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Vladimir Putin says Russia has registered a coronavirus vaccine, and his daughter has been given it

Russia has claimed victory in the race for a coronavirus vaccine after it became the first country to officially register one and declare it ready for use Tuesday, despite less than two months of human testing and not completing final trials.

President Vladimir Putin emphasized at a government meeting Tuesday that the vaccine, developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute, underwent the “necessary tests” and even said the vaccine already has been given to one of his daughters.

“I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests,” he said at the meeting. “The most important thing is to ensure full safety of using the vaccine and its efficiency.”

Putin added that one of his two adult daughters had “taken part in the experiment” and received two shots of the vaccine.

He said his daughter had a temperature of 100.4 degrees on the day of the first injection, and then it dropped to just over 98.6 degrees the next day. After the second shot she again had a slight increase in temperature, he said.

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Putin said his daughter had a “high number of antibodies." He didn’t specify which of his two daughters – Maria or Katerina – receive the vaccine.

Russian scientists said they completed Phase 2 testing the first week of August and were conducting Phase 3 tests at the same time they began to vaccinate medical workers, a tactic that would never be allowed under strict U.S. and European medical safety regulations.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said Russia could start vaccinating doctors as early as this month. The Health Ministry said in Tuesday’s statement that the vaccine is expected to provide immunity from the virus for up to two years.

While Russian authorities have said medical workers, teachers and other risk groups will be the first to be inoculated, Putin emphasized the vaccine will be voluntary.

The vaccine will be marketed under the name Sputnik V on foreign markets. Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, compared the moment to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the world’s first satellite, Sputnik 1, according to Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 10, 2020.

Russian officials have said large-scale production of the vaccine will start in September, and mass vaccination may begin as early as October.

But the international scientific community is sounding the alarm that the rush to start using the vaccine before completing Phase 3 trials – which usually last months and involve thousands of people – could backfire.

“Not sure what Russia is up to but I certainly would not take a vaccine that hasn’t been tested in Phase III,” Florian Krammer, professor of vaccinology at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said on Twitter Tuesday. “Nobody knows if it’s safe or if it works.”

The Association of Clinical Trials Organizations (ACTO) in Russia said less than 100 people had officially received the vaccine by early August and urged the health ministry to postpone approval in a letter sent to Health Minister Mikhail Murashko Monday, according to Bloomberg.

Before Putin's announcement, there were reports that Russia was trying to steal vaccine research. The United States, Britain and Canada alleged on July 16 that hackers backed by the Russian government were trying to steal information from researchers and pharmaceutical companies racing to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

The three nations say that the hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, was attacking academic and drug research institutions involved in coronavirus vaccine development.

Although Russia has a long history of vaccine creation, its coronavirus efforts have been shrouded in mystery. Its vaccine candidate is listed only as in Phase 1 trials on the World Health Organization's list of vaccine candidates, and little information about it has been released.

"This really is like reading the tea leaves," said said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. "Russian science has always been ridiculously secretive."

WHO said all vaccine candidates should go through full stages of testing before being rolled out. According to WHO data, more than 100 candidates vaccines are being developed around the world, and at least four are in Phase 3 human trials.

"WHO is aware that a COVID-19 vaccine has been registered in the Russian Federation's national medicines registry," the agency said in a statement to USA TODAY. "WHO is in touch with Russian scientists and authorities, and looks forward to reviewing details of the trials."

Peter Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, said bad vaccines are not only ineffective against SARS-CoV-2 but also could harm public health by driving the virus to evolve and become stronger.

"I don’t believe in the Russian vaccine. I don’t believe in playing Russian roulette with my health," Pitts said. "Vaccines are too important to allow them to become propaganda. ... The only thing that's worse than no vaccine is a bad vaccine."

Contributing: Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY; The Associated Press. Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID vaccine available in Russia: Putin registers coronavirus vaccine