Category: Health

Categories
Health

Too A lot Excessive-Depth Train Could Be Dangerous for Your Well being

Too Much High-Intensity Exercise May Be Bad for Your Health

In the second week, the riders added a third HIIT session and increased the length of some of their intervals to eight minutes. In the third week, they trained five times with a mix of four- and eight-minute jumps. Finally, on week four, they effectively halved the amount and intensity of their exercise to recover. The researchers repeated all of the tests every week.

Then they compared how people’s bodies had changed week by week.

The results were encouraging at first. By the end of the second week, the riders pedaled harder and appeared to be getting fitter, with better daily blood sugar control and more total mitochondria in their muscle cells. Each of these mitochondria were also now more efficient and producing more energy than when they started.

But by the third week something started to go wrong. The volunteers’ ability to generate electricity while cycling was flattened, and their subsequent muscle biopsies revealed sputtering mitochondria, each of which was only producing about 60 percent as much energy as the previous week. Drivers’ blood sugar control levels also slipped, with bobbing peaks and dips throughout the day.

After a week of riding at lower intensity, her mitochondria started popping up again and producing more energy, but still 25 percent less than the second week. Her blood sugar level also stabilized, but not to the same extent as before. However, the riders were able to pedal with the same – or even greater – force as in week two.

Overall, the month-long experiment suggests that “HIIT training shouldn’t be excessive if health improvement is desired,” says Mikael Flockhart, a PhD student at the Swedish School of Sports and Health Sciences who conducted the study with his advisor , Filip Larsen and others.

The study didn’t focus on athletic performance, but even for serious athletes, he says, stacking multiple high-intensity interval workouts weekly with little rest between them likely leads to a tipping point after which performance, as indicators of metabolic health, also begins to slide.

The researchers aren’t sure what changes in their volunteers’ bodies and muscles caused the negative results at week three. They tested several possible molecular causes, says Flockhart, but didn’t isolate an obvious, single instigator. He and his colleagues suggest that a cascade of biochemical changes in people’s muscles during the toughest week of exercise overwhelmed the mitochondria, and the weakened mitochondria contributed to disruptions in people’s blood sugar control.

Categories
Health

Lingering Covid signs pose ‘actually major problem,’ researcher says

German Covid cases rising 'exponentially' amid risky vaccine pause

A researcher studying so-called Covid long-distance drivers warned that persistent symptoms are a dire reality and can be a serious problem.

“We tracked approximately 60 different symptoms in this patient population,” said David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “We really just need to focus on helping these patients and spreading awareness that this is indeed a really serious problem related to Covid.”

A new study from Northwestern University shows that 85% of long-distance drivers – Covid patients who have largely recovered from the worst illness but continue to have long-term symptoms – had four or more neurological symptoms. These symptoms include brain fog, headache, numbness or tingling, loss of taste and smell, and muscle pain.

Northwestern scientists call it the first study of its kind. It tracked 100 Covid patients, mostly women with an average age of 43 years.

Putrino told CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith that the prevalence of long-term Covid is changing the way doctors treat patients, even with routine ailments.

“I think there were a lot of people before Covid who showed up with non-specific symptoms and they were concerned that they were being treated with formula medicine instead of being very patient-centered and symptom-centered in treatment approaches,” Putrino said. “One of the things doctors need to do now, when we see this increase in long-distance Covid activity, is listen to what patients are telling them.”

Categories
Health

Some Covid-19 Sufferers Say They’re Left With Ringing Ears

Some Covid-19 Patients Say They’re Left With Ringing Ears

The suicide of Kent Taylor, the founder and CEO of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain, has drawn attention to a possible link between Covid-19 and tinnitus, the medical name for a constant ringing in the ears.

Mr Taylor suffered from a variety of symptoms, including severe tinnitus, following his illness, his family said in a statement, adding that his condition has become “unbearable”.

