After South Africa and Botswana, Namibia has suspended the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. A decision which risks spreading to other African countries and which cools Russian ambitions in terms of vaccine diplomacy.
The tone is rising between the Russian laboratory Gamaleya and the South African Regulator of Sanitary Products (Sahpra). Between September and mid-October, Russia exported hundreds of thousands of doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to countries in southern Africa. But the intervention of the director of Sahrpa, Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela, could change everything ... She said a week ago that "the use of the Sputnik V vaccine in South Africa, where the prevalence and HIV incidence are high, may increase the risk of vaccinated men of acquiring HIV ”.
The young director therefore suspended the Russian vaccine in South Africa on Monday, October 11. On Friday October 15, it was the turn of neighboring Botswana to make the same decision, followed, this Saturday, by Namibia.
A measure that the director of the Russian Investment Fund, Amelia Craddock, describes as "unjustified and unfair, based on rumors".
The Gamaleya Research Institute, which developed the Sputnik V vaccine, believes Namibia's decision is not based on any scientific evidence. But first, for Gamaleya, it is about deploying the large number of doses sent urgently to Namibia to other countries, so that they are not lost.
Two weights, two measures
Several specialists criticize the decision of the director of Sahrpa. The South African regulator had this year approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, then the Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. These three vaccines obtained an "emergency license", while Gamaleya coveted this same license for Sputnik V.
In the midst of an emergency in South Africa, Sahrpa finally gave the green light to import the Russian vaccine, which encouraged several other African countries to take the plunge. The suspension of the Russian vaccine had exactly the same effect and could put a stop to several vaccination campaigns in the region.
Sputnik V is not the first vaccine to be criticized by South African health authorities: the other three vaccines accepted by Sahrpa were accused of causing cardiac arrests, for Pfizer, or of making HIV vulnerable for AstraZeneca and J&J, who use viral vectors equivalent to those of Sputnik V.
South Africa, land of scandals
For Sahrpa, the decision to suspend the Russian vaccine will have serious consequences. The South African regulator having established itself as a relatively reliable source in the analyzes of vaccines against Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, but it is now losing its credibility.
Especially since the Ministry of Health was not kept informed of the decision by Sahrpa, whose activity has been officially suspended since October 8. The ministry has in fact decided to freeze the salaries of Sahrpa employees.
Gamaleya laboratories are now trying to understand what is happening in South Africa. Sahrpa reverses the burden of proof, demanding that Russian laboratories demonstrate "the safety of Sputnik V in settings of high HIV prevalence". To which Gamaleya responds, “There is no evidence of an increased risk of HIV infection in humans after a cold or conjunctivitis. But if the point of view (of Sahrpa, note), was defensible, very few vaccines would be approved or endowed with a license ”.
Domino effect
On another level, the withdrawal of South Africa, Botswana and Namibia could put a stop to the emerging partnership between Gamaleya and the countries of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last Monday with the aim of importing Russian vaccines into Uganda, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti .
“We (the IGAD countries) cannot stay locked up forever. There are many young people in Africa, many of them do not have a job; people cannot stay home and die. This requires urgent intervention, ”argued Workneh Gebeyehu. The IGAD representative continued: “This is why we ask - not only for the Horn of Africa region, or IGAD region - but for all of Africa, our friends of the Russian Federation to consider Africa as the recipient and beneficiary of the COVID-19 vaccine ”.
Only here, the successive decisions of the countries of southern Africa could cool Russia on a partnership with IGAD. Because beyond health issues, it is geopolitics in question: Sahrpa and its director are considered to be a pure product of the American program Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). And Russia refuses to consider having to buy back its vaccines, as has already been the case in South Africa, but also in Slovakia and Guatemala.