Russia offered a coronavirus vaccine to aid the U.S. but the U.S. refused, Russian officials told CNN Thursday.
Russian officials told the network that they had suggested "unprecedented collaboration" with the US Operation Warp Speed, the COVID-19 vaccine production project. Yet officials in Russia have said the "U.S. It's not currently available "to their support.
"On the American side, there is a general sense of Russia's distrust and we believe technology — including vaccination, research, and treatment — is not being implemented in the US because of that distrust," a senior Russian official informed.
U.S. officials told CNN that the Russian vaccine was not deemed well-developed, with one U.S. public health official stating, "There's no way the U.S. is testing this (Russian vaccine) on animals, let alone on people."
The study comes after Russia revealed on Tuesday it had developed a COVID-19 vaccine and Russian President Vladimir Putin said it had been taken by his father.
Russian officials said the nation remains willing to provide information about the vaccine and encourage U.S. pharmaceutical firms to produce it. Several American companies are interested in the vaccine but their names have not been published according to the news outlet.
Russian officials said the U.S. would consider "seriously implementing" the vaccine called Sputnik V.
"If our vaccine appears to be one of the most effective, questions will be raised as to why the US has not deeper explored this alternative, why politics has gained access to a vaccine," a senior Russian official told the network.
Experts expressed concerns about Russia's vaccine's efficacy as the country did not release its test data and made the vaccine available before completing the third phase of testing scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
Nonetheless, Russia estimates that at least 20 countries in Latin America , the Middle East and Asia have expressed interest in the vaccine.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president was briefed on the vaccine on Thursday but that the U.S. vaccinations undergo "rigorous" inspection.
A senior American official and policy advisor told CNN the U.S. has no procured Russian vaccine samples.
"They now have enough disease in Russia to be able to perform clinical trials, but they do not seem to have done so on a sufficiently large scale," the advisor said. "This vaccine has not been tested. They have done very little research on humans to determine whether it works on a wider scale. We are talking about entirely insufficient safety results."