18:24 into
the video: Question: Big news today from Russia was that the
Russians have approved a covid-19 vaccine that hasn’t even been through phase 3
clinical trials. What do you make of this, Mike?
Michael
Osterholm: This is a propaganda stunt. Seriously, that’s all it can be. No one
in public health could recommend that you put forward a vaccine in most urgent
of conditions without a phase 3 study. Remember last week I talked about the different
phases and the fact that we have to understand more about how well it works,
how safe it is, etc. in these larger studies
and I think you’ve heard today from the
public health community around the world including WHO, the grave concern about
what they’ve done in Russia, and you
couldn’t get me to take this vaccine for
the life of me.
And I am truly
sorry, I would never give it to any of my loved ones and family members and I
surely would not recommend it to any of you. So we need to have the kind of
data that we can assure the public, that we can assure ourselves, that this
vaccine is effective, that it’s safe to the extent we possibly can, and
anything short of that I think endangers public health. My fear is that if something
does happen with the vaccine and the human recipients in Russia, that will get painted
across the board as being something that all international related vaccines
will get painted with and I think it will be a real disservice. So I uniformly
reject what the Russians have done and I think it is dangerous.
Aug 17 update. As a letter to the editor in the Jerusalem Post
as Russia’s
putative COVID cure