Whether tinnitus is related to Covid-19 – and if so, how often it occurs – is an unanswered question. Neither the World Health Organization nor the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describe tinnitus as a symptom, although hearing problems are common with other viral infections.

But tinnitus is on the list of symptoms of long covid published by the UK’s National Health Service, along with fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness and much more. Some recent case reports and studies have suggested a possible link.

A study published Monday in the Journal of International Audiology that examined nearly 60 case reports and studies found that 15 percent of adults with Covid-19 reported symptoms of tinnitus. The authors believe respondents described either a new or a worsening condition, although they follow up with the roughly 60 researchers to make sure how the surveys were worded.

“I’ve received about 100 emails in the 24 hours since we were published,” said Kevin Munro, professor of audiology at the University of Manchester and co-author of the study. “Almost all of them said, ‘I was so happy to read about it because my doctor thought I was crazy when I mentioned tinnitus and now I know I’m not the only one.'”

There is also evidence that Covid-19 can make symptoms worse in people who had tinnitus before they contracted the disease. A study published in Frontiers in Public Health magazine late last year surveyed 3,100 people with tinnitus and found that 40 percent of the 237 respondents who contracted Covid-19 said their symptoms were “significantly worse” after infection .

“There are many viruses that affect the ears, including measles, mumps, and rubella,” said Dr. Eldre Beukes, audiologist at Anglia Ruskin University in England, who led the study. “It could also be the case that drugs to fight Covid are making the tinnitus worse. And there’s a well-known relationship between tinnitus and stress. “

Recognition…Ron Bath / Texas Roadhouse, via Associated Press

The study cited a number of factors that have increased stress for almost all pandemic sufferers, including fear of contracting the coronavirus and social distancing rules that have increased isolation and loneliness.

Home schooling has also increased stress levels, as has coffee and alcohol consumption, added Dr. Beukes added.

Covid-19 has made life difficult for tinnitus sufferers even if they haven’t contracted the virus, said Kim Weller, an IT specialist who lives in Houston and is part of a tinnitus support group based there.

“There is a gentleman in Ohio that I text and phone with and I would describe him as at the end of his rope,” she said. “He doesn’t work, has trouble sleeping and lives alone. His situation is definitely worse because of Covid because he’s just so isolated. “

Why tinnitus affects certain people is a mystery. There are approximately 200 causes of the condition, including exposure to loud noises, stress, hearing loss, and perforated eardrum. There is currently no cure. Patients are often treated with cognitive behavioral therapy – essentially talk therapy to rewire thoughts and behaviors – or they are trained in how to get used to the condition.

In a 2011-2012 survey – the most recent data available – the CDC found that 15 percent of respondents said they had tinnitus. Of them, 26 percent said it was constant or near constant ringing, and 30 percent said the condition was a “moderate” or “very large” problem in their life.

A very small group of people in Dr. Beukes’ study – seven – reported that Covid-19 caused tinnitus for the first time. Just over half of people with tinnitus said the disease had left their symptoms unchanged.

Oddly enough, 6 percent said they had less tinnitus after contracting the disease. Dr. Beukes speculates that a life-threatening illness in these people caused the noise in their head to be redefined.

“Signing Covid meant they were struggling to survive in some cases, and that left them from a very different perspective,” she said.

Around 40 percent of respondents who said Covid-19 made their tinnitus worse include people like Aisling Starrs of Derry in Northern Ireland. She had coped with hearing loss in her right ear all her life. Two years ago she gave birth to a daughter and within minutes noticed a buzz in both ears that did not subside.

“Then I got Covid in September and it went straight into my ear,” said Ms. Starrs, an occupational therapist. “On a scale from one to ten, it was a three ahead of Covid. It’s been a seven since then. “

Little did she know that exacerbated tinnitus could be a Covid problem until she found out otherwise on the website of the British Tinnitus Association, a co-sponsor of the Anglia Ruskin study.

