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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Russia’s Vaccine Missteps

Russia’s Vaccine Missteps

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Russia and China have been exporting their SARS-CoV-2 vaccine to build goodwill. At the same time, however, they have been taking steps that undermine that goodwill. Russia has built up its military forces as if to attack Ukraine and is now building them down; additionally, information has come out about earlier attacks on Czech and Bulgarian arms depots. China has been imprisoning Uyghurs in concentration (“reeducation”) camps and has been militarily active in the South China Sea.

Both vaccines, like the AstraZeneca vaccine, use an adenovirus to carry in parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to provoke an immune response. The method has been used successfully for an Ebola vaccine.

Brazil and Slovakia have now rejected Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine because it is not as advertised. For a vaccine, the adenovirus must be made incapable of replicating or inducing its own immune reaction. This is accomplished by deleting two genes. Both countries’ regulatory agencies found the adenovirus capable of replicating, and Brazil found immunogenicity.

The original Sputnik V was properly developed. Its information has been published, and it has been used widely across Russia, although it did not have a Type 3 trial of the sort required by America’s Food and Drug Administration for approval. Another part of FDA approval is inspection of the factories and their procedures that will mass produce the vaccines.

Although the widespread distribution of Sputnik V is, in effect, a Type 3 trial, the problem with the vaccines delivered to Brazil and Slovakia seems to originate in production. Somehow the vaccine was contaminated with a wild adenovirus, which are common. This is a failure of quality control.

Meanwhile, Russian twitter is trash-talking other vaccines. Not a good look.

More here about the technical side, and a Twitter thread that says much the same thing.

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner

Reader Interactions

58Comments

  1. 1.

    craigie

    I guess you either want to help humanity or you want to take over the world. You can’t really do both.

  3. 3.

    jo6pac

    Just more talking points from writer to a friendly Amerikan and British govt. propaganda. bellingcat is a mouth piece for m-16. It’s sadly just more Russia & China bad and Amerika good. brazil and india are leading in deaths not a good sign. Sad

  4. 4.

    Mary G

    FTFNYT: Rudy Tooty in trouble:

    Federal investigators in Manhattan executed a search warrant on Wednesday at the Upper East Side apartment of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who became President Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, stepping up a criminal investigation into Mr. Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
    One of the people said the investigators had seized Mr. Giuliani’s electronic devices.
    Executing a search warrant is an extraordinary move for prosecutors to take against a lawyer, let alone a lawyer for a former president, and it marks a major turning point in the long-running investigation into Mr. Giuliani.

  7. 7.

    MattF

    Derek Lowe has a second post on the matter, specifically about the Russian bad behavior.

    ETA: It’s really quite mind-boggling that the technical details of vaccine manufacturing have gotten politicized.

  8. 8.

    Old School

    As I interpret that technical article, the vaccine is still effective concerning COVID-19 and probably won’t cause big problems, but will cause respiratory infections in some people.

    But rather than correcting the issue, they opted to choose the “Fake News!” response.

    (I think you’ve said all this, but I’m simplifying.)

  10. 10.

    Another Scott

    Thanks for this.

    We really are in a golden age of getting important factual information out quickly and wide. It’s a shame that we have to fight with so much disinformation in the process…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  11. 11.

    Laura Too

    So the Russian vaccine has a live virus? Does it cause Covid or another virus? I vaguely remember the swine flu vaccine fiasco, my grandparents got very sick. Is this the same sort of thing?

  13. 13.

    Fair Economist

    A replication-competent adenovirus vector is a whopper of a goof in this era. There’s not the faintest excuse for adenovirus replication genes even being in a production factory with so many excellent production vectors available. Truly amateur hour and you can’t trust anything from a system displaying such incompetence.

  14. 14.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @sab: More than that. There are dangers associated with the still-active adenovirus, including infections and excessive immune response.

    ETA: Agree with Fair Economist.

