What about Russian or Chinese vaccines?

There are four advanced vaccine projects in China and one in Russia - they are all vector vaccines. CanSino's Chinese vaccine candidate is based on an existing, so-called vaccine platform that is already being used against the Ebola virus.

The Russian vaccine called Sputnik-V was stated to be the first, available and safe vaccine. At this point in summer, however, phase III data were not yet available. This study is currently ongoing. It is contrary to common practice to make final statements about the effectiveness or safety without the data of thousands of test subjects.

Efficacy data are not yet available or are not conclusive

According to the press releases of the pharmaceutical companies Biotech and Moderna on their mRNA vaccines, which according to preliminary analyzes reported a protective effect of more than 90 percent, such values ​​were also reported for Sputnik-V. However, since these are based on preliminary data after 20 infections among 16,000 vaccinated test persons, there is no statistical significance for this. So far, the results may have occurred purely by chance. For comparison: In the case of Biotech’s vaccine, preliminary data are available after more than 160 infections among 44,000 subjects.

After the summer, two of the Chinese vaccines were approved with an emergency license for use in the military or in the healthcare sector. The phase III studies that are actually necessary and customary were also only started afterwards. Reliable data on effectiveness or side effects are not yet available. According to the Chinese company Sino harm, more than a million people have already been vaccinated.