DISINFO: Sputnik V vaccine is now available to more than half of the world's population
SUMMARY
The Nigerian National Food and Drug Control Agency (NAFDAC) has authorised the use of the Russian anti-Covid Sputnik V vaccine, which is thus becoming accessible to nearly 50% of the world's population, announced the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RFPI) on Thursday (15th July) .
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative about the Sputnik V vaccine outshining its Western competitors.
The statement of the Russian Direct Investment Fund only added up the populations of the 68 countries which had signed an agreement with it:
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous state, becomes the 68th country in the world to authorise the use of Sputnik V. The total population of countries where Sputnik V is approved now exceeds 3.7 billion people, or nearly half of the global population.
Indeed Nigeria or India are countries that are very populous, however it doesn't mean that all citizens of those countries have immediate access to Sputnik V.
On the contrary, the availability of Sputnik V-doses has been and is problematic. Production and distribution capacity is insufficient. Delivery and production have often lagged behind expected and signed contracts by more than an order of magnitude (only 17 million doses instead of 896 millions). Countries like Argentina, Guatemala or the Philippines complained regularly about delivery shortfalls. Even the Russian population has little access to the vaccine: as of 18 July 2021, only 14.18 % of the population was fully vaccinated and 7.8% had been partially vaccinated (compared with 46% fully vaccinated in Germany and 14% partially vaccinated on the same date). In absolute numbers, Russia is also behind other European countries: 32 million compared to 36.5 for Italy, 36.8 for France and 50 million for Germany, despite the fact that Sputnik V was approved before other vaccines.
It has been reported that in many Russian regions, the activity of vaccination centres was limited by the lack of some components of the vaccine.
Read also related stories : The EU doesn’t approve Sputnik V due to political and artificial prejudices, The West discredits the most effective Sputnik V and prevents mass vaccination in Russia, Sputnik V is the most effective vaccine against the Indian Covid-19 variant.