With the entire world being affected by the COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic, teams of scientists and researchers have been on the quest to find a cure or vaccine for this deadly virus. Just a couple of days back, Russia announced the registering of the world's first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine - named Sputnik V, was developed jointly by the Gamaleya Institute and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Russian President showed his confidence in this vaccine by revealing that one of his two daughters had also be inoculated with it. However, there have been a lot of voices from across the medical fraternity in different countries, about this vaccine as it had been approved even before the most important Phase 3 trials! Many people have been expressing their unhappiness with the hurriedness in the usage of this vaccine.

Now, it has come to light that Russia had offered to help USA's Operation Warp Speed (OWS) with this vaccine but it seems the US officials have turned down this offer! The OWS is a US multi-agency body set up to accelerate access to effective COVID-19 vaccine and treatment! International media reports state that Russian officials had offered help to USA to secure their own vaccine and also access to the Sputnik V but that they were rebuffed! A prominent media house has quoted a US public-health official as stating, "There's no way in hell the US tries this (Russian vaccine Sputnik V) on monkeys, let alone people!" Another report states a Russian official as telling, "We offered the US access to our vaccine but they are not currently open to the idea!" Another prominent international media house quoted a senior Russian official as telling them under anonymity, "There is a general sense of mistrust of Russia on the American side, and we believe that technologies - including vaccine, testing and treatments - are not being adopted in US because of that mistrust!" 

The development of Russia's COVID vaccine Sputnik V has been shrouded in secrecy and those who were said to be working on it have been accused of taking shortcuts to appease the Kremlin, which wants to win the global race to find a COVID vaccine at any cost! The general consensus across the world is that the WHO nor any country other than Russia would take Sputnik V seriously, as they did not follow standard procedures and have not completed the Stage 3 testing to prove the efficiency of the vaccine. However, with all these debates raging on one hand, Russia has not released any scientific data on its vaccine yet! Stay tuned for updates...