“I thought ‘thank god’ when I realized I wasn’t the only one out there,” she said. “Through my work I have met people who do not know that there is a medical term for the ringing in their ears. Just knowing that other people are in the same condition is a tremendous relief. “

Categories
Health

Fosun Pharma falls as Hong Kong suspends BioNTech Covid vaccinations

Fosun Pharma falls as Hong Kong suspends BioNTech Covid vaccinations

Vaccination program branding on the clothing of a staff member outside a community vaccination center administering the BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine imported by Fosun Pharma on Wednesday March 17, 2021 in Hong Kong, China.

Chan Long Hei | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Shares in China’s Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group fell after Hong Kong and Macau announced on Wednesday that they would suspend vaccinations for BioNTech Covid.

Fosun Pharma, BioNTech’s partner in the development and distribution of the Comirnaty Covid-19 vaccine in Greater China, has informed the cities of a packaging error in batch 210102 of the vaccine.

Hong Kong and Macau said they would suspend vaccinations made in Germany as a precaution.

The cities said BioNTech and Fosun Pharma are investigating the cause of the vial cap failure, adding that there is currently no reason to doubt the vaccine’s safety.

Macau says all of its messenger RNA or mRNA vaccines belong to the affected batch. Hong Kong said it would also temporarily suspend vaccinations from batch 210104 until the investigation is completed.

Hong Kong-listed Fosun Pharma shares fell 4.83% in the city on Wednesday afternoon.

Hong Kong approved the BioNTech emergency vaccine in January, while Macau gave the vaccine a special import permit in late February. Both areas received their first shots in late February.

BioNTech’s mRNA-based vaccine has a proven efficacy of 95% in adults, according to data from its global Phase 3 clinical trial. Real-world data has shown that Pfizer-BioNTech’s two-dose Covid vaccine delivers “very strong” results after just one shot.

The news comes as countries around the world struggle to vaccinate their populations amid rising Covid cases in most regions.

More than 124 million infections have been reported worldwide and the death toll from Covid has exceeded 2.7 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Categories
Health

First Covid, Then Psychosis: ‘The Most Terrifying Factor I’ve Ever Skilled’

First Covid, Then Psychosis: ‘The Most Terrifying Thing I’ve Ever Experienced’

Mr Agerton tested positive for the coronavirus after returning from the Red Sea in late November. Since the expedition team followed strict precautionary measures, he believes he got infected on the flight home. With a low fever, slight breathing difficulties, and loss of smell, he isolated in a bedroom at home on Bainbridge Island near Seattle for 10 days, protecting Ms. Agerton, 46, and her children aged 5, 11, and 16.

Then, on December 17th, an ordinary spam call on his cell phone set off a cascade of paranoia linked to technology, surveillance, and government agents.

“I got these auditory hallucinations,” he said. At night he jumped to the window and imagined voices outside. Fearing that families looking at their neighborhood’s Christmas lights were spying, he grabbed the family’s Australian Shepherd Dog, Duke, and went outside to “watch the people in the car,” he said. Then he would be convinced that police scanners were broadcasting his dog on foot and every other movement he made.

Updated

March 23, 2021, 8:03 p.m. ET

“I couldn’t control myself,” he said, adding, “I just thought I was going out of my mind.”

After two mostly sleepless days in which he had kept it to himself, he confided in his wife, who was stunned. “Having your person who is great in a crisis that is experiencing a crisis was just utter helplessness and fear for me,” she said.

He asked her to put the family’s phones on airplane mode, fearing that their house had been bugged. Mrs. Agerton, who drove him around looking for her, was concerned about an ambulance siren. “Probably every 30 minutes he had to go around outside and see what was out there.”

She took him out shopping, thinking “something as pointless as Costco would help make it just a normal day,” but said he feared buyers were plainclothes agents. “It was really torture for him.”

That evening she called a friend, a nurse with mental health experience.

