Despite Moscow and Washington having been at odds over scores of international and bilateral affairs, Russian and US scientists managed to find a common language in jointly fighting a shared threat – the coronavirus pandemic.
The scientists have teamed up to cooperate in “all the areas related to the coronavirus, its nature, treatment and prevention measures,” the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) said.
The RAS and US National Academies of Sciences, Medicine and Engineering inked an agreement on Thursday around working together on a wide range of Covid-related areas, such as epidemiology, virology, infection pathophysiology as well as mathematic and computer simulations of the spread of the novel coronavirus.
As the Covid pandemic restricts face-to-face meetings, the scientists from both sides of the Atlantic signed the agreement via a Zoom videolink.
Russia and the US are among the countries with the highest rate of Covid-19 cases reported. But while Russia seems to be succeeding in containing the epidemic with over 13,350 fatalities nationwide, the US is still witnessing an upward trend, with the death toll passing 150,000 on Wednesday.
In the US, the government’s vaccine strategy Operation Warp Speed aims to provide a vaccine to the population by January 2021.
Russia plans to approve its vaccine by August 10 and launch vaccination of the population by early 2021. Still, Alexander Sergeyev, president of the RAS, said earlier it will be necessary to monitor the vaccine-induced antibodies for at least six months to declare victory.
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