Russia announced that Sputnik V is authorized to be used as a Covid-19 vaccine. Actually it is the first Covid-19 vaccine ready for mass production. Whether it may have any side-effects or not does not matter.
Sputnik... I feel like I heard of it before. Yes. it was Sputnik that USSR launched as the first artificial satellite. USA was shocked to realize that they were left much behind USSR in space competition. Therefore the President Kennedy vowed to his people that USA would send humans onto the Moon for the first time.
But at this time Russia looks so hasty that it launched the vaccine skipping proper clinical processes. I think Russia hurried thinking that it is amid another space competition with USA. But hastily-made vaccine is very dangerous. Putin said even one of his daughters would be vaccinated first. But I do not believe him.
Anyway Sputnik V is already launched. Let us see if it would be a good successor. But I will stand still as an observer but not passenger.