Premier Putin worried about his Sputnik vaccine
…Russia will not trust Western vaccines
Earlier today, the Kremlin announced that its premier, Vladimir Putin, had decided to go into quarantine despite his being vaccinated with the Russian vaccine.
Nicknamed Sputnik in honor of the first satellite to orbit the earth, the vaccine was not enough to keep Putin in public after many in his orbit tested positive for Covid-19.
It is almost amusing that Russia has such a high Covid rate, just like the U.S., probably for the same reason. People refuse to take the vaccine.
His inner circle
Putin has struggled to get the Covid situation under control,
President Vladimir Putin will self-isolate after coronavirus cases were detected in his inner circle, the Kremlin said Tuesday, as Russia struggles with stubbornly high Covid infection rates.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin was "absolutely healthy" and had taken a coronavirus test, without specifying the result.
Putin had been due to travel to Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe for a regional summit later this week but in a call with President Emomali Rakhmon said he would not be able to attend in person.
"Putin said that in connection with identified coronavirus cases in his circle, he will observe a self-isolation regime for a certain period of time," the Kremlin said in a statement.
Russian authorities have taken exceptional measures to protect Putin -- who has been vaccinated with Russia's homegrown Sputnik V jab -- since the start of the pandemic.
Foreign leaders, journalists and officials have all been required to self-isolate in advance of being in contact with the longtime Russian leader.
Putin on Monday met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and with Russian athletes returning from the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Russia is among the countries hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic -- with the fifth-highest number of recorded cases according to an AFP tally -- and has struggled to rein in infections despite easy access to vaccines.
“Putin self-isolates after Covid cases in inner circle,” Agence
France-Presse, September 14, 2021
“Vaccine-sceptic population”
The Russians have the same problem as in the U.S., where cases appeared to be under control until the refusal of tens of millions of Republicans to take the vaccine,
Infections have been falling in recent days after a spike in August, but health officials still reported 17,837 new cases and 781 new deaths on Tuesday.
Authorities have struggled with a vaccine-sceptic population, with independent polls showing that a majority of Russians do not plan to be inoculated.
As of Tuesday, about 39.9 million of Russia's 146 million people had been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, which tallies Covid data from the regions.
Russia has several homegrown vaccines freely available to the public, but does not distribute any Western-made jabs.
Moscow, the epicentre of Russia's outbreak, and a host of regions have introduced mandatory vaccination measures to speed up the inoculation drive, and Putin has repeatedly called on Russians to get vaccinated.
The Kremlin initially set a goal of fully inoculating 60 percent of Russia's population by September, but later dropped that target even though free jabs have been available since early December.
“Putin self-isolates after Covid cases in inner circle,” Agence
France-Presse, September 14, 2021
The home-grown vaccines that the Russians are relying on are Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, VociVac, and Sputnik Light.
Putin obviously does not have faith in them.
Comments