MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Russia’s recently developed vaccine against the novel coronavirus - Sputnik V - will have no impact on the results of athletes’ doping tests, Nikolai Durmanov, a Russian expert in the sphere of anti-doping fight in sports, assured TASS on Tuesday.

On August 11, Russia was reported to have become the first country in the world to register a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, named Sputnik V. The inoculation was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry and passed clinical trials in June and July. It is based on a platform that was widely used for the development of other vaccines in the past.

"This vaccine and many others do not contain any prohibited substances and it is currently impossible to even think of a risk posed by it," Professor Durmanov, who used to work as the head of the anti-doping service with the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), stated. "This vaccine and other medications are two different stories."

"There are two ways of contracting the infection," he continued. "The first is through direct interaction, and the second is through the use of the vaccine, which helps to mobilize the immune system in advance."

"When the virus settles within the body, [the vaccine] will detect it immediately and will leave it zero chances," Durmanov explained. "The vaccine keeps reminding our immune system in the future."

The professor also spotlighted the very tiny dose of the injection, calculated in micrograms.

"Neither the metabolites of these vaccines, nor the antibodies they produce, nor the special immune cells, which are activated by it, have anything to do with doping control," the Russian expert stressed.

However, Durmanov also said that the vaccine injection should not be confused with any prescribed treatment to fight the coronavirus infection, which is likely to stipulate the use of banned medical preparations in sports. In this case, an athlete should apply for the Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) permit for the anti-coronavirus treatment period.

"In order to avoid all possible risks, an athlete must timely fill out all of the required documents, but in the case of the vaccine shot, there can be no risks at all," Durmanov assured.

COVID-19

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 22,100,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 778,360 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 14,840,200 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, 932,493 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 742,628 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 15,872 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.