“You need to go to the emergency room now,” urged the friend, adding, “lock all weapons,” said Ms. Agerton.

Categories
Health

Navajo Nation studies no new Covid circumstances, deaths for first time in six months

Navajo Nation reports no new Covid cases, deaths for first time in six months

Northern Navajo Medical Center is shown as staff inside begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine December 16, 2020 in Shiprock, New Mexico. Northern Navajo Medical Center’s medical staff are among the first in the Navajo Nation to receive their Pfizer BioNTech vaccinations today.

Micah Garen | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The Navajo nation, which inhabits the largest area of ​​an indigenous tribe in the United States, reported Monday that it had no new coronavirus cases and deaths in the last 24 hours of launching an aggressive vaccination campaign.

The tribe, whose land stretches across Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, had the highest per capita infection rate in the United States at the height of the pandemic.

The last time the tribe didn’t report any new cases was on September 8, when four people died of Covid-19. That hope was short-lived as cases rose again after Labor Day and up to 400 new daily cases were reported by November.

“No deaths and no cases in 24 hours – yes, it’s remarkable,” said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez during a town hall meeting Tuesday. “But let’s not let that get into our heads. This is not the time to travel.”

The number began to decline when Pfizer and Moderna rolled out Covid-19 vaccines across the Navajo nation and the rest of the US after drug makers received emergency clearance from the Food and Drug Administration in mid-December.

As of Tuesday, 57% of Navajo citizens had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and 38% had been fully vaccinated with both doses. Vaccines are available in the strain for anyone aged 16 and over. According to the University of Arizona, there are approximately 298,000 enrolled members of the Navajo Nation, of whom approximately 173,000 Navajos live on the reservation.

The tribe also still has a mask mandate and a daily curfew, and health officials continue to offer free masks and hand sanitizer to citizens.

49 new cases have been recorded in the past seven days, and tribal health officials say an average of 285 tests are performed per day. As a former hotspot in the United States, the strain is in the second lowest place per 100,000 population in the United States in new cases for the past seven days. It ranks third between Puerto Rico and Hawaii the lowest.

Tribal health officials said the Navajo Nation has been in Code Orange for three weeks, meaning the cases are on a downward trend. Its outbreak is so limited that it now falls under the yellow code, which would mean there is no evidence of a sustained recovery in coronavirus cases in the strain, officials said.

Acting Assistant Area Manager Captain Brian Johnson said five rounds of U.S. government funding under the CARES Act, along with Navajo Citizens’ compliance, made a significant difference in the tribe’s ability to fight the pandemic.

Last Monday, some companies were allowed to reopen with a capacity of 25% under certain restrictions. Parks and lakes will soon be reopened only to Navajo citizens. The tribe still doesn’t allow outside visitors and requires that all schooling be virtual.

“We’re not out of the pandemic yet,” Nez said when addressing the Navajo Nation. “Be strong and resilient like our ancestors from time immemorial. … Covid-19 will also be defeated because we are strong warriors and have the armor and weapons to fight this modern monster.”

Categories
Health

Vaccinated Folks Can Get Covid, however It’s Most Seemingly Very Uncommon

Vaccinated People Can Get Covid, but It’s Most Likely Very Rare

More than two months after being fully vaccinated against Covid, a doctor in New York awoke with a headache and a dull, heavy feeling of tiredness. Fever and chills soon followed, and his senses of taste and smell began to fade.

That, he thought, couldn’t happen. But it was: He tested positive for the corona virus.

“It was a big shock,” he said. He knew that no vaccine was perfect and that the Pfizer BioNTech shots he received were 95 percent effective in a large clinical trial. “But somehow it was 100 percent in my eyes,” he said.

The doctor, who asked for anonymity to protect his privacy, is one of the few reported cases of people infected after a partial or even full vaccination. Nearly 83 million Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine and it is unclear how many of them will have a “breakthrough” infection, although two new reports suggest the number is very low.

