MADRID, December 15. /TASS/. French virologist Marie-Paule Kieny has said that the available data concerning the Russian vaccine Sputnik V testify to its high effectiveness, as follows from her interview to the Spanish daily El Pais.
Kieny led a delegation of France’s scientific committee at negotiations with the Russian Direct Investment Fund on the issue of the production and distribution of anti-coronavirus vaccines held at the end of November.
"The data that we have seen [concerning Sputnik V] apparently indicate that the vaccine is effective," Kieny said.
"We asked Russian scientists to publish the full results of their research in science magazines as soon as possible to achieve greater transparency and trust of the international community," Kieny said. "The results that we, the French delegates, were able to see, calmed our fears and indicated that this vaccine works and is extremely effective."
"Now we know that the first vaccines against COVID demonstrate excellent protection results at the peak of the immune response," she said. "The manufacturers of RNA vaccines and the Russian vaccine Sputnik V have declared effectiveness of above 90%."
"It remains to be seen whether this protection will last," Kieny went on to say. "We will have to wait for one year after the vaccination to see whether this protection will remain for a whole year. At this point we cannot know this."
"It looks like there are not very many distinctions in the protection of elderly people and younger persons, which is also good news. What we still do not know about the vaccines is whether they prevent the transfer of the virus, because the producers themselves still have no such data."
On August 11, 2020, Russia became the first country to have registered an anti-coronavirus vaccine, called Sputnik V. It was developed at the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology. Post-registration studies began in Moscow on September 7. The first group of volunteers was vaccinated on September 9. A total of 40,000 people are participating in the program. Ten thousand of them had placebo injections.
The effectiveness of Sputnik V, according to preliminary results, is above 95% on the 42nd day after the injection of the first dose on the condition the patient gets another dose.