Pfizer for the Russian elite; Sputnik-V – for the proletariat

Russia has just shot itself in the foot.

A couple of months ago, it actively spread information about the effectiveness of its Sputnik-V vaccine and the low number of those infected with Covid-19. However, now instead of admitting that the situation in the country is not actually that good, the Kremlin’s lie agencies continue distracting the public by reporting about the “rotten West” and accusing it of human rights violations.

There is also a significant number of conspiracy theories being circulated about Western vaccines that say that these vaccines will modify a person’s DNA since they were developed using the DNA of primates (AstraZeneca). Similar stories are being published about other vaccines as well.

But the situation has changed drastically, and it seems that even official statistics can no longer hide the devastating reality in Russia that Covid-19 has conquered this god’s forgotten land. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the official number of people infected with Covid-19 exceeded 5.75 million. Latest news suggests that roughly 25,000 people in Russia become infected with Covid-19 daily, and the total number of victims has reached 142,253 which is the highest officially reported number in Europe. This means that the real situation may be even more tragic.

The most confusing aspect of all this is that Russia was the first country in the world to develop a vaccine against Covid-19 and the first to begin “mass vaccination” which was popularized using an extremely aggressive advertisement campaign.

Public media outlets began actively propagating Sputnik-V and its effectiveness and mocking the West of its failed attempts to develop its own vaccines. The current situation in Russia – the rapid spread of the infection and the high number of deaths – proves that the campaign praising Sputnik-V has turned into a complete fiasco.

It’s also unacceptable that even though the so-called Russian “elite” eagerly propagated and endorsed the local miracle cure against Covid-19 and equally eagerly ridiculed Western vaccines, the “elite” didn’t hesitate to receive the Pfizer vaccine already in November 2020. Pfizer is available at a clinic in Moscow – the Hadassah Medical Moscow – which is an official branch of an Israeli hospital and the only healthcare facility in Russia where people can get access to medications that have not been officially registered in Russia.

Considering that the vaccines require special storing, the supplies available at the clinic are VIP vaccines intended for the elite.

By the way, according to public information Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t receive the Sputnik-V vaccine, as it was proudly reported by the media, but instead the Pfizer vaccine. So did Sergey Shoygu – but his sister received the Sputnik-V, meaning that she isn’t important at all. It is undeniable that status plays a huge role in Russia.

Available information suggests that the Pfizer vaccine is used to vaccine the majority of those who can be considered members of the political elite. Western vaccines were received by the Kremlin’s servants Igor Sechin, Aleksey Miller, Sergey Lavrov, Maria Zakharova, Nikolay Patrushev and others, while their family members along with other unprivileged Russians are treated with the Sputnik-V vaccine. For instance, Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova, who was hospitalized with Covid-19, also received the Sputnik-V vaccine.

Naturally, none of the vaccines completely rules out becoming infected, but they do aid the body in overcoming the virus.

In the case of Sputnik-V, there are no guarantees that the illness will be less severe, in the same way there are no guarantees the person won’t die. For this reason, Russia is considering to procure a large batch of Western vaccines – Pfizer specifically, which would then be administered legally, of course only to those politicians and members of the elite that Putin deems important on a regional level. The rest of the public can hope for left-overs that will cost unimaginable amounts of money.

Is it not ironic that the superpower of “science and development”, the country that announced it has developed four vaccines for humans and two for animals now plans to buy “some” Western-produced vaccines – vaccines that were viciously criticized and ridiculed for almost two years by Russia media outlets and “experts”.

Is this not a miserable defeat for Russia on an international level? Or is this perhaps the deliberate killing of the Russian people and the Kremlin’s useful idiots?

 

Baiba Zile

independent Latvian journalist