NBC News: Russia Registered The First Covid Vaccine. Now It's ...

According to one study published in the journal Nature, around 45 percent of the adult population of Russia’s second city, St. Petersburg, have antibodies to the coronavirus.Epidemiologist Vasily Vlassov, a professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, hasn’t yet been vaccinated, and believes his antibodies still protect him from infection after he caught Covid-19 in January.Although vaccinations in the former Soviet Union were widely accepted, hesitancy began rising in the 1990s after the fall of communism as people realized they could make choices for themselves, he said.“Russians know German cars are better than Russia’s cars and they have a problem believing that a Russian vaccine is better,” he said.Currently in Israel, Vlassov is considering getting the Pfizer vaccine that’s widely available there.Download the NBC News app for the latest news on the coronavirusDespite his initial excitement about the vaccine, Putin has offered no proof, other than a short government statement, that he received a Russian-made shot.