US sceptical about Covid-19 vaccine gamble by SA’s Russian friend – Wall Street Journal

Russia has signed deals to supply South Africa and seven Latin American countries with an anti-viral drug Russian authorities have approved to treat Covid-19, its sovereign wealth fund announced earlier this month. The Russian Direct Investment Fund said that at least 150,000 packs of the drug, known as Avifavir, would be sent to Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, Uruguay and South Africa. Will South Africa also be on the list of beneficiaries for Russia's new Covid-19 vaccine, which been criticised globally because it has not gone through the conventional checks required elsewhere and could be high-risk? As Holman Jenkins argues in this piece from the Wall Street Journal, Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen to be using the vaccine as a propaganda tool. It would be wise not to take the vaccine at face-value, he says. – Editor

The Putin vaccine gambit

By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

Remember when Vladimir Putin showed a video to visiting filmmaker Oliver Stone of a Russian helicopter firing on Islamic State fighters in Syria? When the segment aired on U.S. television, the video was quickly identified as having been lifted from YouTube and showing a U.S. helicopter combating militants in Afghanistan.

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