Anastasia Levchenko - Issues around the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, are highly politicized in the European Union, but an emergency approval for its use in a big country like Italy could shift the rhetoric and spur other nations to follow suit, Vincenzo Trani, the president of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce (CCIR), told Sputnik
GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th March, 2021) Anastasia Levchenko - Issues around the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, are highly politicized in the European Union, but an emergency approval for its use in a big country like Italy could shift the rhetoric and spur other nations to follow suit, Vincenzo Trani, the president of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce (CCIR), told Sputnik.
In early March, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) started a rolling review of the Sputnik V vaccine. Prior to that, two EU countries, Hungary and Slovakia, approved Sputnik V without waiting for authorization from the EMA. On Monday, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President Rik Daems said at a meeting with Russian lower house speaker Viacheslav Volodin that the EU was considering member states' requests for buying Sputnik V. The European Commission said on the same day that there were no talks on a centralized purchase of the Russian vaccine.
"I think it might be a taboo, authorizing the Russian vaccine, as for some it could mean bringing down the wall of rhetoric against Russia, and I am sure that if a big country like Italy were to approve the use of the Russian vaccine, many other countries would follow it. Now is the time to save lives, we can leave geopolitics to other political salons or forums," Trani said in an interview.
At the moment, the EMA has authorized four COVID-19 vaccines the ones by AstraZeneca/Oxford, Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson. The bloc is now at 6.4 percent of its population vaccinated with at least one dose, which is much lower compared to some other regions.
"I think it is clear to everyone that initially it was not in Russia's plans to supply the Sputnik V vaccine to Europe, as three international companies had already, on paper, guaranteed coverage of the entire needs of the old continent. Just recently, after experiencing severe delays in deliveries, has the Sputnik V theme returned to the fore for Europe, especially after multiple studies that confirmed its scientific value," Trani said.
Since January, the EU has been facing delays in the deliveries of vaccines as producers fail to meet the growing demand. Earlier in March, Europe blocked a shipment of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine to Australia, invoking the new regulation that allows exports to be stopped if a vaccine manufacturer does not meet its obligations to the bloc. In these circumstances, Trani believes, the EU should weigh all vaccines available for use, based on their efficacy rather than politicking.
"I think extra effort is needed to provide vaccines to everyone and fast ... As an entrepreneur I see that there are currently various vaccines available. I would not look too much at the state of production or development of vaccines, but I would rather consider their effectiveness, regardless of country or nationality," he said, adding that "political views towards Russia have influenced the [EU] choice of which vaccine to use."
Many "advanced" countries have already approved the Russian vaccine, and Italy should follow suit, Trani continued.
"I think that Italy or Europe should do like the United Arab Emirates did, where all vaccines are available: from Chinese to Russian, along with the British or American ones," he added.
The CCIR president stressed that it is high time politics was put aside and Europe took action toward reopening borders by the summer, as further lockdowns or total closures are no longer affordable.
The EU immunization campaign, meanwhile, is facing another blow as a cascading number of countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland and Norway, suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of dangerous blood clots and even deaths after getting the shots from a particular batch of shots.
The UK-Swedish drugmaker says that it had found no evidence of increased risk of blood clots from its COVID-19 vaccine after a review of safety data of over 17 million inoculated people across the EU and the United Kingdom. The EMA is expected to unveil its findings on Thursday.
