'I wouldn't take it': Ex-Trump official pours cold water on Russia's purported COVID 'vaccine'

Former Trump FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Tuesday poured cold water on the Russian government's announcement that it had developed the world's first vaccine for the novel coronavirus.

Appearing on CNBC, Gottlieb warned that Russia's process for developing the purported vaccine is highly questionable, and he expressed skepticism that it's as effective as Russian President Vladimir Putin claims.

"I wouldn't take it, certainly not outside a clinical trial right now," he said. "It appears that it's only been tested in several hundred patients at most... it's not a true-blue vaccine, in terms of the technical complexity that goes into manufacturing a vaccine."

After the interview, Gottlieb also posted on Twitter that he's skeptical of Russia's motives for announcing the vaccine due to its efforts to spread misinformation about the disease over the last several months.

"Russia was reported to be behind disinformation campaigns to sow doubts in U.S. about our Covid vaccines; and today’s news that they 'approved' a vaccine on the equivalent of phase-1 data may be another effort to stoke doubts or goad U.S. into forcing early action on our vaccines," he wrote.

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