RUSSIAN AGENDA?
RRussia’s move to approve a Covid-19 vaccine -more political gamesmanship than scientific achievement – is, at best, an example of science being led by politics. At worst, it’s downright unethical because an untested vaccine could do untold harm. The vaccine has not undergone Phase 3 trials and the results of tests conducted so far have not been published or reviewed ussia’s announcement on August 11 – important enough for President Vladimir Putin to make it himself – that it has approved a coronavirus disease vaccine (the world’s first) may encourage other countries engaged in similar research, the US and India included, to think of doing the same. This writer has one word of advice for them: DON’T.
Russia’s move, more political gamesmanship than scientific achievement, is, at best, stupid and an example of science being led by politics, and, at worst, downright unethical – because an untested vaccine could do untold harm. The vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, has not undergone Phase 3 trials – and is probably the world’s first vaccine to be launched without these trials. In all, it has so far been tested on 76 people – and the results of those tests, usually published and reviewed, have not been. Sure, the vaccine’s registration (it happened on Tuesday) mentions that the people who received one or two shots of the vaccine produced antibodies that act against the Sars-cov-2 virus’s spike protein, but the production of an immune reaction is different from immunity – one reason why extensive Phase 3 trials are carried out. Indeed, the six vaccine candidates in Phase 3 or combined Phase 2-3 trials all produced similar immune reactions.
On Tuesday, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, said that it would help conduct Phase 3 trials in countries including Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and India, and also start mass production “in partnership with local sovereign wealth funds” in India, South Korea, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Cuba. It added that at least 20 countries have shown interest in buying the vaccine, called Sputnik V, perhaps a deliberate play on the Sputnik 1, which showed the world (especially the US) that Russia was ahead in the space race. (The word has passed into popular lingo as the Sputnik moment -- when a country realises it is far behind another country in an area of science).
The problem is that vaccine development is not a race, although it is being treated as one by at least some countries, including the US, where the Trump administration has pumped billions of dollars into Operation Warp Speed to hasten the development of a vaccine. Nor should it be considered a Sputnik moment, although, unfortunately, some leaders are likely to see it as one.
The science behind Sputnik 5 is straightforward. It is an adenoviral vector vaccine (like the ones being tested by Oxford-astrazeneca and Cansino Biologics, and the one being developed by Johnson & Johnson). These are essentially genetically engineered viruses that cause the common cold (Cansino is using a human cold virus; Oxford, one that causes cold in chimpanzees), and they work by transporting a gene from Sars-cov-2 into the body using this virus, and making it believe that it has been infected, thereby provoking an immune reaction. The technology is decades old, but, in an indication of just how long it takes for a new vaccine technology to be developed, the first adenovirus vector vaccine for any disease (Ebola in this case) was approved only in June. Until then, it was promising, if unproven, technology.
This columnist has previously written that data and science should guide every country’s response to Covid-19 and all aspects of managing the disease. Vaccine development and testing is a unique marriage of both data and science. Unfortunately, Russia is an old hand at politicising both, although other countries have also mastered this.
The best thing that can happen, from the savingthe-world-now point of view is for the Russian vaccine to actually work (although scientists believe the chances of that are remote). The worst thing that can happen, from the perspective of science, scientific thinking, and scientific process, is, again, for the Russian vaccine to actually work.
That will encourage more countries to short-circuit the process – and that way lies the road to perdition.