Anthony Fauci Deems Russia's Sputnik Vaccine "Quite Effective"

The top U.S. health official and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said on Monday that he considered the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V to be quite effective.

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“The Russian one, I believe, is quite effective,” Fauci said on a radio show when asked whether he trusted COVID-19 vaccines from Russia and China. “The data on the Russian vaccine, I've taken a look at some of the reports, it looks pretty good."

In August 2020, Russia became the first country in the world to register a vaccine against the coronavirus, dubbed Sputnik V, and developed by the Gamaleya research institute with financial support from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).

According to the analysis of phase 3 clinical trials of Sputnik V, published by The Lancet medical journal, Sputnik V has 91.6 percent efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19.

The report explains that the Sputnik vaccine works similarly to the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab developed in the UK and the Janssen vaccine developed in Belgium. It uses a cold-type virus, genetically-engineered to be harmless, as a carrier to deliver a small fragment of the coronavirus to the body.

But unlike other similar vaccines, the Sputnik jab uses two slightly different versions of the vaccine for the first and second dose - given 21 days apart.

The idea is that using two different formulas boosts the immune system even more than using the same version twice - and may give longer-lasting protection.

As well as proving effective, it has also proven safe with no severe reactions linked to the vaccine during the trial, the Lancet report concludes.