Russia's claims to have created the world’s first coronavirus vaccine should not be dismissed out of hand. The country has a proud history of scientific achievements – it sent the first human into space and for decades led the world in the fields of engineering, mathematics and physics.
It also has a strong track record in producing reliable vaccines – notably for Ebola and yellow fever – and the Moscow institution behind the new jab, the Gamaleya Research Institute, is a long-established and well known research centre.
But it is hard to judge the safety and efficacy of the vaccine because very little information has been made available.
The teams behind experimental Covid vaccines in Oxford, the United States and China have all published detailed results of their trials at every stage.