Gamaleya Center Director Alexander Gintsburg has called on Russia to develop genetic vaccine prototypes in anticipation of future public health crises.

To avoid another Covid-like pandemic, it is necessary to create a “national collection” of vaccine preparations designed to counter the “characteristics of possible pandemic pathogens”, Gintsburg said in an interview with TASS. Vaccine formulas can be “developed and created using certified and tested technology. Currently in our country such technology … is the technology used to make Sputnik V, that is, the technology of genetically engineered adenoviral vectors,” he explained.

The rapid deployment of vaccine preparations will play a crucial role in fighting a “possible pandemic pathogen, or ‘Disease X’ as they call it in Davos”, Gintsburg said, referring to recent discussions at the World Economic Forum about the arrival of a hypothetical “Disease X”.

The lead scientist behind Sputnik V told TASS that the Covid pandemic had demonstrated how safe and effective vaccines could be created not in decades, but in as little as five months. Ideally, vaccines should be administered to the public 1 to 1.5 months in advance to stop future pandemics from ravaging the population and the economy, Gintsburg said.

Despite Gintsburg’s confidence in his genetic vaccine formula, the Russian government has declined to disclose the results of Sputnik V’s “tested technology”. In January 2022, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection Alexei Kurinny filed a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office about the Ministry of Health’s unwillingness to release Sputnik V’s clinical trial results.

The ministry defended its decision by explaining that data about Sputnik V’s safety and efficacy was “confidential and contains information constituting a commercial secret.”

In October 2023, the State Duma Committee on Health Protection rejected a proposed bill authored by Kurinny that would have required drug makers to publish the final results of clinical trials.

In the same month, Gintsburg revealed that Sputnik V was no longer effective against Covid and that the drug’s formula would have to be updated.

TASS reported last week that close to 300,000 doses of the updated vaccine have been shipped to Russia’s regions.

Gamaleya is also developing an updated Covid vaccine for adolescents. On Tuesday, Gintsburg announced that no adverse reactions had been identified while testing the new drug on children ages 12-17.

Under new rules adopted last year by the Russian Ministry of Health, modifications to Sputnik V can receive authorization after being tested on “50 healthy volunteers”. The approval process takes between 16-38 days.

Russian authorities have spoken openly about their intention to continue producing and distributing Sputnik V. In October 2022, Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the main financer of Sputnik V, said RDIF was ready to produce and distribute new versions of the vaccine within two to three months after the appearance of new mutations.

Dmitriev, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (Class of 2009), worked for Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Company before taking the reins at RDIF in 2011.

About the Author

Riley Waggaman is your humble Moscow correspondent. He worked for RT, Press TV, Russia Insider, yadda yadda. In his youth, he attended a White House lawn party where he asked Barack Obama if imprisoned whistleblower Bradley Manning (Chelsea was still a boy back then) “had a good Easter.” Good times good times. You can subscribe to his Substack here, or follow him on twitter or Telegram.

Russia is bracing for a wave of highly infectious Arcturus, the newest and trendiest “COVID subvariant”, Rospotrebnadzor chief Anna Popova announced on Thursday.

Fellow BRICS member India is currently experiencing an “intense” outbreak of this computer model, and Russia—which has already registered four confirmed cases!—should expect its own Arcturus surge by the end of May, Popova predicted.

A sharp uptick in hospitalizations is not anticipated, but just in case, Russia’s healthcare system is ready for “additional stress and overload,” she reassured the public.

Do ordinary Russians care at all about the Dreaded Virus? No. But the Russian government is dialing up the Virus Fear anyway—in perfect synchronization with the WHO’s decision to “upgrade” Arcturus to a “variant of interest”.

As expected, Russian state media has scrambled its Scam-jets.

Vesti reported that specialists at the Gamaleya Center are already “conducting research to assess the biological risks of the spread of the new subvariant.”

The outlet also created a helpful Arcturus FAQ:

You can reduce the risk of Arcturus by using protective masks in crowded places, washing your hands often and thoroughly, and when this is not possible, treating them with an antiseptic.

