The Russian Embassy in the United States called on the US authorities to focus their efforts on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, rather than criticizing the Russian vaccine. The corresponding message was posted on the Twitter of the Russian diplomatic mission on Wednesday.
"Do not try to downplay the significance of the constructive proposal of the President [of Russia Vladimir] Putin announced that a high-level online conference would soon be held for countries interested in collaborating on the development of COVID-19 vaccines. Save American lives. Fight COVID-19, not Russian vaccines," Russian diplomats wrote, attaching a message on Twitter from the head of the State Department's press service, Morgan Ortegus, who expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the Russian vaccine.
At the same time, the Embassy posted the text of a briefing at the White House, during which the press secretary of the American leader, Kayleigh McEnany, said that President Donald Trump himself did not exclude the possibility of using coronavirus vaccines produced in other countries in the United States. She was then asked about vaccines made in Russia and China, in response to which McEnany quoted Trump as saying that he would "take off his hat" to the country that would be the first to create an effective vaccine.
On September 22, in a speech that was broadcast at the UN General Assembly session, Putin suggested "holding a high-level online conference in the near future with the participation of States interested in cooperation on creating vaccines against coronavirus."
The US authorities provided $1.2 billion to the AstraZeneca British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, which is developing a vaccine together with scientists from the University of Oxford (UK). In addition, the Washington administration has allocated $486 million to the Moderna American biotech company and $456 million to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company. Merck and Pfizer are also developing a coronavirus vaccine in the United States. According to the White House, the US administration has invested a total of $12 billion in these projects.
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Photo: Mikhail Dzhaparidze\TASS
Based on materials TASS