Argentina is “proving ground” for Sputnik V vaccine, Wall Street Journal says

“Argentina is a Testing ground for the Moscow World Immunization Campaign. “Under this title, the Wall Street Journal published a critical article on the vaccination campaign in our country, where he also advances the Russian strategy to capture emerging market in the fight against the coronavirus.

Argentina is now the main country outside of Russia to vaccinate on a large scale with Sputnik V. This weekend, the second doses of the 300,000 vaccination schedules that are applied to health workers arrived. The contract signed with the government of Vladimir Putin establishes the sale of doses to immunize a total of 10 million people by February, with the option of 5 million more by March, as announced by President Alberto Fernández during the presentation of the contract, beginning of December. However, there were no details yet on the delivery date of these lots, which are said to be from different shipments from China and India. So far, only Belarus and Serbia vaccinate with Sputnik.

Regarding the local vaccination campaign, the prestigious American newspaper notes that its launch at the end of December “underlined issues related to lack of transparency on Sputnik V, “which” has aroused some suspicion among Argentines about their safety. In this regard, the Wall Street Journal cites a recent Poliarquía poll, also published by Bugle, which shows that people’s intention to get vaccinated is decreasing and that Sputnik V is the one with lower confidence indices. 28% of those polled said they had “no confidence” in the drug, compared to 10% who said the same about Pfizer and 9% about AstraZeneca / Oxford.

He also points out that Argentina has started vaccinating without documentation confirming that the vaccine can be applied to people over the age of 60. “Among the first Latin American countries to be vaccinated, 200,000 people in Argentina received Sputnik, most of them health workers and other essential workers. Many of them are happy to receive the injection and say that Argentines they will be less skeptical as more doses are given“, describe.

The note points out that Argentina is suffering from “one of the worst peaks” of coronavirus in Latin America, and that initially “it was hoped to obtain vaccines from Western suppliers, but failed to find a deal with Pfizer for reasons that the Argentine authorities have not disclosed. The government of President Alberto Fernández has an agreement with AstraZeneca to receive 22 million doses, but the delivery date is unclear. Meanwhile, the Russian vaccine was ready. “

Thus, at less than $ 10 a dose, it has become “an attractive alternative” for the Argentine government, “which defaulted on $ 65 billion in foreign debt last year and whose net reserves are close to zero. according to private economists. “. In this sense, the newspaper quotes the specialist Benjamín Gedan, director of the Argentina project at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington: for him, the agreement with Moscow “was a decision born in despair from a government that has not provided the Argentine population with access to more reliable and effective vaccines. “

The article reviews the history of this vaccine which, along with its name pays tribute to the Russian satellite launched during the Cold War. Moscow approved it for home use before the end of clinical trials, the results of which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal but which, according to information released by the Russian Fund for Direct Investment, is 91.4% effective. . So far, it has not received approval “from Western health authorities or authorization from the World Health Organization, on which many developing countries depend to test vaccines.”

Russia has started talks with the European health agency, EMA, and has also approached the WHO. In Russia, so far, a million people have been vaccinated. Including Argentina, eight countries have authorized its emergency use. Here, the authorization was made by the Ministry of Health of the Nation. According to a report by the Global Center for Health Innovation at Duke University, Russia is third of doses ordered by low- and middle-income countries, ahead of Pfizer and Moderna.

The sale of millions of doses of Sputnik V facing the Russian Investment Fund, notes the Wall Street Journal, makes Russia one of the major suppliers and “could give it a valuable slice of the global Covid vaccine market . -19 and potentially geopolitical influence in developing countries“.

With poor countries limited to procuring vaccines and hoping to receive them later this year through the WHO’s Covax mechanism, and Europeans and the United States guaranteeing most of the doses developed by Western laboratories, Russia has stepped up its actions “to fill the void.”. It appears as potential customers from developing countries, such as Argentina, and a market estimated by the Russian authorities from $ 100 billion per year.

Russia wants to have a 30% share of the market for countries that buy vaccines, and in this line is included the possibility of a light version of Sputnik with a single dose, which is currently being tested. More than a dozen countries have already signed agreements with Russia, including India and Mexico, in addition to Argentina, and according to information from the Wall Street Journal, the Russians have already received purchase orders or at least expressions of interest for 2.4 billion doses of your vaccine.