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Putin claims Russia has developed world's first COVID-19 vaccine

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi, Alexis Christoforous, and Anjalee Khemlani discuss Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s surprise announcement about a coronavirus vaccine.

Video Transcript

- --those with skepticism this morning after Russian leader Vladimir Putin's surprise announcement that his country has developed and registered a COVID-19 vaccine. Anjalee Khemlani is joining us now for more on this. Good morning, Anjalee.

So what do we know about this Russian vaccine?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Thanks, Alexis. So far we know that this vaccine is currently still in late-stage trials. It is named Sputnik, referencing the launch of the first Russian satellite. We do know that Vladimir Putin has said that his daughter has, in fact, already taken it.

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So we know that the Russians were, in fact, trying to get pretty far ahead, and had already announced previously that an August 10 date was set to be the day that they would be approving this vaccine. They are looking to distribute it amongst the public in a voluntary basis, according to several reports. And we don't know really a lot more than that. The data has not been released. We don't know much about it other than it does, in fact, induce an effective antibody response based on what the Russians are saying and based on their health ministry.

So that's the extent of what we know about it. And this kind of highlights what we've seen really here in the US with concerns about an October surprise, in case the FDA is pressured politically into approving or giving some sort of emergency use approval for any vaccine that makes it to the latest stage with some effective results.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: What about what's happening here in the US now? I believe there were three different companies that have their vaccines in Phase III trials. Is that right?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's correct. So we have Moderna and Oxford are sort of the two that are furthest ahead. And those are the ones that everyone really is keeping an eye on. We also have Pfizer and BioNTech as well. And so these are the ones that we have some information on in terms of entering late-stage trials and having a lot of good results with effectiveness.

But what that does actually mean in terms of the percentage of the population that it's effective on still remains to be seen. And that is where the FDA has set the bar at 50%. And we have to see after as many participants are enrolled that can give us those results, can show us that.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I also want to get to this report that President Trump is talking about blocking American citizens who've been exposed to the virus overseas from coming back into the US. Where does that stand? And how would that work, exactly?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Correct. So we know that the "New York Times" reported that they've seen a draft of that. And he did mention it in comments over the weekend. But nothing really concrete has been seen just yet. It relies on a CDC rule allowing the US to block someone who's been exposed to an infectious disease from entering the US.

And that, of course, we know going back to February, the president did express concern and frustration over people who were coming back into the country that could have been exposed. So this is sort of along the same vein that we're seeing that right now in terms of curbing the number of virus-- of exposed patients in the US.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, we'll leave it there. Anjalee Khemlani, thanks for the roundup.