On July 13, at 1:30 p.m. Moscow time (GMT+3), the Valdai Discussion Club will hold a discussion titled “Virus Mutation and World Experience in Revaccination: Human Rights and Society.”

       The spread of a new “Indian” strain of coronavirus in many countries, including Russia, has led to a sharp increase in the incidence and to the third wave of the pandemic. The specific feature of the new wave is that it has occurred after the creation of vaccines against coronavirus. In countries that have been able to carry out large-scale vaccination of their populations, the third wave has been accompanied by extremely low mortality. In Russia, due to the slow pace of vaccination, mortality is not decreasing.

       At the same time, practically all existing vaccines, as their developers admit, are less effective against “the Indian strain”. This raises the question of modifying vaccines and puts on the agenda the task of revaccinating the already-vaccinated population. In this regard, the issue of public trust in the government and vaccine developers is becoming key to successfully overcoming the pandemic. The use of administrative levers to increase the rate of vaccination has also raised the issue of whether human rights and civil rights are being adequately observed.

       Will vaccine modification and revaccination against coronavirus become a perennial reality in the future? Is it possible to find the optimal combination of human rights and the rights of society as a whole in the vaccination process? What are the socio-political consequences of increasing the rate of vaccination throughout the world? These and other questions will be addressed by the participants in the discussion.

       Speakers:

       Dmitry Dedov, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights from Russian Federation

       Alexey Deykin, Senior Scientist, Centre for Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine at the Institute of Gene Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences

       Sergey Karelov, Founder of Witology, Chairman of The League of Independent IT Experts

       Laurence Lwoff, Head of the Bioethics Unit, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe

       Tatiana Reihtman, Advisor to the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation

       Richard Sakwa, Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury

       Ilya Zyabkin, Director of the Federal Research Centre for Children and Adolescents, FMBA of Russian Federation

       Moderator:

       Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

       Working languages: Russian, English.

       Information for the media: To get accredited for the event, fill out the form on our website or call +79269307763.