US health chief on Sputnik V: Search for COVID-19 vaccine not a race

The search for a vaccine against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is “not a race,” United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said on Wednesday following Russia’s approval of its “Sputnik V” vaccine.

Azar saidd the importance of providing safe and effective vaccines as well as transparent data, which he noted that the Russian vaccine lacked.

“It’s important that we provide safe, effective vaccines and that the data be transparent,” he told a news conference. “Data from the initial trials in Russia have not been disclosed, it’s not transparent.”

President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that Russia was the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine after only less than two months of clinical trials. 

A day before the announcement, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would be the first in the Philippines

However, Sputnik V has been met with doubt and criticism over its incomplete clinical trials, with the World Health Organization saying it would still need to review the vaccine’s safety data.

“Two of the six US vaccines that we have invested in entered the phase three clinical trials weeks ago that the Russian vaccine is now only beginning,” Azar said.

The Philippine Food and Drug Authority likewise said that there would be no “automatic approval” of the Russian vaccine in the Philippines.

“This is not a race to be first… And so that would be our position, which is we will require any vaccine in the United States be safe and effective, and meet the FDA’s gold standard,” the US health chief said. -NB, GMA News