Argentina begins administering Russia's Covid-19 vaccine

Argentina has begun what its president calls the largest vaccination campaign in the country's history by administering the globally criticized Russian Sputnik V vaccine to thousands of its citizens.

Daniela Zapata, 42, receives a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at Dr. Pedro Fiorito hospital on the outskirts of Buenos Aires [Agustin Marcarian/Reuters]

With an Arsenal of 300,000 Sputnik V doses, President Alberto Fernandez opened up the first wave of its immunization campaign to medical workers, becoming the third country in the world to approve the vaccine after Russia and Belarus.

Critics see Argentinian's approval of Sputnik V as desperate, as the Latin American economic giant struggles to control the spread of the coronavirus which has so far infected 1.6 million of its 45 million population and left 43,000 people dead, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The last publicly recognized test results of Sputnik V, released by Brazilian scientists who acquired a shipment of the drug, shows that the treatment is between 50-90% effective and needs more testing before it can be certified and added to Brazil's arsenal in fighting the respiratory illness.

Russian health authorities have however continued to reject allegations of producing an incomplete, unscientifically supported, rushed vaccine, despite its regulatory approval in August--following just a few dozen tests.

Moreover, Russia says its jab is 91% effective.

"You have to be afraid of the disease, not the vaccine," Argentine Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia said.

Argentina has also placed an order for Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine-- a more internationally acclaimed treatment-- which is currently pending shipment.

By: Niza Nondo