JRL NEWSWATCH: “Hit Hard by Coronavirus, Russia Joins Global Race for a Vaccine” – Wall Street Journal/ Georgi Kantchev, Drew Hinshaw
“Being first would provide Putin more economic and political leverage as ‘vaccine nationalism’ spreads”
“… The global pursuit of a vaccine against … Covid-19 has been likened to the 1960s space race …. Russia has employed the armed forces, shortened trial approval times and sped up clinical evaluations … [in a context where a vaccine also could] provide economic and political leverage …. Only the U.S., China and Canada have more vaccine candidates in their pipelines than Russia …. Putin has insisted that the first one be registered by September, a timeline public-health experts say is extremely short and could pose health risks if a vaccine’s potential side effects aren’t studied extensively. For Moscow, the stakes are especially high. Only the U.S. and Brazil have more confirmed cases … [Russia] has reported more than 6,000 deaths and around half a million infections, according to official statistics. …”