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Early results from trials of a Covid vaccine developed in Russia
suggest it could be 92% effective.
The data is based on 20 cases of Covid-19 from 16,000 volunteers
given the Sputnik V vaccine or a dummy injection.
While some scientists welcomed the news, others said the data
had been rushed out too early.
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It comes after Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine could prevent 90%
of people getting Covid-19, based on a study of 43,500 people.
Although the Sputnik data is based on fewer people being vaccinated and
fewer cases of Covid developing during the trial, it does confirm
promising results from earlier research.
The Sputnik V vaccine, developed at the National Research Centre for
Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, is currently going through
phase III clinical trials in Belarus, UAE, Venezuela and India.
So far there are no safety issues, with Russian researchers saying there
were "no unexpected adverse events" 21 days after volunteers received
their first of two injections.
Questions to answer
But there's still a long way to go - this is interim data and, like the
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trial, the data is still being collected and the
full results have not yet been published or scrutinised.
There are questions that still need answering for both vaccines - for
example, how well does it protect older people who are most at risk and
how long does protection from the vaccine last?
The Russian researchers say their data will be published "in one of the
leading international peer-reviewed medical journals".
If it's positive, it means there will almost certainly be more than one
way of protecting people against the virus.
Hundreds of vaccines are in development and around a dozen are in the
final stages of testing - the Sputnik, Pfizer and Oxford vaccines are
three of those.
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