Sputnik V vaccination does not take off in Russia as the Kremlin expands its efforts to promote it abroad

A colorful sign in the Gum department store shows, among luxury handbag shops and pastry shops offering appetizing macarons, the way to the coronavirus vaccination space installed in the famous shopping center on Red Square.

It opens from 10:00 to 21:00.

With out PRIVIOUSE appointment.

Like another twenty mobile points to receive Sputnik V in the capital - in theaters, large supermarkets, restaurants - created to reinforce the polyclinics in each district.

The queues of the first days of January, when they gave an ice cream cone and a beautiful hand-filled certificate to each vaccinated, have disappeared.

Only five people are waiting to receive the injection of the first vaccine against covid-19 registered in the world.

While the Kremlin intensifies its efforts to promote its main coronavirus vaccine abroad, the immunization campaign is not taking off in Russia (145 million inhabitants).

Despite the fact that it has already been opened to any Russian citizen who wishes (although in general, those who have had the disease in recent months are not vaccinated), only 3.23% of the population has received the two doses of the drug designed by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow and 4.74%, the first, according to data from the Russian Ministry of Health;

compared to more than 47% in the United Kingdom, 30% in the United States or 5.7% in Germany, which announced this Thursday that it is considering acquiring Sputnik V, already approved by almost 60 countries —Argentina, Mexico, Belarus , Serbia, Hungary— but still under review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

It is a far cry from the Kremlin's January intention to fully vaccinate more than 20 million people by the end of March.

The state media and the Russian Fund for Direct Investment - the country's sovereign fund, which has financed the work on the Gamaleya vaccine and is in charge of the export agreements - radiate with great enthusiasm the signing of each contract, the new approvals and the arrival of the boxes with the lots of the vaccine to countries such as San Marino or Bolivia.

Sputnik V has already been approved by almost 60 countries (Argentina, Mexico, Belarus, Hungary) but still under review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Argentine President Alberto Fernández was vaccinated with Sputnik V in January.

A few days ago he announced his positive for coronavirus, although asymptomatic.

DPA via Europa Press / Europa Press

But Russia's low immunization figures have raised suspicions from European experts and senior officials, who wonder why Russia is offering millions of doses to the EU while its vaccination campaign is slow.

Some argue that the Kremlin uses the drug as propaganda.

Not only to regain a front-line position in science, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has wanted for years, but also to push his political agenda at a time of great tension with the West.

It is a form of influence, believes Joanna Hosa, an expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank: "By selling it to as many countries as possible, Russia wants to improve its position in the world, its prestige and use it as a diplomatic tool."

Moscow is also satisfied with the cracks that seem to be creating between the European countries (or regions) that point towards buying the Russian vaccine and those that do not, says Hosa: “Russia has long been implementing strategies to weaken the West, and if vaccine distribution can contribute to this, so it is something the Kremlin can take advantage of.

But the discord in the EU is more a welcome side effect of the vaccine, not the end goal. "

Moscow flatly denies using its vaccine for political purposes and has accused its critics of Russophobia and playing the game of Big Pharma.

Other doubts point to whether and when Russia could deliver what it promises.

From the beginning, the Eurasian country has faced problems in the production of the Gamaleya vaccine, based on the human cold adenovirus and which is 90% effective, according to data published in the journal

The Lancet

.

As of March 17, it produced about 20 million doses and put 8.9 million complete kits into circulation, according to the Ministry of Industry.

The manufacturing problems of the second component of the vaccine and the lack of supplies of biotechnology equipment weighed down the process that Moscow now wants to accelerate by adding other Russian laboratories to produce the drug and with the signing of contracts with India, South Korea, Kazakhstan or China.

Several people rest after receiving the injection with the Sputnik V vaccine, in a sports hall in Skopje, Macedonia, on Monday.

ROBERT ATANASOVSKI / AFP

In addition, the shipment of doses or components to Brazil or Argentina, for example, was delayed.

Compliance with contracts, says Ilya Yasny, head of scientific research at the specialized investment fund Inbio Ventures, "lags behind."

And production capacity is one of the elements that has delayed vaccination in Russia, says Yasni.

The Kremlin has promised that 17 million kits will be produced monthly starting this month.

The uneven and staggered arrival of Sputnik V to the 84 regions of Russia, the world's largest country, and shortages in some provinces, led the Russian president to decide to delay his vaccination until the availability of the drug was greater, according to has recognized the Kremlin.

Putin received the first dose on March 23.

But in the face of the custom of broadcasting his fishing days, bathing in the lake, hockey games or even the flu vaccination, this time there were no images.

The 68-year-old Russian leader also has not wanted to clarify which of the three Russian vaccines (Moscow has registered another two) against the coronavirus has been given.

One of the plants of the Russian laboratory Biocad, which manufactures the Russian vaccine, last December.OLGA MALTSEVA / AFP

Putin's gesture has fueled the doubts of a citizenry that traditionally mistrusts the government and the health system - lack of reforms - and is already very skeptical, according to studies.

62% of Russians say they would not be vaccinated with Sputnik V, according to a February Levada Center poll, which also revealed reluctance towards vaccines in general.

Conspiracy theories have also found a niche: Two-thirds of those surveyed believe that the coronavirus is a man-made biological weapon.

In addition, despite the fact that there are still about 10,000 cases per day and more than 100,000 people have died from covid, according to official data that experts consider, in addition, minimized (there is an excess mortality of 422,000 since the beginning of the health crisis), there is some “fatigue” towards the pandemic.

And that, in addition to the fact that compliance with the measures has been relaxed, does not favor the rate of vaccination, believes Alexander Sergeev, president of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Putin has called on his team to accelerate the campaign to achieve herd immunity this summer.

This would require vaccinating nearly 70 million people, he said.

The authorities try to promote it and have launched a timid advertising campaign in which some famous figures encourage vaccination.

In Moscow, in addition, the neighborhood polyclinics have sent their social workers to the homes of pensioners, to encourage them to get vaccinated and to explain where they can get it.

In the city of Ulyanovsk, along the Volga River, most of those already vaccinated are retirees, says Alsu Nigmatullina, a laboratory assistant.

“The young people don't come.

At the moment there is no shortage of vaccines, so much so that health workers try to persuade colleagues or friends to get immunized ”.

A man is injected with the Sputnik V vaccine at Moscow's GUM stores last March.Anton Novoderezhkin / Anton Novoderezhkin / TASS

Dispute between Russia and Slovakia over the quality of the vaccine

The already controversial purchase of Sputnik V vaccines in Slovakia has now led to a bitter confrontation between the Slovak health authorities and Moscow.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has accused the Slovak agency of the drug of "sabotage" this Thursday after that regulatory body claimed that the doses of the Russian drug received present characteristics different from those reviewed by the scientific journal The Lancet.

The Slovak agency (SIDC) remarked that it could therefore not rule on the risks and benefits of the vaccine, since the manufacturers of Sputnik V did not provide information.

Russia has rejected the accusations and has demanded that Bratislava return the 200,000 doses it sent to divert them to another country.

"SIDC has launched a disinformation campaign against Sputnik V and plans additional provocations," the RIDF said on the vaccine's official Twitter account, describing Slovakia's claims as "fake news."

The opaque purchase of Sputnik V by Bratislava already claimed the resignation of Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic a few days ago.

This latest dispute can do great damage to the credibility of the Russian vaccine: Slovakia was one of the few EU members who lobbied to use it and accelerate its approval by the EMA.