Professor Luke O'Neill says there's 'no way' he would take Russia's supposed coronavirus vaccine until it has gone through rigorous safety testing.
The leading immunologist has suggested the vaccine announcement is 'aggressive and political', but that we should still closely watch what happens in Russia.
Earlier this week, Russian authorities confirmed they'd approved the 'Sputnik V' vaccine, calling it the world's first COVID-19 vaccine.
President Vladimir Putin insisted it has gone through "all the necessary checks" - and that his own daughter had received a dose.
However, international scientists quickly said there was a need for caution and concern as the vaccine hadn't gone through the full vaccine testing process.
Speaking on The Pat Kenny Show, Professor O'Neill - professor of biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin - said he would not take it if it was offered to him.
He said: "We're worried about that one, because that clearly hasn't gone through all the rigorous safety analysis that the vaccines are going through at the moment.
"You have to wait until the safety data is in, so there's no way I'd take a vaccine that wasn't tested in that way. It's going through a phase three trial at the moment, and it's also being launched at the same time.
"They're calling it Sputnik V - and I was wondering if the 'V' stood for Vladimir Putin, but it actually stands for vaccine.
"Isn't it amazing: they've approved a vaccine that hasn't gone through the correct safety testing. They've done lots of testing, they say... but not the proper gold standard way. It's aggressive, and it's political."
Professor O'Neill said it is similar to the other vaccines going through testing in the rest of the world at the moment.
He noted there is therefore a need to look at the results in Russia very closely, as it could give us hope for other vaccines in development if it does work successfully.
New Zealand
One of the other big international coronavirus stories of the week was the re-emergence of community transmission in New Zealand again after more than 100 days without it.
Auckland has gone back into lockdown as authorities work to find out the source of the new infections.
Professor O'Neill said: "Even with their best efforts and all the things they've done, they now have 38 cases.
"Whatever they find will inform us. They think it came from freight into the country... that there was some sort of contaminated contained with something in it. The second [possibility is] someone sneaking into the country.
"It's very important for other countries to look at this: even if you get to zero COVID, there is a risk of a little re-emergence.
"The good news is they can clamp it down quickly."
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that two cities in China have found traces of the coronavirus in imported frozen food and on food packaging.
Professor O'Neill said it's still very early days in terms of the research into these new cases, but scientists will be interested to see whether freight or frozen food are potential factors in spread of the virus.
Modelling
Professor O'Neill also walked through the latest mathematical modelling on where the world may be at in the fight against COVID-19 in a year's time.
Explaining the latest models, he said: "Towards the end of 2021... the virus will still be here. It will still be slowly burning in different countries. There will be intermittent lockdowns.
"There may be a vaccine - they think there probably will be. It might give six months protection in a worst-case scenario... and therefore will keep having to re-vaccinate. They also worry about the roll-out of the vaccine being a bit slow.
"Certainly they're working on this very, very hard to try to predict the next 12-18 months with different scenarios - they're using all the data we have at the moment.
"The good news is the behaviours are working: the fact that we're observing social distancing, wearing masks, and hand washing."
He said that particular model is the "glass half empty" forecast for the future, and there is the more optimistic prospect that a vaccine will be rolled out quicker.
