New US travel rules close the door on those fully vaccinated with Sputnik V

From next November 1, USA will open its doors to foreigners who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The announcement was made last week by the administration of Joe Biden.

However, not all those inoculated against this disease will be able to enter the country. That is the situation of the millions of people who have received the Russian vaccine Sputnik V.

The new plan USA requires that the majority of non-citizens who wish to enter the country must be vaccinated with vaccines approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or by the World Health Organization (WHO). This includes vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Modern, as well as vaccines developed by Chinese companies such as Sinopharm and Sinovac.

La Sputnik V, It has not yet been approved by the WHO, nor by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), nor by US regulators.

“In more general terms, the USA is another blow to the manufacturers of Sputnik V, that Moscow has proudly proclaimed as the first vaccine against coronavirus registered for use. Although the vaccine was intended to be a powerful pandemic diplomacy tool, its limited acceptance abroad and slow delivery has left it behind not only Western vaccines, but also those from Chinese manufacturers. “, says the American newspaper “The Washington Post”.

“This is a big problem for Russian travelers and for people from other countries who have received Sputnik V”He told the Post Judyth Twigg, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who tracks public health in Russia.

In response, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the sovereign fund that backed the vaccine Sputnik V, said in a statement that the vaccine “Not only has it been approved in 70 countries where more than 4,000 million people live, that is, more than half of the world’s population, but its efficacy and safety have been confirmed both during clinical trials and throughout its use in the real world in various countries”.

“We oppose attempts to politicize the global fight against Covid-19 and discriminate against effective vaccines for short-term political or economic gain ”, continuous.

The Washington Post specifies that The United States had no blanket restrictions on travel from Russia prior to last week’s announcement., which means that all travelers from the country who tested negative for coronavirus could enter the United States according to CDC guidelines.

The Post also notes that the new US rules will not only affect Russians. According to the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Duke University, around 448 million doses of Sputnik V have been purchased worldwide, many of them destined for low-income countries.

“Russia squandered the opportunity to use this vaccine as a diplomatic tool”Twigg told the Post, citing production problems surrounding Sputnik.

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