MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. About 20 people who were administered a first component of the Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus have contracted COVID-19, one of the organizers of clinical trials of the vaccine, Director of the Sechenov University’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology Vadim Tarasov reported on Monday, specifying that it’s incorrect to link these cases directly to the vaccination since the infected didn’t have enough time to develop the sufficient protective immunity.
"Now we can say that we have only about two dozen cases when people got infected with COVID and this is associated with the vaccine, yet again, to say that they were inoculated and got sick with COVID is also incorrect," he said at a press conference at TASS, organized with the support of the anti-coronavirus web portal.
The scientist noted that the majority of these people did not receive a second component of the vaccine, meaning they did not develop the sufficient immunity which is formed only on Day 42 after the administration of the first vaccine component. "After 42 days among those who have developed a valid immunity, we have no documented cases of serious diseases to date," the expert added.
He pointed out that it is impossible to get infected with the novel coronavirus infection from the vaccine against COVID-19. "The vaccine itself cannot infect with COVID. The antigens used in it which elicit reactions of an immune response, do not cause COVID," he emphasized.
At the same time, according to the scientist, there should be no side effects or complications from the shot in a person with a symptomless course of the novel coronavirus infection. "Nothing bad will happen (as a result of the inoculation - TASS) because the infection takes on a mild course, one shouldn’t expect complications or side effects. Nothing serious will happen, most likely, he won’t even notice that he has COVID," the expert pointed out.
Earlier, the scientist said that not a single volunteer who participated in Phase One clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine against the novel coronavirus held in summer on the basis of the Sechenov University, had contracted COVID-19.
On August 11, Russia became the first worldwide to register the vaccine against the coronavirus which was named Sputnik V. The preparation was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry. Post-registration trials began in Moscow on September 7, the first vaccine was administered to volunteers on September 9. In all, 40,000 people participate in the program, with 10,000 of them receiving a placebo instead of the vaccine.