  17. 17.

    Fair Economist

    @Laura Too: Another virus; the one they used to package the spike protein, which happens to be an adenovirus vector. Human adenoviruses are normally considered cold viruses but they used a chimp adenovirus; so on top of everything else wrong about this there’s a real possibility they just added a new human common cold virus, if the vector proves able to spread between humans.

    Edit: *or* can recombine with a human adenovirus to make an infectious virus.

    This Brazilian finding properly should require a worldwide stop on the Sputnik vaccine until everything can be sorted out.

  19. 19.

    Ken

    @Old School: In the tweet thread, there’s also a question of whether the recombination that allowed the adenovirus to reproduce, might also have removed the spike protein gene.  It sounded like there’s no evidence either way on that.

    The concern obviously is, if that did happen, you’re basically giving people respiratory infections with the replication-ready virus, but not giving any resistance to COVID.

  20. 20.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Mary G:

    491
    2.4K
    6.1K

    DL
    @koreandad
    Replying to
    @NatashaBertrand
    I’m sure they didn’t find a toothbrush
    12:07 PM · Apr 28, 2021·Twitter for Android

    Incoming 10000 word stream of consciousness screed from Greenwald to be posted in a bit….

  23. 23.

    MattF

    @Mary G: Re: Rudy. I read a New York magazine article a year or two ago that explained Rudy’s behavior i.t.o. absolute, complete shamelessness. It’s been helpful to keep that in mind.

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    @jo6pac:

    Glem, dat you? What are your fresh thoughts on the patriots living in Crimea?

    He’s been back to sockpuppeting LGM so why not also at a top 10k poliblog? Lockdown in Brazil, baby.

  26. 26.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Laura Too: This is my question. What does it actually mean if it’s got a live virus – that the vaccine adenovirus can infect others without getting a shot and spread somehow?

    ETA: I see this question has already been answered. Yikes, what a fuckup.

  29. 29.

    MisterForkbeard

    @trollhattan: Well, it’s not like being Tucker’s sidekick is actually difficult:

    1. Call into the show
    2. It’s Dems Fault
    3. Dems are the Real Racists/Sexists/Fascists
    4. Get supporting facts wrong

    Bam, money. And we know Glenn gets REALLY MAD when people accurately describe him and has a history with LGM, so I guess it makes sense.

  32. 32.

    cain

    @schrodingers_cat: You have to read this article, it will amuse the fuck out of you. This was posted on our family whatsapp:

    What made USA change its heart in a day and agree to release embargo on raw material for SII & Bharat biotech?

    As soon as Biden took to office, American Pharma companies lost no time and made full efforts to capture Indian vaccine market at the right time. While India is facing most challenging situation, the US Pharma lobby used diplomatic arm-twisting to achieve their end.

    While the USA pharma lobby was successful in using oval office of POTUS to block raw material required for manufacturing covid vaccine in india, they forgot one crucial aspect ” Yeh naya bharat he, ghar me ghusega be or thokega bi”

    While in the past 73 years of independent India, very rarely the country had a political leadership that understood business. The whole world runs on business, global trade and the present Indian leadership did not lose its focus either.

    While America wielded its wand threatening blockage of raw material, India and its national security advisor very silently without going to the media sent a clear message to American NSA that if you know a trick of the game we know how to play it better.

    India made America realise that the critical raw material required for manufacturing covid vaccine by Pfizer is being manufactured and supplied by an indian company based in Mumbai and if America doesn’t oblige global trade commitments then India may as well pay it back in kind.

    In this game, There are two important aspects that we as Indians should appreciate, Indian prime Minister did not speak to the American president but it was Indian NSA who spoke to American NSA, I.e If America can invoke wartime provision, so can we is the message. Second while America taunted and whent to media, India did not speak a word but straightaway got to business. message is clear, we mean business and no nonsense.

