WASHINGTON, September 24. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Washington called upon the US government to focus its effort on fighting the coronavirus rather than criticizing the Russian vaccine.
"Don’t try to downplay President Putin’s constructive proposal to hold an online high-level conference shortly for countries interested in cooperation in the development of Covid19 vaccines," the embassy said in a Twitter post. "Save American lives. Fight Covid19 - not the Russian Vaccines."
The embassy attached a message by US Department of State Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, who expressed doubts about the efficiency of the Russian vaccine.
At the same time, the embassy posted the text of a White House media briefing, during which Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said President Donald Trump does not rule out the possibility of using in the United States vaccines produced by other countries. When asked about the Russian and Chinese vaccines, the press secretary replied by quoting US President Donald Trump as saying that he would take his hat off to a country that produces "a vaccine that works."
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested holding "an online high-level conference shortly for countries interested in cooperation in the development of anti-coronavirus vaccines."
The US government granted $1.2 billion to the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which is developing a vaccine in collaboration with scientists from the Oxford University (UK). In addition, the Washington administration provided $486 million to the American biotechnology company Moderna and $456 million to the pharmaceutical Johnson & Johnson for these purposes. Merck and Pfizer are also developing a coronavirus vaccine in the United States. In total, the US administration has invested $12 billion in these projects, according to the White House.
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 and passed clinical trials in June - July. It was created on a platform that had been used for the development of a number of other vaccines. According to the Russian Health Ministry, experience shows that such vaccines are capable of developing long-term immunity that lasts for up to two years. Head of the Russian Direct Investments Fund Kirill Dmitriev pointed out that Russia had received applications for more than 1 bln doses of the vaccine from 20 countries.