The Surprising Success
of Sputnik V
For Russian
President Vladimir Putin, the development of the Sputnik V vaccine is a welcome
boost to his country's image. And it has been received with open arms in Latin
America. In Europe, though, people remain skeptical. Rightly so?
By Christian Esch, Jens Glüsing und Christina Hebel,
in
Moscow and Rio de Janeiro
30.03.2021, 13.32 Uhr
A delivery of vaccine from Russia arriving in Bolivia
Foto:
David
Mercado / REUTERS
Last week, Vladimir Putin finally
got vaccinated against COVID-19. For almost half a year, the Russian president
has been tirelessly praising the vaccine developed in Russia. Sputnik V, he has
said, is the "best vaccine in the world." Nevertheless, he was disinclined
to take it himself, and even withdrew from the public eye for a time. Now,
though, it appears that he has changed his mind.
But there's a catch. No information
was provided about which vaccine he chose to use. Nor were any images or video
footage provided. Why not? "As to being vaccinated on camera, well he has
never been a fan of that," Putin's spokesman said. "He doesn't like
that."
Putin's delayed and covert
vaccination fits well with the strange story of Sputnik V, the first vaccine
approved for COVID-19 in the world. It is a success story, to be sure, but
there are some pretty large qualifiers.
Millions of people around the world
have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V and more than 50 countries have
approved it. Images from faraway countries like Argentina, Bolivia and
Venezuela show pallets stacked with vials full of Sputnik V being welcomed. The
world needs help, and Russia is there to provide it: That's the message.
DER SPIEGEL 13/2021
The article you are reading originally appeared in
German in issue 13/2021 (March 27, 2021) of DER SPIEGEL.
But many places don't completely
trust the Russian offer. And nowhere is that mistrust as pronounced as it is in
Europe. But even in Russia, Sputnik V is viewed with some skepticism.
The vaccine continues to be dogged
by the fact that its introduction was less than perfectly transparent. It was
similar to Putin's recent vaccination: You have to believe it, because you're
not going to see it. The result is that Sputnik V has become a matter of faith
– as if the vials weren't full of vaccine, but of a cocktail of politics and
medicine.
"Provocations" from the West
The birthplace of Sputnik V is the
Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology on the outskirts
of Moscow. For more than two decades, it has been under the leadership of
Alexander Ginzburg, a cheerful biologist with a chortling laugh. It's not easy
get permission to visit him in his wood-paneled office: The institute answers
to the Health Ministry, which rarely allows visitors. The Kremlin has warned of
"provocations" in the Western media. On the other hand, though, the
U.S. film director Oliver Stone, who is a friend of Putin's, dropped by the
Gamaleya Institute recently and was vaccinated with Sputnik V.
Ginzburg doesn't share the
ministry's concerns. Thank God, he says, that Sputnik V is now receiving more
positive attention abroad than in the past – both in the media and in
scientific circles.
It has almost been an entire year
since Ginzburg was vaccinated with Sputnik V. The institute first began
developing its vector vaccine, made up of two components, back in February
2020. Inactivated flu viruses (so-called adenoviruses) were used as a carrier
to transport genetic material from the coronavirus pathogen into the cells of
the human body.
"We staff members were vaccinated
before the monkeys, right after the mice and at the same time as the hamsters
and guinea pigs."
Alexander Ginzburg, Director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of
Epidemiology and Microbiology
Gamaleya had experience with vector
vaccines, having developed one for the Ebola virus as well. The institute
merely had to fill its carrier with a new payload. The researchers obtained the
necessary COVID-19 viral material in mid-March from a clinic in Moscow, where a
patient, who had picked up the infection in Rome, was receiving treatment.
ANZEIGE
Arbeiten post Corona – Home-Office vs. Büro
Transformation am Arbeitsplatz. So könnte
die Zukunft aussehen!
Ginzburg said he was administered
the vaccine on March 30, at a time when animal testing was still underway.
"We staff members were vaccinated before the monkeys, right after the mice
and at the same time as the hamsters and guinea pigs."
Bild
vergrößern
Russian President Vladimir Putin has now been vaccinated, but with what?
Foto: Alexei
Druzhinin / TASS / ddp images
Still, the decision to receive the
vaccination at such an early stage wasn't quite as daring as Ginzburg makes it
sound. The Gamaleya Institute had already developed a comparable vaccine for a
similar coronavirus – the one that causes MERS, the virus behind the 2012
outbreak in Saudi Arabia. And that vaccine, says Ginzburg, had already been
tested on humans. Basically, MERS provided the researchers at the Gamaleya
Institute with an unexpected head start on the development of a COVID-19
vaccine.
The research group was led by Denis
Logunov, a sturdily built 42-year-old. A week ago Monday, he received personal
praise from Putin for his work on Sputnik V in a televised video call. "I
want to see this man and I want the entire country to see him," the
president said.
