Russian Min: COVID-19 vaccine first series in two weeks; some experts worry

Moscow said on Tuesday it approved the first anti-coronavirus vaccine in the world.

"The vaccine's quality control is going on. In the next two weeks the first series will be produced and delivered to the medical staff at risk," Murashko said.

In the meantime, the Balkan correspondent for the Russian Komersant daily Genadij Sisoyev told N1 that it was politically significant for Russia to be the first country in the world to register the COVID-19 vaccine and to start its mass production.

He confirmed that the medical staff in Russia would be first vaccinated, but said the mass production would start in September and the vaccination in October.

According to the Sputnik's report, Murashko said the vaccination would be voluntary for everyone, including the medical staff.

He said "the production of the vaccine will be for the domestic market at first since we have to meet the needs of our people. But, if there were enough quantity for local use, the vaccine would be exported."

He suggested the vaccine was produced abroad as well and said that negotiations were underway."

 The vaccine is well known and studied as a platform and was pre-clinically and clinically tested. That's why it is the safest way based on scientific knowledge," Murashko said.

However, the public health experts around the world were alerted with the approval of the vaccine, saying it was hard to believe in it without knowing all data of the tests.

"Russia actually experiments with the big population," Ayfer Ali, a specialist in drugs research at 'Warwick Business School' in the UK.

He added that such a fast approval might mean the vaccine could have adverse side effects which would remain undetected.

"Though they are probably rare, they can be dangerous," Ali said.