DISINFO: Oxford vaccine does not work, Russian is more efficent
SUMMARY
Armenia wants to buy a British vaccine against coronavirus, from which several people have already died, it is expensive, besides, the situation in England is terrible now, practically that vaccine does not work. They buy English so as not to buy Russian, while Russian is more efficient, it works, the world has accepted it. Why is this being done? They do not bring vaccines here to save people from the coronavirus but to make money and put people in a worse situation.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation on coronavirus aiming to promote the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and discredit Western vaccines, particularly Oxford University vaccine Astra Zeneca.
The claim that Astra Zeneca does not work is not true. The primary analysis of the Phase III clinical trials from the UK, Brazil and South Africa, published as a preprint in The Lancet confirmed COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca is safe and effective at preventing COVID-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalisations, more than 22 days after the first dose. Results demonstrated vaccine efficacy of 76% (CI: 59% to 86%) after a first dose, with protection maintained to the second dose.
The claim, that Armenia is buying Astra Zeneca to make money out of it is false. Armenia is collaborating with the COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level. The latest offer from the COVAX was the purchase of AstraZeneca, which should be used to vaccinate 3% of the population.
"The Republican Advisory Expert Commission on Immunoprophylaxis has decided to approve this proposal, taking into account the price of the vaccine ($ 4 per dose) and delivery time (March 2021)," the Ministry of Health said. At the same time, the negotiations with international partners and companies supplying vaccines from other manufacturers, including the Russian Sputnik V, are on-going.