Russia's coronavirus vaccine: will it work, and is it safe?

Sputnik V's development has been marked by worrying opacity and ethical issues

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The race to find a vaccine against Covid-19 has not always been particularly edifying, driven at times by so-called vaccine nationalism" - much cautioned against by the World Health Organization, which has itself been invested as much in self-interest and prestige as global public health.

Russia's announcement that it has registered its Sputnik V vaccine as safe and effective for mass production and mass inoculation even before so-called phase 3 large-scale safety trials, which usually take months, fits the pattern.