One study found that only four of 8,121 fully vaccinated employees at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas became infected. The other found that only seven of 14,990 workers at UC San Diego Health and the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles two or more weeks after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna vaccines tested positive. Both reports, published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, show how well the vaccines work in the real world and during a period of intense transmission.

While these breakthrough cases are quite rare, they are a clear reminder that vaccinated people are not invincible, especially if the virus remains widespread.

“We strongly believed that this data shouldn’t lead people to say, ‘Let’s all vaccinate and then we can all stop wearing masks,” said Dr. Francesca J. Torriani, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Diego Health, which led the California study, “These measures must continue until a larger part of the population is vaccinated.”

Only some of the virus-positive health workers in the California study showed symptoms, she said, and they tended to be mild, suggesting the vaccines were protective. This reflects data from the vaccine trials, which suggest that breakthrough infections were mild and did not require hospital admissions. Some people had no symptoms at all and were only discovered through tests in studies or as part of their medical care.

Updated

March 23, 2021, 1:20 p.m. ET

For example, doctors at the University of North Carolina found some asymptomatic cases in vaccinated patients tested for coronavirus before surgery or other medical procedures, according to Dr. David Wohl, the medical director of this center’s vaccination clinic.

He said the lack of symptoms may have caused the vaccine to do exactly what it was supposed to do: stop people from getting sick, even if it doesn’t completely stop the virus from infecting them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a small team studying breakthrough cases, said an agency spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund. One question the researchers are asking is whether certain variants of the coronavirus could play a role in breakthrough cases.

“There is currently no evidence that Covid-19 occurs after vaccination due to changes in the virus,” said Ms. Nordlund.

In the next few months, Pfizer and Moderna are expected to release data showing how often people who have been vaccinated become infected with the virus, even if they don’t show symptoms. The companies tested participants in their vaccine trials for antibodies to a protein called N, which is part of the coronavirus but not part of the vaccine. Finding these antibodies means that a vaccinated person has been infected with the virus. Some study volunteers also have their noses wiped regularly to test for an active viral infection.

Another question is how effective are the vaccines in people whose immune systems have been weakened by illness or medication, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. Breakthrough cases can occur in these people because their bodies cannot produce a robust response to a vaccine.

“And it’s amazing how widespread immunodeficiency is,” said Dr. Conductor. He called the disease “a testament to modern medicine” because many patients with the disease are successfully treated for conditions that would have killed them not so long ago.

The doctor, who fell ill in New York despite being fully vaccinated, stayed home in isolation for almost two weeks. He described his illness as relatively mild and said he had been treated with monoclonal antibodies to fight the virus. “If the worst flu is a 10, it was a four,” he said.

Without the vaccine, he said, he thinks he would have been sicker.

“I would have been afraid for my mortality,” he said. “But I wasn’t afraid for a moment. I didn’t think I was going to die. I think you won’t die – that’s a pretty big deal. “

Apoorva Mandavilli contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Health

Pfizer begins early stage scientific trial testing oral antiviral drug

Pfizer begins early stage clinical trial testing oral antiviral drug

Pfizer said Tuesday it had started an early clinical trial of an experimental oral antiviral drug for Covid-19.

The New York-based company announced that the Phase 1 study of the drug PF-07321332 will be conducted in the United States. The drug belongs to a class of drugs called protease inhibitors, and it works by blocking an enzyme that the virus needs to replicate in human cells.

Protease inhibitors are used to treat other viral pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C.

“Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic requires both preventive vaccination and targeted treatment of those who become infected with the virus,” Pfizer’s chief scientist Mikael Dolsten said in a press release. “Given the way SARS-CoV-2 is mutating and the ongoing global impact of COVID-19, it is likely that access to therapeutic options will be critical both now and after the pandemic.”

The study comes as Pfizer is also working on an intravenously administered protease inhibitor known as PF-07304814. This drug is currently in a Phase 1b clinical trial in patients hospitalized with Covid-19.

