Data on Sputnik V’s effectiveness against Omicron may be obtained next week

Initial data on the effectiveness of the Sputnik V vaccine against the Omicron strain may be obtained as early as next week, Director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Alexander Gintsburg told the Russia-24 TV channel on Tuesday.

"First of all, I would like to discuss the impact of vaccines on those processes that you enumerated. I am ready to discuss this subject in detail and experimentally. I think, next week, since currently the staff of the Gamaleya [Center] are working on resolving the issue as to whether the antibodies that are formed by the Sputnik V vaccine will protect against the Omicron strain," TASS cited him as saying.

According to the vaccine’s developer, if the effectiveness of the vaccine against this strain is 2-6 times lower than against the strain detected in Wuhan, it won’t be necessary to alter the preparation.