Russia’s Sputnik vaccine is more than 91% effective, study finds
The Sputnik V vaccine developed in Russia and controversially approved for use in the country in August is more than 91% effective against COVID-19, according to study results published Tuesday in a prestigious British medical journal.
The findings suggest that another powerful quiver has been added to the global fight against the pandemic.
The Lancet, which released the results, reported that the vaccine did not appear to provoke severe side-effects in a trial of more than 20,000 participants.
The peer-reviewed study conducted across 25 Russian medical centers found the low-cost shot to be highly effective across age groups, including in people over the age of 60.
By last week, more than a dozen countries had approved the vaccine, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which backed its development.
Russia faced criticism in the summer when it authorized the shot for use before clinical trial data emerged. But a pair of virologists said in The Lancet that the new results were unambiguous.
“The development of the Sputnik V vaccine has been criticized for unseemly haste, corner cutting, and an absence of transparency,” wrote Ian Jones of the University of Reading and Polly Roy of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “But the outcome reported here is clear.”
The scientists concluded that “another vaccine can now join the fight to reduce the incidence of COVID-19.”
