(Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 11) – A medical expert has warned President Rodrigo Duterte against the use of COVID-19 vaccine made by Russia citing safety concerns over its creation.
Former United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) Associate Commissioner Peter Pitts emphasized the Russians are not transparent in sharing scientific data on how the vaccine was created.
“Using the Russian vaccine really is playing Russian roulette with people’s health,” Pitts told CNN Philippines’ Rico Hizon on Tuesday.
Pitts pointed out that Russia’s vaccine program is not recognized by the World Health Organization and historically, the country has quality issues on the medicines they created.
He also highlighted Russia is testing vaccines they made to their military personnel, which he said is unethical because those should be first tested to human volunteers before being distributed in a large population.
The former US FDA associate commissioner bared the Russian Ministry of Health hastily approves medical products with little or no testing, which is an improper procedure because the country must have a FDA-like agency to test these medicines.
“The only thing worse to no vaccine is a bad vaccine,” Pitts said.
