risk group.”
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