US will not accept travelers vaccinated with Russian Sputnik

New U.S. entry rules close doors for those fully vaccinated with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, reports The Washington Post.

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Last week the United States announced thethat will soon open their doors to foreign travelers vaccinated against the coronavirus, easing restrictions for a wide range of travelers from around the world for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

But the new rules, effective November 1, exclude many people who consider themselves fully immunized, including the millions who received two doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

Hundreds of thousands of Russians were directly affected. Despite difficult diplomatic relations and limited demand for international travel, an estimated 2019 Russians visited the United States in 300 (the latest year for which data are available), according to the U.S. Travel Association.

More broadly, the US plan is another blow to the makers of Sputnik V, which Moscow has proudly hailed as the first coronavirus vaccine registered for use. While the vaccine was poised to be a powerful tool in pandemic diplomacy, its limited overseas distribution and slow pace of delivery have left it behind not only Western vaccines but also those from Chinese manufacturers.

"This is a big problem for Russian travelers and people from other countries who have received Sputnik V," said Judith Twigg, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund, which backed Sputnik V, said the vaccine was not only “approved in 70 countries, home to more than 4 billion people, or more than half the world’s population,” but also said its effectiveness and safety “have been confirmed as during clinical trials and during actual use in a number of countries.”

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

The new US plan requires most non-citizens wishing to enter the United States to be vaccinated with vaccinations approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the World Health Organization (WHO). These include vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna, Astra Zeneca, and vaccines developed by Chinese firms such as Sinopharm and Sinovac.

But Sputnik V, an adenovirus-based vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Moscow Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, has yet to be approved by WHO. The Global Health Agency recently announced that suspended the vaccine review processciting concerns about manufacturing practices at manufacturing plants in Russia and the possibility of a stable vaccine production in accordance with the required standards.

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Speaking at a conference in Vladivostok this month, RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev said that “mutual recognition of vaccines is the problem of this year” and claimed that “a number of Big Pharma companies are deliberately, for the purposes of competitive rivalry, trying to limit Sputnik and absorb markets "

Unlike other countries, the United States had no blanket restrictions on travel from Russia prior to this announcement, meaning that all travelers from the country who tested negative for the coronavirus could be allowed into the United States under the Centers' recommendations for disease control and prevention. That will change in November, when the doors open to millions of travelers from Europe and elsewhere but close to those immunized with Sputnik.

The new US rules will affect not only Russians. According to the Duke University Global Center for Health Innovation, approximately 448 million doses of Sputnik V have been procured worldwide, with many shipped to low-income countries. Some governments have complained about slow shipments from Russia. The limited travel options are likely to spark further criticism of the Russian drug.

“Russia missed an opportunity to use this vaccine as a diplomatic tool,” Twigg said, citing production problems around Sputnik.

The Russian Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the new US policy.

Sputnik V isn't the only vaccine that could pose problems for travelers. Neither the FDA nor the WHO has authorized the Indian drug Covaxin, of which 560 million doses have been procured to date, mostly from India. Those who have been vaccinated with Covaxin may not be allowed to travel to the US in November.

Some immunization experts worry that this situation in the US could create a divide into two classes of vaccinated people around the world: one who can move freely and one who cannot. In Russia and other countries, travel firms have already begun offering wealthy clients trips abroad, including to places like Serbia, so they can get vaccinated using Western-recognized drugs.

Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said there is growing frustration among “those with money and power” that their vaccines have not been widely distributed. Some are spreading "conspiracy theories," Gabuev said, including one that "everyone is jealous of Russia as the country that developed the first vaccine" and therefore "Western powers are conspiring against Sputnik V."

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The WHO endorsement of Chinese vaccines such as Sinopharm and Sinovac refutes this report. While Sputnik V seemed to provide better protection than the vaccines developed by China, Russia's role as an exporter of the vaccine has been severely limited by manufacturing problems, and China has become a more reliable partner, Gabuev said.

“The approval of the World Health Organization increases confidence in Chinese vaccines compared to Russian ones,” he added.

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