COVID-19: Sputnik V more efficient against Omicron than other vaccines, confirm virologist

The recent findings of Italian research revealed that Russia's COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V has the best effectiveness against the 'highly mutated' Omicron strain when compared to its peers, including Pfizer. Top virologists and vaccine experts from Argentina, France, as well as the United States have praised the Russian vaccine, Sputnik reported. The research discovered that the COVID vaccine Sputnik V has been generally 2.1 times more effective against the Omicron than two doses of Pfizer vaccine. 

The research used comparable sera samples from patients who were inoculated with Sputnik V and Pfizer and had similar levels of IgG antibodies and virus neutralising activity (VNA) against the COVID-19 disease in the Spallanzani Institute in Italy.  

According to the research, Sputnik V neutralises the Omicron strain by generating a strong antibody response with significant levels of protection. In the top quartile of people with strong RBD-specific IgG antibodies, 100% of Sputnik V vaccine recipients were able to neutralise the Omicron variant, compared to 83.3 % of Pfizer vaccine recipients, as per a press release from the Sputnik V vaccine firm.  

Virologists' remarks on Sputnik Vaccine 

In addition to this, Hugo Pizzi, an award-winning infectious disease expert from Argentina's Córdoba University, described the findings of the latest Italo-Russian comparative vaccine research of Sputnik V and Pfizer vaccine conducted in a Rome lab as "conclusive and encouraging". Professor Pizzi praises Sputnik as "an excellent vaccine with many properties" in a statement released by the vaccine's investor RDIF. 

Highlighting the university's own conclusions on the subject conform to the most recent data, Pizzi went on to say that multiple published research on other strains, like Manaos and Delta, have validated the great efficiency of the Sputnik vaccine at the University of Córdoba. Thus, “it does not surprise me that the efficacy against Omicron is as high as the study shows,” he added.  

Professor Hildegund Ertl, a prominent US vaccine specialist stated that antibody titers to the original "wild type" virus remained steady over a period of 6 months following Sputnik V vaccination but fell around 10x after mRNA immunisation. This is most likely due to biological differences between two vaccine prototypes, Professor added.  

Furthermore, Cecil Czerkinsky, a French immunologist and researcher, has praised the Spallanzani findings, which exhibit "that adenovirus vectored Sputnik is capable of enhancing neutralising antibody responses not only to Delta but also to Omicron", Sputnik reported.  

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