David vs. Goliath
Logunov is visibly offended by the
hail of criticism of the Sputnik V vaccine that came from abroad. It was
particularly strong around the time the vaccine was approved in Russia –
despite the fact that the results of the Phase I and II testing hadn't yet been
released and Phase III testing hadn't even started yet. It looked as though
Russia was taking shortcuts.
"It was an emergency
authorization," Logunov says. The vectors used in the vaccine, he says,
were well-established – a major difference to the new development techniques
used by some of the competing vaccines, such as the mRNA approach used by
BioNTech and Moderna.
Logunov believes the criticism from
abroad is hypocritical. "It's offensive," he says. "You really
are carrying out experiments on people, but you accuse us of doing so, even
though we are using components that have been tested hundreds of thousands of
times." The Gamaleya Institute sees itself as David in a battle against
the Goliath of the international pharmaceuticals industry. They feel they are
being treated unfairly.
Institute head Ginzburg says:
"I can understand the skepticism. From outside, the process looked overly
hasty, as though we were trying to be the first. That maybe played a role. But
it was done in accordance with the rules for approval and against the
background of the de facto war-like situation in which we found
ourselves."
It was only in February 2021, half a
year after the vaccine was approved, that the Phase III results were released
in the journal The Lancet. Those trials indicated
that Sputnik V has an efficacy of 91.6 percent, higher than the vaccine
developed by AstraZeneca.
Criticism has quieted noticeably
since then, but it hasn't gone away completely. Some researchers are demanding
access to the raw data from the trials, others believe there are
inconsistencies between the number of trial participants and the efficacy
calculation, and still others have speculated about possible manipulations.
Logunov has rejected all such allegations.
Naming the Vaccine
Kirill Dmitriev is the man
responsible for marketing Sputnik V around the world. A former banker, Dmitriev
went to both Stanford and Harvard, and his rapidly spoken Russian is frequently
peppered with English. In describing the European reservations that he is trying
to overcome, Dmitriev – speaking via Zoom from his office in Moscow – uses the
terms "anxiety" and "overthinking."
Dmitriev is head of the
multibillion-dollar, state-owned Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which
invested in the development and production of the vaccine. Dmitriev is
well-connected. His wife attended university and continues to work with
Katerina Tikhonova, Putin's presumed daughter, who leads a foundation promoting
innovation.
If the Gamaleya Institute is the
birthplace of the COVID-19 vaccine, then Dmitriev is the one who christened it,
having come up with the name Sputnik V. Initially, it was simply called
Gam-Covid-Vac, which is how it is still referred to on Russian vaccine
certificates. But it is bought and sold under the name Sputnik V.
"We underestimated the degree to
which Sputnik would be associated with a race in the West."
Kirill Dmitriev, head of the state-owned Russian Direct Investment Fund
The V stands for
"vaccine," but also for "victory." And "Sputnik,"
of course, is a reference to Moscow's triumph in the race for space between the
superpowers: That was the name of the first satellite launched into orbit by
the Soviet Union in 1957. "Americans were surprised when they heard
Sputnik's beeping," Dmitriev said back in July 2020. "It's the same
with this vaccine. Russia will have got there first."
This kind of chest-pounding rhetoric
did the vaccine no favors abroad. These days, Dmitriev is a bit less strident.
"We underestimated the degree to which Sputnik would be associated with a
race in the West." He says that in such a crisis, cooperation is more
important than competition.
Currently, relations are
particularly difficult with the European Union. "Europe has the impression
that Sputnik V is doing all it can to force its way into the EU. As if Russia
would absolutely need it. In truth, though, it's the other way around: Europe
needs Sputnik," says Dmitriev. Russia, he says, must first take care of
itself and it has plenty of other partners.
Dmitriev believes that the
pharmaceutical concerns and their lobby are behind the reservations against
Sputnik V. "They wanted to kill Sputnik from the very beginning. First,
they claimed that we had stolen the recipe, then that we hadn't registered it
properly, then that it was ineffective or dangerous," he says. "And
now, with all of those objections cleared up, comes the final argument: It is a
Russian vaccine."
Bild
vergrößern
Gamaleya
Director Ginzburg: "I can understand the skepticism. From outside, the process
looked overly hasty, as though we were trying to be the first."
Foto: Denis
Sinyakov / DER SPIEGEL
Politicians in Brussels are waiting
to see if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will recommend that the vaccine
be authorized. "We are shocked that the European Commission hasn't yet
begun negotiations for the purchase of Sputnik," Dmitriev says, adding
that Europe started talks with other producers before authorization was
complete.
EU Approval?
