The Russians are outraged! For a country that is known to be one of the world’s largest consumers of alcohol, it’s not a shocker when the Russians were upset following the announcement by a health official’s warning that COVID-19 vaccine recipients should abstain from drinking alcohol in the weeks before and after their shots.
According to Business Insider, Russian physician and public health official, Anna Popova, went on initial radio on Tuesday to advise citizens to not consume alcohol for two weeks before their first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine.
She added on to say vaccine recipients should stay sober for an additional six weeks after that to ensure a strong immune response. There are 21 days between the two Sputnik shots.
“It’s a strain on the body. If we want to stay healthy and have a strong immune response, don’t drink alcohol,” she said.
William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University, however, begged to differ.
He said, “There’s no evidence that, if you have one beer or a glass of wine a couple of days after you get your vaccine, that’s going to interfere with your immune response or protection following the vaccine,” Moss said. “When that point is stated in such an extreme way, I think it’s actually damaging to public health.”
Russian and American vaccine experts too said Popova’s advice was a little too extreme.
Alexander Gintsburg, the developer of Russia’s vaccine, tweeted from the Sputnik V account that “one glass of champagne won’t hurt anyone.”
Although Gintsburg did add on to say that abstaining from alcohol use three days before and after each injection of any vaccine, not just Sputnik, is recommended.
Also Read: Six Deaths Reported In Pfizer’s Final Phase of Clinical Trials For Vaccine, But They Say It’s Safe
