Terry Prone: We need rigorous testing, not propaganda, to find a vaccine

Putin isn't the first politician to use his daughter — but it needs to stop

Russian President Vladimir Putin: A master of propaganda. Picture: AP

It isn’t just that the mind boggles. It’s that the mind boggles in several different directions at the same time. This multi-platform boggling started when Mr Putin, the 007 wannabe with notions of immortality who runs Russia with an iron hand, announced that his lab guys had come up with a vaccine. Sputnik 5, they’re calling it, which at least speaks to an endangered demographic; those old enough to remember when the USSR put the first satellite into space; the first Sputnik.

Now, of course, whole continents like India are saying “Not fair!” about Russia rolling out the vaccine two weeks from now, and the most popular Professor in Ireland, Luke O”Neill, has curbed his innate enthusiasm about said roll out. He personally wouldn’t be for having it jabbed into him until a lot more tests have happened.