As it happened: Russia's vaccine 'triggers immune response' - BBC News
The Sputnik V vaccine produced antibodies in patients taking part in early trials, the Lancet reports.
Early results from small trials on a Russian vaccine against Covid-19 have found it is safe and there were no serious side-effects in people.

“Encouraging” and “so far so good” are some of the reactions from scientists in the UK – but there is still, clearly, a long way to go.

Two small trials, with 38 people in each, were carried out in two hospitals in Russia.

Although the vaccine showed an antibody response in all participants in phase 2 (40 people), this doesn’t necessarily mean it would protect them from the virus.

That still hasn’t been established yet.

From these results, we can tell that the vaccine - named Sputnik V - appeared to be safe in healthy people between the age of 18 and 60 for 42 days, because that was how long the study lasted.

But what about older people and those with underlying health conditions who are most at risk of Covid-19 – how safe is it for them and over a longer period of time?

This can only be answered after much larger, long-term randomised trials where the people taking part don’t know if they are receiving the vaccine or a dummy injection.

These will also tell scientists how effective the vaccine really is among a much wider population.

There have also been calls for openness and transparency. Of the many vaccines currently being trialled around the world, some will work better than others in certain situations and in certain groups of people, perhaps.

So knowing exactly how well they work and for whom is paramount – it is unlikely that one vaccine will be suitable for everyone.