The effectiveness of the Russian vaccine “Sputnik V” against complications requiring hospitalization is 81%, according to the first independent study of vaccination effectiveness conducted by specialists from St. Petersburg.
Scientists claim that only about 3.4% of fully vaccinated patients are hospitalized. According to the results of a study conducted by scientists of the European University, the Sergey Berezin Medical Institute (MIBS), the First Honey in St. Petersburg and the Tarusskaya Hospital, the probability of severe progression of the coronavirus in fully vaccinated “Sputnik” patients decreases fivefold.
The Russian BBC service reviewed the research before publication. As clarified by the authors, this is currently a preprint, which means the research is awaiting evaluation by external reviewers. The authors note that this is the first study dedicated to studying the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines conducted under real conditions in Russia, as well as one of the first studies in the world providing information on the protective effect of the vaccine against lung injury.
“Vaccination provides 81% protection against hospitalization for a patient with symptoms of Covid-19 during the third wave of the pandemic in St. Petersburg caused by the “delta” strain,” the study said. The analysis included data from 13,894 patients, of whom 1,291 were fully vaccinated. As a result, 1,274 vaccinated patients were sent home for outpatient treatment and only 17 patients (3.4%) were hospitalized, according to the research data.
Scientists have found that vaccination is more effective in women (84%) than in men (76%). In addition, the effectiveness of vaccination increases in patients over 50 years old (82%), while it is 63% in patients aged 18-49. “We observed a sharp increase in the probability of hospitalization with age for unvaccinated patients, compared to an almost identical relationship between age and the probability of hospitalization for the fully vaccinated group of patients,” – note the scientists.
We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. The number of offers should remain: episodes. End of story. Podcast advertising. The study was based on patient data from two outpatient centers of the Sergei Berezin Medical Institute (MIBS), which serve as sorting centers in St. Petersburg. “We work as COVID-19 treatment centers: patients with symptoms of coronavirus infection and positive test results are brought to our clinic, after which the question of their hospitalization or outpatient treatment is resolved,” says study co-author and Deputy Chief Physician of the Medical Department of the Moscow Institute of Biological Sciences Mikhail Cherkashin.
“In July, when the mass vaccination began, the idea of conducting a study of the vaccine’s effectiveness in real practice came up together with the European University.” According to the doctor, the majority of vaccinated individuals experience only mild symptoms of infection, in rare cases pneumonia is diagnosed, but no severe form of pneumonia has been recorded in any of the vaccinated patients. The research notes that among patients with damage to more than 75% of the lung, there were no individuals who completed the full course of vaccination.
As of July 27, 26.5% of St. Petersburg residents have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine. As the Chairman of the Board of Directors of MBIS Arkady Stolpner noted, the study showed that overall the Russian vaccine is at least no worse in protecting against hospitalization and severe course of infection with the “Delta” variant than the American Pfizer and vaccines from other manufacturers. According to Stolpner, the vaccination situation in Russia is no longer as catastrophic as it was a few months ago, when not even all participants of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum (SPIEF) were vaccinated.
“I explained it to ten people at SPIEF, and five of them will be vaccinated,” said the BBC interviewee, noting that the only way out is to explain and incentivize using the carrot and stick approach, making life more difficult for those who have not been vaccinated. “I see that the situation has changed – people have finally started to line up for the vaccine. In St. Petersburg they vaccinate 25 thousand people a day, in Moscow it’s 70-80 thousand. With such volumes, it is unlikely that fake vaccinations will exceed fractions of a percent. But we do not know whether this will be enough in case of new aggressive virus mutations,” says Stolpner.
As noted in the research, survey participants reported the number of doses and vaccination dates, but scientists did not collect information on the types of vaccines. According to official statistics, as of July 27, 2021, 96% of St. Petersburg residents who received at least one dose of the vaccine were vaccinated with “Sputnik V” (1.7% received the vaccine “EpiVacCorona” and 2.2% received the vaccine “CoviVac”). According to Mikhail Cherkashin, it is difficult to conduct research on other types of Russian vaccines at present, since only a very small number of residents of St. Petersburg have been vaccinated with “KoviVak” or “EpiVacCorona”.
