(Bloomberg) -- Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. expert on infectious diseases, said the data on the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine developed in Russia leads him to believe that it's “quite effective.”
“I've taken a look at some of the reports. It looks pretty good,” Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday during the Hugh Hewitt radio show.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in its annual report published in January that its Office of Global Affairs sought to persuade Brazil not to allow the Russian vaccine, accusing Moscow of seeking to expand its influence in the Americas to the “detriment of U.S. safety and security.”
Fauci said he hadn't had a chance to review a vaccine developed in China but that it “might be good” as well.
“But the Russian one I believe is quite effective,” he added.
Fauci in August said he was skeptical of the vaccine after the Russian government swiftly approved it.
“I hope that the Russians have actually, definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective,” Fauci said in an interview on ABC News at the time. “I seriously doubt that they've done that.”
Russia's health ministry approved the vaccine after only two months of trials.
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