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Coronavirus pandemic

Russian scientist dismisses idea of Sputnik V having delayed after-effects

The Russian scientist sats the platform used to create Sputnik V has been studied for many years.

Director of the Gamaleya Center Alexander Gintsburg Artem Geodakyan/TASS

Director of the Gamaleya Center Alexander Gintsburg

© Artem Geodakyan/TASS

MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. /TASS/. People vaccinated with Russia’s Sputnik V anti-coronavirus vaccine will certainly not develop long-term after-effects such as cancer, the head of the vaccine’s developer said on Tuesday.

"Nucleic acids that are administered to us together with the vaccine cannot replicate. Since they cannot replicate, they have no ability to influence on our eukaryotic cells. As it has no such influence, it technically has no ability to cause hereditary diseases, or oncological diseases, or diseases in future generations. There are no mechanisms that can make this possible," Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, told the Dok-Tok program on Russia’s TV Channel One.

The Russian scientist went on to say that the platform used to create Sputnik V is being studied for many years.

"The platform for this vaccine <…> has been in development for the past 25 years, and is being used to create other vaccines starting from 2014. Possible health effects, including long-term consequences, have already been examined. There are protocols about it," Gintsburg added.

Russia was the first in the world to register an anti-coronavirus vaccine on August 11, 2020. The jab, developed by the Russian Health Ministry’s Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, was dubbed Sputnik V. It is a vector vaccine based on the human adenovirus.

Sputnik V has already been registered in 60 countries and is the world’s second most popular vaccine in terms of approval by national governments. A research on 3.8 million vaccinated Russians revealed that the vaccine’s efficacy is 97.6%.

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FACTBOX: Collective Security Treaty Organization

The Collective Security Treaty came into force on April 20, 1994 to herald the emergence what would eventually become the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The six member-countries are Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

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