Alessio D'Amato, head of health in the central region of Italy, the administrative region of Lazio, has denied the statement of the European Commissioner (EC) for the internal market, Thierry Breton, that the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is unnecessary for the European Union. This is reported by TASS.
According to him, Europe needs many effective vaccines, since vaccination will not be limited to a few months. D'Amato added that it is necessary to organize the production of vaccines, including “Sputnik V”, in Europe to provide doses to other countries in Africa and Asia.
“We need 12 billion doses worldwide. We need to join forces, and no one can consider themselves self-sufficient in the current situation, especially when there are significant delays in the delivery schedule in Europe,” he stressed.
D'Amato noted that vaccination requires a “global vision.” He stated that it is necessary to provide the whole world with drugs for coronavirus in order to exterminate the infection. “If we immunize the population here and mutations of the coronavirus appear in other parts of the world, its circulation will not stop,” he said.
Earlier, Breton said that Europe would not need Sputnik V, as the EU had already approved four other drugs that would be enough to achieve herd immunity. “Since we are the continent where the most approved by the medical regulator are four vaccines, and we are leading in their production, we will absolutely not need Sputnik V,” said the European Commissioner.
Sputnik V is the first registered Russian coronavirus vaccine based on adenovirus. The drug is registered in more than 50 countries. Currently, the development of Russian scientists is among the ten best vaccine candidates in the list of the World Health Organization (WHO).
