02-04-2021, 10:09 AM
(02-04-2021, 08:55 AM)danbrotherston Wrote:(02-03-2021, 09:36 PM)ac3r Wrote: They would most certainly sell it. Shortly after they approved it in their own country, they offered to sell it to almost any other nation that wished to buy it, although naturally there was little interest in it at that point. If Canada has any interest in it, we'd of course have to approve it here first.
That said, I don't see what isn't to trust, especially now that it has been peer reviewed by the global science community. Russia isn't some backwards land of uneducated plebeians, they're an incredible nation with a rich history and have made important contributions to everything from philosophy to space travel to medicine. We trust their rockets to put our astronauts and satellites into space, right? Putin is one man and he does not control everything. Our geopolitical paranoia towards them should not play a part in something important like this, provided it was not sold to us with any caveats that deeply undermine our geopolitics.
Nobody thinks Russia is incapable of producing a vaccine. But the Russian state has shown a willingness to cheat and lie to advance their own image before. They had a very sophisticated system for cheating at the Olympics for example. And a peer review committee is mostly looking for scientific rigour not investigating for outright lies and deceit. They have already been fooled once, last time by an unscrupulous corporation.
I am not saying that the vaccine cannot work, I am just saying I don't trust the honesty of the Russian state or the independence of the vaccine producer. As others have said there is only one peer reviewed study so far. One data point,
Apologies for going slightly off topic but if anyone hasn't seen Icarus on Netfilx look it up if you are interested in the govn't doping scandal.