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We Doubt Russia’s Coronavirus Claims –United States
![We doubt](https://theeagle.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Trump-and-Putin-resized.jpg)
We doubt the claims made by the Russian president that his country has developed a sustainable vaccine that could handle corona virus.
So is the word from the United States of America (USA) which just reacted to the development through the United States Health Secretary Alex Azar.
Azar, in raising questions over Russia’s claims, said there was a lack of data from initial trials to back such grand claims from Moscow.
Russia had said yesterday that its vaccine offered “sustainable immunity” against the virus, immediately sending the international scientific community on the buzz.
The Eagle can report that while some of the remarks were welcoming, others were skeptical, in fact condemnatory.
-We doubt 1 –
The report from AFP said Western scientists have previously raised concerns about the development speed of Russian treatments, suggesting researchers were cutting corners.
The latest is coming off US Health Secretary Alex Azar , who just completed a three-day visit to Taiwan., which in itself is also raising fresh angst in China due to the latter’s legendary claim over Taiwan.
“It’s important that we provide safe, effective vaccines and that the data be transparent… This is not a race to be first,” Azar told reporters during a conference call.
“I should note that two of the six US vaccines that we’ve invested in entered the phase three clinical trials weeks ago that the Russian vaccine is now only beginning,” he added.
“The data from the initial trials (of the vaccine) in Russia have not been disclosed, it’s not transparent.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said the vaccine was safe, and that one of his daughters had received a dose.
-We doubt 2-
The vaccine has been named “Sputnik”, after the world’s first artificial satellite that helped the Soviet Union take the lead in the Cold War space race in 1957.
President Donald Trump has been taking the flaks over its government’s handling of the virus which succeeded in killing more than 163,000 people, in addition to close to 5.1 million infections.
Trying to put his country ahead in finding lasting solution against the virus, Azar said he was confident a vaccine would be available for Americans.
“We believe that it is highly credible that we will have in the high tens of millions of doses of gold-standard, safe and effective vaccine by the end of this year, and many hundreds of millions of doses as we go into the beginning of next year,” said the AFP report.
-we doubt 3 –
The report added Trump had launched “Operation Warp Speed”, which aims to develop, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine to all Americans by January 2021.
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The country has also reportedly spent no less than $9.4 billion, given to seven vaccine developers, in addition to signing manufacturing contracts with five of them to provide 700 million doses.