Russia names vaccine after space ship that won the space race.
The Russians apparently have won the race for the first approval of a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the country registered its vaccine and that after passing phase three trials will be made available by January 1, 2021. “It works quite effectively, it forms a stable immunity and, I repeat, has passed all the necessary checks,” Putin said. The vaccine will not be mandatory. Putin named it Sputnik V, an appropriately named drug seeing how the original Sputnik was the name of the rocket that started the space race and put Russians in space before anyone else.