A person walks past the Pfizer building in New York City on March 2, 2021.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

Pfizer already has an approved vaccine in the US with German drug maker BioNTech, but health experts say the world will need a slew of drugs and vaccines to end the pandemic that is infecting more than 29.8 million Americans and is coming soon Has killed at least 542,991 people over a year, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Preclinical studies have shown that the oral drug, the first orally ingested protease inhibitor for Covid-19 to be studied in clinical trials, has “strong” antiviral activity against the virus.

Because the drug is taken orally, it can be used outside of hospitals for people newly infected with the virus. The researchers hope the drugs will prevent the disease from getting worse and keep people out of the hospital.

Pfizer said it will provide more details on the drug at the Spring American Chemical Society meeting on April 6.

Categories
Health

Many metrics within the U.S. are bettering, although the specter of a brand new surge nonetheless looms.

Many metrics in the U.S. are improving, though the threat of a new surge still looms.

Positive trends in pandemic statistics in the US are easy to distrust. After all, the country saw two false dawns last year, in late spring and then again in late summer, as declines tapered if reports came even darker days ahead. Each time, the apparently good news led to relaxations and reopenings that added to the next wave.

It is therefore not surprising that public health experts are concerned about the recent flattening of the pandemic curve, from the sharp drop in cases in late January and February to a plateau or slight drop more recently. With contagious variants of the virus becoming more prevalent, they fear the good news will end and a fourth wave may emerge.

Even so, there are positive signs:

  • Daily death reports, which remained stubbornly high long after the surge after the holidays, ended up plummeting sharply to levels not seen since mid-November. As of Monday, the nation had recorded an average of 1,051 newly reported Covid deaths per day for the past week. The average was 3,000 for weeks over the winter.

  • Some recent hotspots have made great strides – particularly Los Angeles, where Mayor Eric Garcetti said on CBS Sunday that he “hasn’t felt that optimism in 12 months”. The city and surrounding county, where cases jumped 450 percent in some areas during the holidays and hospitals were so overcrowded that some ambulances were turned away, now have a positive test rate of about 1.9 percent, and in one important shift, new case reports have fallen among people affected by homelessness.

  • Vaccinations are becoming more accessible week by week as states receive more doses and open up authorization, in some cases to all adult residents as well. The number of daily doses given daily is increasing, and the country surpassed President Biden’s original target of 100 million shots by March 19, nearly six weeks ahead of schedule.

The question now is which one will prevail: the positive effects of such trends or the negative effects of relaxed behavior and the development of the virus into more dangerous forms?

It is still “a race between vaccinations and variants,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University School of Public Health, on Twitter. Like other experts, he warned: “Opening too quickly helps the variants.”

Categories
Health

Putin to get coronavirus vaccine; Russia’s vaccine technique in focus

Putin to get coronavirus vaccine; Russia's vaccine strategy in focus

Russian President Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting on May 13, 2020 to focus on assisting the aviation industry and aviation at his land residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, outside Moscow.

Alexey Nikolsky | AFP | Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to receive a coronavirus shot on Tuesday as the country’s vaccination strategy takes center stage.

Putin’s vaccination is due one day after commending multimillion-dollar international sales of Russian vaccine Sputnik V Covid. However, the country’s adoption appears to be slow and in stark contrast to the large number of vaccines destined for the international market.

It was reported that Russia’s own manufacturing capacity is low, and Putin appeared to be nodding at it on Monday. He said Russia needs to ramp up domestic vaccine production and that household supplies are a priority, according to Reuters.

He found that 4.3 million people in the country had already received two doses of the vaccine. This is much higher than in the UK, for example, where around 2.3 million people have given both doses to date. However, Russia was the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine (Sputnik V) as early as August 2020, first shot in early December.

