Russia has started testing its coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V on volunteers aged over 60, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told Sputnik on Friday."We have launched trials of the Sputnik V vaccine, developed by the Russian Health Ministry's Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, on volunteers who are older than 60", Murashko said. It is crucially important to develop [...]

India’s vaccines regulator has given the green light for a clinical study of the Russia-developed Covid-19 vaccine. Similar trials of the formulation are underway in Russia itself and in some other nations. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), a department in India’s drug regulator that is responsible for licensing vaccines, has given its approval for a domestic clinical study of the [...]

Russian journalists are facing prejudice and routine harassment by American authorities, Russia’s Embassy in Washington has warned, after US security services questioned an RT filmmaker for hours and combed through his devices. RT documentarian Konstantin Rozhkov was stopped by US federal agents at a New York airport soon after arriving in the country on Wednesday, where he was subjected to a th [...]

British television host Piers Morgan, known for brash commentary and his support for the US President, earlier in the pandemic savaged the POTUS’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, opening his Daily Mail column with the headline "SHUT THE F*** UP, PRESIDENT TRUMP." British broadcaster Piers Morgan, previously an outspoken champion of Donald Trump, has exclaimed in his typically brusqu [...]

Russia has delivered the first batch of its Covid-19 vaccine to Venezuela, making it the first Latin American nation to participate in Sputnik V’s clinical trial. “We are the first country from the Western Hemisphere which will start the Phase III trial of this vaccine against Covid-19,” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro tweeted, expressing his gratitude to Russia. [...]

As clamor grows for Cuban doctors to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their international work during the pandemic, the US continues to oppose their efforts. It cannot be seen to endorse the idea that the socialist system works. In his book, In Cuba, the late Liberation Catholic priest Father Ernesto Cardinal of Nicaragua relates that, upon visiting Cuba in the mid-1970s, he witnessed an entire c [...]

Officials argue that social distancing rules and the pressure brought by the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may be contributing to the rise in the number of suicides among US military service members. US military suicide rates have increased by at least 20% this year, in comparison to the same period last year, with Defence Department officials considering the COVID-19 pandemic a potentia [...]

Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a top-level conference on joint global development of a Covid-19 vaccine. He also offered UN staff a dose of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for free. The UN General Assembly, held in a coronavirus-appropriate virtual format, kicked off on Tuesday. Putin delivered a speech during its morning session, largely focusing o [...]

Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine against Covid-19, has been under relentless attacks by Western corporate media. Instead of rallying behind a potentially life-saving shot, some are willing to put the whole of humanity at stake. Above all, there are two essential principles that regulate the survival of mankind. One is the ontogenetic, related to the survival of the individual, the other is the phylo [...]

The World Health Organization expects Europe to see a rise in the daily number of Covid-19 deaths in October and November, the head of the body's European branch told AFP. Cases in Europe have risen sharply in recent weeks, especially in Spain and France. More than 51,000 new cases were reported on Friday alone in the 55 countries monitored by WHO Europe, which is more than the highest peak in Ap [...]

The EU has a stated goal of promoting prosperity and stability in the Middle East and North Africa. However, its efforts to secure Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements with its southern neighbours have so far had limited success. Luigi Scazzieri writes that with Covid-19 likely to generate a significant economic fallout in the region, it is time for the EU to make a more ambitious offer. [...]

The world's first anti-COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V was registered in Russia on 11 August, following several rounds of clinical trials and has now been made available to the public across the country. More than a dozen countries have now expressed interest in obtaining the vaccine. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which funded the development of Sputnik V, announced on Wednesday [...]

The Phase 3 trial of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca has been paused, reportedly due to a suspected ‘serious adverse reaction’ by one of the participants in the UK. AstraZeneca only said that its “standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data,” according to a statement by a company spokesperson on Tue [...]

As soon as Russia’s 'Sputnik V' coronavirus vaccine arrives in Venezuela for clinical trials, it may be used to immunize around 14,400 candidates in the upcoming parliamentary election, the country’s president said on Tuesday. A batch of the world's first registered Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the Latin American nation later this month, Nicolas Maduro stated in a televised address. He [...]

Since the launch on August 11 of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Gamaleya Center scientists, Russia has seen immense interest and expressions of hope from many countries and has received requests for 1 billion doses of the vaccine. However, it has also faced criticism and questions from some Western countries and companies, especially those developing their own vaccines—oft [...]

The first batch of Russia’s pioneering coronavirus formula Sputnik V has been approved for public use and has already been placed into circulation, the Ministry of Health in Moscow has announced. The world's first Covid-19 vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, “has undergone necessary quality tests” and “has entered civilian circulat [...]

Russia has unveiled a device said to be capable of detecting and analyzing airborne pathogens like bacteria, toxins and viruses – including Covid-19. It alerts of potential danger within seconds, and then pinpoints its source. Dubbed “Detector Bio,” the device was showcased by the KMZ factory – best known as the manufacturer of Zenit cameras – during the military-industrial forum ‘Army [...]

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said he will be the first person in the country to take Russia’s recently announced Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine when it arrives.“I am pleased that Russia will be the first country in the world to vaccinate its population,” Maduro said in a televised address on Sunday. [...]

The emergence of the first vaccine against the coronavirus infection has sparked interest across the globe, as the drug promises not only an end to COVID-19-related deaths, but also a path to restoring a country's economy. After almost half a year of the battle against the coronavirus, a real ray of hope has appeared with the announcement of the first COVID-19 vaccine being registered in [...]

Production disruptions caused by the Covid-19 outbreak could cost the global economy twice as much as a hypothetical global military conflict, according to figures cited in a recent research by the McKinsey Global Institute. In a report headlined ‘Risk, resilience, and rebalancing in global value chains’, the analysts of US-based consulting firm McKinsey evaluated various risks of a manuf [...]

On Oct. 24, 2019—45 days before the world’s first suspected case of COVID-19 was announced—a new “scorecard” was published called the Global Health Security Index. The scorecard ranked countries on how prepared they were to tackle a serious outbreak, based on a range of measures, including how quickly a country was likely to respond and how well its health care system would “treat the [...]

One of the only countries in Europe not to institute strict lockdown measures amid the coronavirus crisis, Belarus has so far managed to keep virus-related fatalities impressively low. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has taken a shot at the world’s elites, accusing them of taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to put “trillions of dollars in their pockets” while the [...]