WASHINGTON – No, Russia is not having a Sputnik moment.The announcement Tuesday by Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country was the first to approve a coronavirus vaccine did not provoke the awe and wonder of the Soviet Union’s launch of the first satellite into orbit in 1957.
Instead, it was met by doubts about the science and safety.But it also underscored how, like the space race, the competition to have the first vaccine is about international rivalries as well as science.