Putin Claims Russia Has 'First' Coronavirus Vaccine, Daughter Inoculated

Russian registered the first coronavirus vaccine for public use on Tuesday despite skepticism from the international community over its actual effectiveness.

As of Tuesday, Russia had over 898,000 confirmed cases and 15,201 reported deaths from coronavirus.

“As far as I know, this morning the first vaccine against the novel conoravirus infection in the world was registered this morning,” President Vladimir Putin said during a government meeting. “I know it has proven efficient and forms a stable immunity, and I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests.

“We must be grateful to those who made that first step very important for our country and the entire world.”

Putin said one of his two adult daughters, though he did not say which one, had already been inoculated and had already showed positive results. He said his daughter received two shots and she had experienced a small bump in her temperature before dropping the day after.

“She’s feeling well and has high number of antibodies,” Putin said.

The Russian Health Ministry said it expects the vaccine to provide immunity for two years and inoculations could start during August. All inoculations will be voluntary, with the first inoculations reserved for medical workers, teachers, and other high risk groups.

News of the vaccine was met positively on Wall Street with the Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 all reporting jumps in the futures stock.

“Markets are looking forward to better days ahead,” LPL Financial equity strategist Jeff Buchbinder told CNBC. “Although the timing is uncertain, the stock market is expressing confidence that the pandemic will end eventually with a vaccine — or multiple vaccines — and with help from better treatments in the interim.”

However, news of the vaccine has been met with skepticism and concern by the international community about how quickly it was apparently developed. The vaccine only entered Phase 3 trials in the last week, a process the World Health Organization says typically takes months and can involve thousands of volunteers. By rushing the tests, the WHO said it’s easy to miss potential health risks from side-effects and undermine the public’s trust in vaccines.

There have also been questions over how Russia acquired some of the information it had to develop a potential vaccine, with U.S. officials accusing Russian hackers of stealing existing vaccine information.