Vaccine Politics

If a Russian Covid-19 vaccine proves to be vastly superior to any other in the world, the vaccine might become heavily intertwined in politics. Putin has expressed that they have a vaccine, but it is still undertested. His approach and view of the vaccine is very different than Trump's. Trump wants a vaccine because he is putting Americans and their health first. Putin wants a vaccine because he wants to use it to gain allies and have power. Here in the United States, a vaccine must go through many trials where thousands or tens of thousands of people are involved, but the vaccine trial held for the Russian vaccine only had 76 people. This could mean that the vaccine the Russian create and try to sell to other countries might be faulty and could give people false hope and sense of safety. Russia is hoping that the political pains outweigh the risk they are taking with the vaccine. I think if Russia had the first vaccine produced there would be a power shift, giving Russia more political power than they currently have. If Russia uses this vaccine to get totally rid of the pandemic in its country while others still have it, they will be able to use it as a bargaining chip against and for whatever they want.