Does Azerbaijan want to buy a vaccine from Russia?

Baku/28.08.20/Turan: Russia's statement that Azerbaijan wants to buy the antiviral vaccine “Sputnikl V” from Russia has not been confirmed.

The head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Leyla Abdullayeva, told Turan that Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov answered this question in his interview to the Russian TASS news agency on 25 August. In the above interview, Bayramov said that in a telephone conversation with the President Vladimir Putin on August 12, President Ilham Aliyev congratulated Putin on the production of an antiviral vaccine. The Minister also drew attention to the fact that Azerbaijan, like other countries of the world, applied measures to protect against coronavirus. Jeyhun Bayramov also stressed that Azerbaijan, as a WHO member, pays attention to recommendations and methods for the destruction of a new type of virus and protection of the health of citizens.

“As a country interested in purchasing this vaccine in the future, we can consider an offer of cooperation with Russian colleagues in this area, as soon as the necessary procedures for the recognition of the “Sputnik V” vaccine by WHO completed. Undoubtedly, the development of an effective vaccine recognized by the WHO can become a powerful tool in the fight against the pandemic,” Bayramov said.

Medicine professor Adil Geybulla says Azerbaijan has bought from Russia a medicine called “Arbidol”, which acts against coronavirus infection. Russia has earned a total of about $ 3 billion from the sale of “Arbidol”, but no one understood the effect of this drug. The WHO report noted that not only “Arbidol”, but also the most modern drugs are ineffective in the treatment of coronavirus. This medicine was in vain imposed on the population. Now the talk is about the vaccine. The fact is that a vaccine must be approved by WHOM, included in the register, its effectiveness and safety must be taken into account. The very manufacture of the vaccine is a separate issue. We do not yet know at what technological level the vaccine was obtained. For me the vaccine issue as an illusion and believe that we should never buy a vaccine from Russia. If the WHO recommends, then the vaccine could be discussed, Geybulla said.

On August 27, the Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that Azerbaijan had applied for the purchase of the “Sputnik V” vaccine against COVID-19. She noted with reference to the Russian Foreign Ministry that 27 countries expressed a desire to buy the Russian vaccine against coronavirus. Among these countries, Golikova named Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Venezuela, and Kazakhstan.

The United States has added to its sanction list five Russian research institutes involved in the development of the vaccine. According to a document released by the US Department of Commerce, the US authorities have suspicions that these institutions are connected with the military structures of the Russian Federation and "with the Russian chemical program and a testing ground for chemical and biological weapons." There has been a lot of criticism of Russia around the world, accused of insufficient study of the side effects of the Sputnik V vaccine.

Sumiya Swaminathan, chief researcher at the World Health Organization (WHO), announced that it would take a maximum a year and a half to create a vaccine against coronavirus, UN News reported.

According to a WHO employee, it usually takes up to ten years to develop and introduce a new vaccine into production, but now the situation requires a quick solution.-0--