The Russian vaccine "Sputnik V" stopped protecting against coronavirus in January 2023, said Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya Center (the drug developer). According to him, after the spread of new variants of the coronavirus, the effectiveness of the vaccine began to decline, and when "Kraken" appeared, it fell completely.

Nevertheless, the center is preparing an updated vaccine, clinical trials of which will be completed by the first ten days of December. The drug is expected to enter medical institutions in March next year. However, Gintsburg does not rule out that by that time it may be irrelevant. The doctor explained that the coronavirus has remained in the population because it is constantly evolving.

In the summer of 2023, the Russian Ministry of Health proposed vaccinating only vulnerable categories of citizens in order to stabilize the situation with the incidence of the disease in the country. These include Russians over 60 years of age and people with chronic diseases.

According to Maxim Tersky, a doctor at the Roitberg clinic, even before the appearance of "omicron", vaccines could not protect a person from coronavirus infection. However, their use made it possible to reduce the damage to health. He explained that complications after suffering coronavirus were twice as often recorded in those who did not get vaccinated.

Tersky stressed that a person who has been ill develops a stable immunity to coronavirus, which no vaccine can give. It is through the development of collective immunity that the epidemic can be overcome, he concluded.