The pandemic will only end if vaccination is “mandatory”, says creator of Sputnik V

The director of the Gamaleia center, manufacturer of the vaccine Sputnik V, stated that the pandemic of coronavirus It will only end if vaccination becomes mandatory, as Russians remain reluctant to get vaccinated despite the severe epidemic wave.

The pandemic “will end when 70-75% of the population of our country, as well as the world, is vaccinated and has protective antibodies,” Alexander Gintsburg said in an interview with the pro-Kremlin Rossiskaya Gazeta newspaper.

“Vaccination should be mandatory,” he added, arguing that Sputnik V should be added to the national vaccination schedule.

Since the beginning of autumn, Russia has been breaking records for daily infections and deaths from the covid-19.

This outbreak was facilitated by the low vaccination rate of the population, in a context of mistrust towards the authorities.

Although the country has several vaccines of its own design, only 39% of the 144 million Russians are fully immunized, according to official figures.

The specialized website Gogov indicates that 34% of Russians are fully vaccinated.

Although he opposes mandatory vaccination, Vladimir Putin nevertheless supports such measures in some regions and for certain categories of citizens.

In June, the city of Moscow made vaccination mandatory in the service sector.

On Monday, the St. Petersburg health authorities also expanded the list of people subject to mandatory vaccination to include those over 60 and the chronically ill, as well as transport workers.

Mandatory vaccination “does not contradict the Constitution,” Andrei Klichas, chairman of the constitutional committee of the federation council, said on Wednesday, which appears to pave the way for this measure.

In total, Russia officially registered 8,834,495 coronavirus cases and 248,004 deaths, making it the country with the most deaths from covid-19 of Europe.

In addition, according to the statistics agency Rosstat, which has a broader definition of deaths related to the virus, the total death toll from the pandemic in Russia was approaching 450,000 at the end of September.