However, the Kremlin has not confirmed whether Putin will receive Sputnik V. There are three Russian vaccines and Putin’s spokesman said Monday that the president would be vaccinated with one of them. “All of them are good and reliable,” the spokesman said, according to the AP.

logistics

Russia faces a number of logistical challenges when introducing a vaccine. It is the largest country in the world and has around 144 million inhabitants in an area that stretches across Europe and northern Asia.

In early March, Putin found that all but nine Russian regions had started using the vaccine, with delays related to “problems with logistics, distribution (and) locations,” the Moscow Times reported.

Global data on vaccination programs shows that Russia is lagging behind many other countries in its own domestic rollout, with the number of single doses administered in Russia just above the number of doses administered in Bangladesh, according to Our World in Data.

Vaccination dates are highlighted as Russia was hit so hard by the pandemic: it has recorded the fourth highest number of cases in the world (over 4.4 million) and over 94,000 people have died of Covid in the country, according to Covid at Johns Hopkins University.

Vaccination skepticism

Another major problem hindering Russia’s adoption is citizens’ reluctance to adopt vaccines. Daragh McDowell, head of Europe and senior Russian analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, told CNBC that the country’s lower vaccination rates “are likely due to public unwillingness to be skeptical about the vaccine rather than lack of supply.”

He noted that the latest data from the Levada Center, an independent pollster in Russia, suggests that only 30% of Russians are “ready to get vaccinated, a number that has actually decreased since last year”.

“This is mainly due to concerns about side effects and the inadequate testing of the vaccine. In other words, while the Kremlin received a boost in propaganda by bringing the vaccine out first, it came at the expense of doubts about its safety.” McDowell noticed.

A woman receives the second component of the Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) COVID-19 vaccine.

Valentin Sprinchak | TASS | Getty Images

Sputnik V was originally only approved in Russia for those ages 18 to 60, which means that 68-year-old Putin was too old to receive it. However, further studies in seniors found that the vaccine was safe in people 60 and older, and that the age group can now get the shot.

“The fact that Putin waited so long to be vaccinated himself is not going to go unnoticed and has contributed to these doubts,” added McDowell.

“The president’s vaccination will convince some Russians of the vaccine’s effectiveness and safety (but) high levels of social distrust and conspiratorial thinking will mitigate its effects.”

He stressed that the same survey data that showed that 30% of Russians were willing to be vaccinated also showed that nearly two-thirds believed Covid was artificially developed as a biological weapon.

International sales agreements

Another aspect of the Russian vaccine program that has attracted attention is the high number of international sales of its vaccine. On Monday, Putin confirmed that Russia had signed international sales agreements for Sputnik V cans for 700 million people.

RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund that backed the development and deployment of Sputnik V, announced Tuesday that Sputnik V has now been approved in 56 countries, with Vietnam being last on the list. Several Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Slovakia have also ordered Sputnik V cans.

In the meantime, the European Medicines Agency launched an ongoing review of Sputnik V earlier this month.

Verisk Maplecroft’s McDowell pointed out that while exporting 700 million cans is “an extremely ambitious figure,” it is likely that licensed products also made overseas, for example in India and South Korea.

Data processing

Russian vaccine Sputnik V was approved by the Russian health authority in August last year before clinical trials were completed, leading to skepticism among experts that it may not meet strict safety and efficacy standards. Some experts argued that the Kremlin is keen to win the race to develop a Covid vaccine, an indictment it has brought against other countries. Russia has repeatedly stated that its vaccine is the target of anti-Russian sentiment.

Russia appeared to be confirmed in early February As an interim analysis of the 20,000-participant Phase 3 clinical trials of the shot was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet. The vaccine was found to be 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 infections.

In an accompanying article in the Lancet, Ian Jones, Professor of Virology at the University of Reading, England noted that “the development of the Sputnik V vaccine has been criticized for undue urgency. However, the result reported here is clear and scientific. The principle of vaccination is demonstrated which means another vaccine can now join the fight to reduce the incidence of Covid-19. “