RIA Novosti warned its readers that Arcturus has “a completely new symptom that was not previously characteristic of COVID-19—conjunctivitis, or ‘pink eye’, accompanied by itching.”

Parliamentskaya Gazeta, the official newspaper of Russia’s Federal Assembly, interviewed a top virologist about this terrifying development.

According to this esteemed medical professional:

[Arcturus] spreads from person to person 20 percent faster than the previous Kraken strain, which is a significant rate. Therefore, it is obvious that another wave of COVID is coming.

[…]If Arcturus is able to link up with the Wuhan or Delta variant that are still circulating in the population, this could lead to dire consequences.

[…]Even more terrible events will develop if Arcturus is joined by the SARS coronavirus (SARS) of 2002, which has a 15 percent mortality rate, or the MERS virus, which circulated in 2014-2015 with a huge mortality rate of 40 percent … [T]he hybrid of Arcturus and these unpleasant strains is very scary if it suddenly happens.

Good heavens!

How can Russians protect themselves from the Arcturus-SARS-MERS murder-plague?

Do you even have to ask?

The likelihood of Russia leaving the WHO—or even just politely declining to follow Collective West, Bill Gates-funded “health recommendations”—is rapidly approaching 0%.

Sorry but it’s true.

Gross.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 18, Melita Vujnovic, WHO representative to Russia, announced that negotiations between the World Health Organization and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) concerning recognition of Sputnik V were back on track.

An inspection of manufacturing facilities in Russia could happen in the coming months, according to Vujnovic.

“Cooperation goes on despite difficult moments. The World Health Organization is a platform for multilateral cooperation on the topic of health, and our main task is to remove all barriers, all obstacles to scientific and practical cooperation,” the WHO representative said.

This is great news for RDIF, which partnered with shady pill-peddlers and AstraZeneca to make Sputnik V accessible to the whole world, and also to make mountains of rubles. There are currently 100 million doses of the safe and effective unproven genetic slurry rotting in Russian warehouses, so time is of the essence.

But as a science-backed precautionary measure, manufacturers have “extended the shelf life” of the drug. That’s directly from TASS, by the way:

But back to the Relationship Status.

A day earlier, on June 17, Vujnovich revealed that the WHO, despite earlier threats, would not be closing its office in Moscow.

“The WHO country office is here, has not gone anywhere, is not going anywhere and continues normal work,” she said.

We won’t lie: if you were expecting Russia to leave the WHO in the near future, you might have to keep waiting. You might be waiting for a very long time, actually.

On June 16, Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, participated in a SPIEF panel discussion about how to inject the masses with “next-generation” vaccines. Mikhail Murashko, Russia’s health minister and a member of the WHO’s Executive Board, was a fellow panelist.

Even Dr. Tedros made an appearance at SPIEF (via webcam) but we are saving details about this historic event for a separate blog post.

Meanwhile, Murashko can’t stop talking about monkey-shots and the WHO’s “leading role” in “global health governance.”

Russia’s health minister made the above statement about two weeks after the WHO passed a resolution condemning Russia for “causing a serious impediment to the health of the population of Ukraine, as well as having regional and wider than regional health impacts.”

However, there was a brief moment of sanity when Russia’s deputy minister of health, Alexandra Dronova, spoke at the 75th World Murder Assembly last month.

“We support joint work to strengthen the global health architecture. It must be based on the principles of consensus, transparency, impartiality. The development of a new WHO international pandemic response tool and making specific changes to the International Health and Sanitation Rules should not violate the sovereign right of countries to determine a set of emergency response measures and on their territory,” Dronova said during her speech.

(She also said: “The countries of the world were able to overcome the acute phase of the pandemic with a collective effort under the coordinating role of the World Health Organization.” Sigh.)

But even this pushback didn’t seem to fundamentally change anything. As Politico reported on May 28, a compromise was reached by WHO members concerning proposed changes to the IHR:

The World Health Assembly — the annual meeting of WHO member countries — adopted a U.S.-led resolution that sets the timeline for amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) to come into force. The resolution was nearly scuppered after several countries including the Africa group, indicated that they had reservations about it.

In general, the situation is less than stellar.

Article cross-posted from Off-Guardian.