    While many Indians may not have observed this, the whole world has..!! on how India has just shown the finger to big brother and wasted no time moving in to take its new position in the global world order.

    Under these challenging situations where india media is selling fear and Doomsday scenario this development has made my day, as they saying goes,
    ‘Spine grows at the back when pushed to the wall’ today we should be proud as Indians that Atma Nirbhar is not just a catchy phrase but is becoming part of every Indians belief & India is not a land of snake charmers naysayers.

    Jai hind.

    https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/us-restricts-vaccine-raw-materials-to-india-but-depends-on-rare-ingredient-from-mumbai-firm/story/437257.html

    After the “Jai Hind” I just laughed.. stupid motherfucker.

    —-

  33. 33.

    Marmot

    The makers apparently neglected to delete E1, so getting this vaccine means being infected with live adenovirus 5.

    What! This is unbelievably sloppy.

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Although the widespread distribution of Sputnik V is, in effect, a Type 3 trial, the problem with the vaccines delivered to Brazil and Slovakia seems to originate in production. Somehow the vaccine was contaminated with a wild adenovirus, which are common. This is a failure of quality control.

    Very interesting post. The probable source of the problem is clearly explained.

    Thanks much.

  36. 36.

    Ken

    @Cheryl Rofer: The remarkable thing about Derek Lowe’s two articles is that the comments aren’t (yet) full of people defending Russia’s vaccine program.  Maybe it’s too late at night for the sock puppets to be up.

  38. 38.

    schrodingers_cat

    Guys COVID in Delhi has reached my family’s doorstep. Husband kitteh’s cousin and his aunt both have it. Aunt is in her mid 80s and barely breathing. My SIL, the medic in Mumbai is giving her advice over the phone because there is no way she can get medical help in the hellscape that India’s capital is right now.

    These are upper caste privileged people, I don’t even know how the have-nots are coping.

  43. 43.

    Barbara

    Thanks for the very clear explanation. I do think that people might be underestimating the complexity of manufacturing vaccines when they ask for IP rules to be waived or relaxed. The nightmare scenario would be for countries to expend resources manufacturing a vaccine that fails at some point in the production process. I am honestly not sure what the answer is here.

  44. 44.

    Ken

    @MattF: He doesn’t usually delete comments, even when the hydroxychloroquine contingent was at their worst. And in his second post, he actually invites them to jump in: “Come at me.” Maybe that discouraged them?

  45. 45.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

    Thanks for the very clear explanation. I do think that people might be underestimating the complexity of manufacturing vaccines when they ask for IP rules to be waived or relaxed.

    Even though vaccine production is complex, the development, testing and production protocols are well known and have been clearly established. Response to Ebola and other diseases, have helped scientists all over the world come up with standards of practice.

    And even though you have “Warp Speed” and other programs to speed up vaccine development, you still have to have key checks in the process to try to prevent major disasters.

    Russia appears to have screwed up big time. The one good thing is that at least one major misstep has been clearly identified.

  46. 46.

    Bill Arnold

    @cain: ​
    Is(are?) BJP(/toxic nationalists) really trying to blame the US for their willfully incompetent(/malignant) pandemic response? Is it getting electorally significant traction in the general population?
    (Yeah, the article is gibberish on several levels.)

  47. 47.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Barbara: You’re welcome. There’s been a lot of discussion the past few days of manufacturing versus patents. The m-RNA vaccines require quite a different manufacturing setup than any previous vaccines. Today’s NYT has an illustrated article on it.

    It’s probably some of both – maybe Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers don’t want to spend on building an m-RNA factory unless they have access to the patent rights, for example.

    The aid the US is sending to India is in other areas than patent rights. I think this is the right priority – what is needed now is oxygen and support for sick people. Even vaccines aren’t going to help much with what is happening now.

  50. 50.

    Bill Arnold

    @Brachiator:

    Russia appears to have screwed up big time. The one good thing is that at least one major misstep has been clearly identified.