Thus far, the only EU member states
that have authorized Sputnik are Hungary and Slovakia, with both having decided
to move ahead on their own without the EU. An authorization for the entire bloc
is still months away, and the EMA only started its rolling review in early
March. Russia, though, applied for the review on January 21, Putin claimed last
week. EMA denies that assertion. Indeed, it looks as though the application was
not filed correctly.
In April, EMA experts will travel to
Russia to visit production facilities and hospitals in addition to examining
the clinical data. Gamaleya Institute head Ginzburg has assigned 10 staff members
to assist the process.
Bild
vergrößern
The vaccine has been approved in more than 50 countries.
Foto: Fethi
Belaid / AFP
Mariya Granz was one of the first in
the city to be vaccinated. That was back in September, at a time when doctors
had priority. "It was frightening," says the medical doctor, "as
though I was flying into space myself." She says that aside from a slight
fever after the second dose, side effects were minimal. The 41-year-old is
organizing the city's vaccination campaign.
Slightly over 7,000 residents of
Veliky Novgorod have received at least one dose of the vaccine, not even 5
percent of the adult population. "That isn't much," she says. Moscow
has given her a target of 60 percent of the adult population by the end of
June.
Getting there, though, won't be
easy, and there are a lot of hurdles along the way. In the vaccination room of
Polyclinic Nr. 4 on the Saturday before last, they ran out of vaccine for those
receiving their first doses. One of the two refrigerators where the vaccine is
stored was completely empty, with a new shipment only expected in two days.
That meant they were only able to administer the vaccine to those coming in for
their second doses. One disappointed visitor could barely contain his anger as
he left without his jab.
Irina Istomina, acting deputy health
minister for the Novgorod oblast, speaks of a "previously announced delay
in delivery" and insists that there is no shortage of vaccine. By the end
of March, she says, she is expecting to receive doses for an additional 12,000
people.
Just recently, a video conference
between Putin and the vaccine producer focused on the need to ramp up
production. According to the president, Russia has thus far managed to produce
enough Sputnik V doses for 20 million people. The industry minister has
promised that another 17 million doses will be produced in April. But RDIF head
Dmitriev has high hopes for overseas production, particularly in India. By the
end of the year, 700 million people are to have been vaccinated with Sputnik V.
At the current pace, Russia will need
three years before half the population has received at least one dose of
vaccine.
Indeed, the largest problem Russia
is currently facing isn't a lack of vaccine, but a lack of people willing to
get it. According to a survey conducted by the independent pollsters from the
Levada Center, only 30 percent of respondents are willing to receive the
Sputnik V vaccine. Part of that, though, is the consequence of the Kremlin
having spent months playing down the threat posed by the virus.
No Need to Wait
The state media completely ignores
the excess mortality of 465,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic. The
highly contagious coronavirus mutations also go largely unmentioned. And this
despite the fact, says Gamaleya head Ginzburg, that Sputnik V has proven
effective against the British variant.
Bild
vergrößern
People waiting to be vaccinated at the GUM department store on Red Square
Foto: NATALIA
KOLESNIKOVA / AFP
There are no concerns in Russia of
people jumping the line to get vaccinated early. Indeed, those who want to be
vaccinated can generally get an appointment quickly, regardless of age or
underlying health conditions. And nowhere is the wait as short as it is in
Moscow.
Health officials have set up a
vaccination station under the glass ceiling of the well-known GUM luxury
department store on Red Square. It is midday and jazz music is playing quietly
from the speakers. Young volunteers eagerly greet the few people who show up.
No registration is needed, just a passport and a mobile phone number.
Ivan Sakharov, a 20-year-old
economics student, says that his circle of friends is divided. Half of them, he
says, don't trust Sputnik V and are wary of the side effects. "I don't
want to infect my grandmother, so I'm getting vaccinated," he says.
Sakharov briefly closes his eyes as
the vaccine is injected into his upper arm, and then he gets a free ice cream
as a reward.
More on Sputnik V
The Power of Reliable
Data: Can Vaccines from Russia and China Be a Game Changer? By Jörg Blech
A first dose of the vaccine has been
administered to 6.3 million Russians, with 4.3 million having received both.
Those numbers are astoundingly low given how early the country was able to
launch its vaccination campaign. Even in Germany, far more people have received
their first dose. At the current pace, Russia will need three years before half
the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
One might think that the researchers
at the Gamaleya Institute would be disappointed in their compatriots. But
Ginzburg is philosophic. "It takes time for such a decision to mature in
people," he says.
It's almost as if not just Putin,
but also the Russian people, view Sputnik V more as an achievement that can
help Russia's standing in the world than as a contribution to the health of the
country's population. Something best observed and admired from a great distance
– just like the accomplishment of the satellite back in the 1950s.
As such, the name was well chosen.
With additional reporting by Alexander Chernyshev
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