Russian politician suggests using inmates as guinea pigs for COVID-19 vaccine trials

As countries are racing to develop COVID-19 vaccine in record time, a top Russian politician has come up with a bizarre suggestion of using prisoners as guinea pigs for the clinical trial of a potential vaccine. Speaking to a state-owned channel, Vladimir Zhirinovsky highlighted the need to test faster on volunteers and exuded confidence that the inmates would jump at the opportunity if their jail term is halved.

Elaborating on his suggestion, Zhirinovsky said that if a prisoner serving a 10-year jail term is offered with a medical which will be tested for 2-3 months and, in return, his prison term will be reduced to five years, the prisoners will gladly take the offer. The comments of the 74-year-old leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party triggered anger, especially among prisoners’ rights groups.

According to a Daily Mail report, a prisoners’ rights foundation Rossiya Sidyashchaya compared the suggestion to the way the former Soviet Union exposed its own people to nuclear tests during the Cold War. The foundation's lawyer Alexei Fedyarov reportedly said that using convicts as cattle is normal practice in Russia some convicts may agree to the offer to just reduce jail term.

Russia has reported over 353,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, third-highest in the world, and more than 3,600 deaths related to it so far. President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating has taken a hit after an exponential rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, overwhelming hospitals and health care workers.

Read: Russia Reports Its Highest Single-day Death Toll But Fewer Infections

Putin highlights the hidden danger

On May 22, Putin held a meeting, via conference, on the situation of coronavirus in the country where he claimed that the rate of cases has declined over the week. He said that the volume of testing increased by nearly 3 million over the past week with an average of 240,000 tests every day.

“The hidden danger lies in the fact that the disease may not be detected promptly and an asymptomatic person will not be warned about the threat to their own health and to that of their loved ones,” said the Russian President.

Read: Putin Reveals Russian Education Minister Tested Positive For COVID-19