    Another major screw-up has been the severe (factor of 3?4?) Russian undercounting of COVID-19 deaths, made quite clear by the excess deaths statistics. That casts automatic suspicions of lying on any health-stat numbers out of Russia, including vaccine clinical trial data and post-vaccination safety data.

    The tweet thread that Cheryl linked[1] is more evidence that the people marketing the Gamaleya vaccine are liars and cannot be trusted.
    Why do they do this? It’s so breathtakingly stupid; one does not easily (or quickly) repair a reputation as liars.

    [1]  Bergstrom thread. (The lies are composite lies, crafted from from a collection of true but irrelevant facts.)

    1. Today’s antivax propaganda comes from a….vaccine manufacturer?

    Unfortunately, yes. The manufacturer of the Sputnik V vaccine is tweeting absolutely nonsense statistics in an effort to question the safety record of its competitors. pic.twitter.com/Mizd5qo2Lc
    — Carl T. Bergstrom (@CT_Bergstrom) April 27, 2021

  51. 51.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Bill Arnold:

    Why do they do this? It’s so breathtakingly stupid; one does not easily (or quickly) repair a reputation as liars.

    As I was writing the OP, I consciously steered away from saying “Russia is Russia.” I hate essentialist explanations like that. But it’s entirely consistent with their history and exacerbated by Putin’s presidency

    ETA: The vaccines are an opportunity to extend soft power. But both Russia and China seem determined to neutralize that.

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    ETA: The vaccines are an opportunity to extend soft power. But both Russia and China seem determined to neutralize that.

    But there are not, so far, problems with China’s vaccine, or am I missing something?

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Not that I know of. By “neutralize that advantage” I mean their concentration camps and militarism, as I said in the OP.

    OK. I understand what you mean.

    There are countries that may downplay objections to how China deals with its internal problems.

  56. 56.

    taumaturgo

    @Cheryl Rofer: although it did not have a Type 3 trial of the sort required by America’s Food and Drug Administration for approval. Another part of FDA approval is inspection of the factories and their procedures that will mass produce the vaccines.

    As far as I understand, none of the vaccines had a Type 3 trial completed, nor the results published in a prestigious medical publication, much less approval by the local health institutions. Nevertheless, the US and the EU granted approval to purchase the vaccines before the type 3 phase trial completion.

    AstraZeneca finished the Phase 3 trials on November 23, yet the EU approved its purchase on August 15 and the US on May 20. Similar situation with Pfizer. Phase 3 Trial concluded on November 18, EU purchased approval 11/11, the US 7/22. Sputnik’s phase 3 trial concluded in February 2021 and the results published in The Lancet confirmed a 91.6% effectiveness.

  57. 57.

    Bill Arnold

    @taumaturgo:

    Nevertheless, the US and the EU granted approval to purchase the vaccines before the type 3 phase trial completion.

    Approval for purchase is not approval for use. You know that.
    Shots started going into non-phase III-study arms in the US after a readout from phase III indicated reasonable statistical confidence in efficacy and safety. The initial ramp up of vaccinations was a continuation of the safety studies.

    Russia approved the Gamaleya vaccine in August, 2020, before phase II results were published. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_V_COVID-19_vaccine )
    That’s a large part of how they fucked up trust. Then they’ve been lying to an absurd degree about COVID-19 death statistics, another big hit to trust. (Can you trust the Russian numbers on e.g. observed Sputnik vaccine side effects? (Hint: No.)) The Gamaleya scientists are competent, and the vaccine design is probably good. (The recent news about Sputnik V containing a “replication-competent” adenovirus is pretty bad but probably not their fault.)

    The anti-mRNA vaccine propaganda being created and spread by the Sputnik V marketing team (probably including the government, cold reading) is not forgivable.
    Seriously, that’s some evil shit, probably driven by a combination of greed and zero-sum nationalism, amplified by arrogance.

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