The Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, produced and licensed in Russia, was the first to arrive in Argentina in December 2020, bringing relief to Latin American countries that had been on the waiting list for vaccines developed and approved in the West.
Despite the vaccine’s lack of UN certification, it has been adopted by approximately a dozen countries in the region; but, eight months later, a serious scarcity of the second dosage is weighing hard on governments with few options.
Sputnik V vaccination, developed by the Russian institute Gamaleya, takes two doses that differ from one another and are not interchangeable with other vaccines.
“I feel misled,” Noreyda Hernandez, a 66-year-old teacher, told AFP after being disappointed at a vaccination center in Maracaibo, Venezuela, which had no pills for those who needed them.
Similar images may be seen in Bolivia, where elderly people arrive at clinics only to be told that the second dose has been “postponed until further notice.”
“We’re weary of coming back and getting the same response: ‘The government must say.’ But what can the government say if it has no idea what’s going on?” In La Paz, German Alarcon, 70, told AFP.
Last August, Russia registered Sputnik V before of large-scale clinical trials, raising concerns among specialists about the rushed process.