“Epivak” and “Kovivak” – there are almost no of them, very few, only a few percent of the residents of St. Petersburg have received them. Obviously, it is only a matter of time and production to increase the quantity of these vaccines so that a larger number of patients can be vaccinated with them and the effectiveness can be calculated,” says Cherkashin. At the end of June, the media reported that supplies of “EpiVacCorona” and “KoviVac” were running out in St. Petersburg and that patients who wanted to be vaccinated with these vaccines were being put on waiting lists. The demand for these vaccines significantly exceeds the supply in other cities of Russia, although there is no scientific evidence of their effectiveness.
In May, the Ministry of Health registered another single-component coronavirus vaccine called “Sputnik Light,” which has been used to vaccinate migrants and revaccinate those who received the vaccine more than six months ago. According to the recommendations of the Ministry of Health, the vaccination should be repeated six months after the first two injections. As Mikhail Cherkashin notes, there is no strong scientific evidence that revaccination is necessary every six months, but this practice has been implemented not only in Russia, but also in other countries, including the USA and Great Britain.
“The level of antibodies begins to decrease as early as three months after vaccination – this is quite natural, it is a biological mechanism of the immune system. The main purpose of the vaccine is to develop cellular immunity. Previously, it was assumed that immunity to COVID-19 would last for a year, but considering the new strains, this period may be shorter,” the doctor speculates.
Independent studies on the effectiveness of Sputnik V have not been conducted in Russia. In July, the Gamaleya Center, which developed the vaccine, published the results of its own research. It claimed that “Sputnik” is capable of protecting the body against new strains of coronavirus. In February, The Lancet published the results of the third phase of clinical trials of “Sputnik” based on data provided by the vaccine’s developers. The study, which involved more than 20,000 volunteers, claimed that the Russian vaccine does not cause serious side effects and develops a stable immunity. On June 25, the Ministry of Health of Argentina published its research: it stated that the administration of just one dose of “Sputnik” is capable of reducing the mortality rate from coronavirus by 70-80% in patients over the age of 60.
According to the conclusions of Argentine scientists, it is enough to administer only the first component of “Sputnik” to protect the health of those who have recovered from the coronavirus. Last week, another study on the effectiveness of “Sputnik” was published in San Marino. According to a joint study by the San Marino authorities and the National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome, named after Lazzaro Spallanzani, antibodies against the coronavirus appeared in 99% of participants after the second dose of Sputnik. As Professor Dmitry Kulish of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology noted, conducting vaccine research is a very complex process. “That is why clinical trials cost so much money: because it is necessary to monitor people, to monitor how they were treated and vaccinated – this is extremely difficult. That is why any independent study by market professionals raises great suspicion or even a smile,” he noted in a conversation with the BBC.
According to one expert, any method of counting vaccinated patients always raises questions. “The first question is how reliable is this statistic, who verified it, who provided it. Next, we have to track the incidence of these people. The question is: who monitors this, by what methods, according to what criteria, do we monitor hospitalizations or PCR tests, and which ones? This is a huge undertaking,” says Kulish.
Sergey Berezin Medical Institute (MIBS) is a private medical center with the first non-state MRI department in the country. It was founded in 2003 by doctors Sergey Berezin (who died in a car accident in 2005) and Arkadiy Stolpner, the director of MIBS. The center specializes in advanced diagnostic and treatment methods for oncological diseases. In St. Petersburg, they have an oncology clinic equipped with a gamma knife and a cyber knife for performing radiosurgical operations, as well as linear accelerators for conformal radiotherapy. In 2017, MIBS opened the first proton therapy center in Russia in St. Petersburg. According to MBISS, 15% of MRI scans in the country are performed in its branches: there are centers in 62 cities of Russia and the CIS. During the pandemic, MIBS opened two sorting centers in St. Petersburg: patients with symptoms of Covid-19 undergo low-dose computed tomography of the lungs, and depending on the condition and indicators – oxygen level in the blood (saturation), degree of lung damage – they are either hospitalized or released for outpatient observation. Since the end of April 2020, nearly 140,000 patients have been examined in the CT centers.