These are the countries that want the Russian vaccine 1:23
(CNN) - Russia will begin mass vaccinating its citizens in October, said Kirill Dmitriev, director general of Russia's Direct Investment Fund, which funded research on the COVID-19 vaccine that was approved in the country, despite questions about its safety and efficacy.
“We will begin mass vaccination of Russians in October. This vaccine will be available for other countries around November, ”Dmitriev told Anderson Cooper and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Tuesday.
Dmitriev said Russia had an advantage in developing a vaccine platform during the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and Ebola outbreaks.
"When the coronavirus came out, we just used the work we had on Ebola and MERS and we really had a vaccine platform that was tested on thousands of people," Dmitriev said.
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"Our Health Minister, our bureaucrats would not have approved it unless they were absolutely sure the technology works," he said.
Several US healthcare leaders and vaccine experts have expressed skepticism about whether the vaccine has been shown to be safe and effective. No data have been published from human trials of the vaccine and it has not yet undergone phase 3 trials.
Dmitriev said he believes skepticism about the vaccine stems more from politics than science.
"If we were to bring water into the US market, we would get comments that it is probably not safe, or that it has some vodka in it, or that it was stolen," he said. "I think we need to separate general skepticism from real science," he opined.
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He said the vaccine has been tested in phase 1 and phase 2 trials and that Russia plans to conduct phase 3 trials in Saudi Arabia, Brazil and the Philippines. She said front-line medical workers and high-risk individuals will be among the first to get the vaccine.
He further added that under Russian law, a vaccine can be distributed to high-risk groups while it is still in phase 3 of the trials.
"We will not give it to 10 million people tomorrow," Dmitriev said. "It is going to be a very gradual and careful implementation going forward," he added.
There are 28 vaccines in human trials around the world, according to the World Health Organization.
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