In the Slovakia Minister of Health Zuzana Dolinkova resigned. It belongs to the “Voice of the President” party, the moderate force in the populist left-right government of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Her resignation came after only eleven months. She justified him with disagreements about the household, which provides for deep cuts in healthcare. The decisive factor, however, may have been the report that the government commissioner had examined the COVID pandemic, Peter Kotlar, a week ago.

In it, he not only questions the pandemic itself, but also calls for a ban on vaccination mRNA vaccinesby western companies like Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna were developed. Experts disagree with him. In their view, these vaccines helped significantly reduce the number of viral deaths and the aftermath of the pandemic.

That is exactly what Kotlar denies. “The most serious consequence of the whole invented operation called the COVID-19 pandemic is the threat to human health and the confirmation of the naivety of the world population to be subconsciously obedient,” he said when he presented his report.

Opponents of vaccination in power in Bratislava

For example, Kotlar, a member of the ruling Slovak National Party, had risen during the pandemic YouTube against the measures taken by the government at the time and the vaccination against COVID. This brought him considerable popularity, which helped him get into parliament.

Kotlar receives backing for his call for a ban on mRNA vaccines from Prime Minister Fico himself. “You all know that I personally have always been against vaccination with experimental vaccines against COVID,” Fico said in his weekend Facebook published address to the nation. He added that he had “many acquaintances” after the COVID vaccination had significant health problems. And he asked Kotlar to find out who had enriched himself in Slovakia by “unnecessary purchase of medical material and vaccines”.

High mortality during the pandemic

Slovakia was one of the strongest affected countries in the worldregarding the number of deaths related to the COVID pandemic. In this Central European EU member state with five million inhabitants, 21,000 people died as a result of COVID. In addition to poor and underfunded healthcare, also contributed Disinformation campaigns, distrust of modern western vaccines and underestimation of COVID itself.

The distrust led to many Slovaks rejecting western vaccines and only dealing with them Russian vaccine Sputnik wanted to vaccinate. Sent in spring 2021 the then Prime Minister Igor Matovic a government delegation after Moscowto stock up on Sputnik. However, after the EU did not recognize the Russian vaccine, it was ultimately not accepted in Slovakia and the vaccine doses had to be destroyed.

No collaboration with WHO

Nevertheless, Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government maintains its negative attitude towards the mRNA vaccines and their doubts about the pandemic. As a first step, she announced her collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) to end in the COVID question.

“At least let’s make the right gesture together by stopping the administration of mRNA preparations until efficacy and safety are proven,” Kotlar said when he presented his report. The most serious finding is that mRNA preparations changed human DNA, he claims. The vaccines are insufficiently tested and therefore dangerous.

“This shows where Slovakia has reached Robert Fico’s government after a year,” analyzes Slovak political scientist Grigory Mesezhnikov, president of the Bratislava-based Institute for Research on Public Issues (IVO), the DW. “After all, at the time of the COVID epidemic, Fico was probably the highest leader of the anti-vaccination movement not only in Slovakia but throughout Europe.”

Outrage of the scientists

“You can’t fight against unscientific facts,” said Health Minister Dolinkova resignedly when she announced her resignation. “Mr. Kotlar’s ideas continue to find support in the government coalition, while they have no backing in the world’s scientific circles.”

Before being used during the pandemic, the mRNA vaccines were subjected to rigorous tests by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). In 2023 went the Nobel Prize in Medicine to the two researchers Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissmann, the with the discovery of the mRNA technology had contributed to the development of the Corona vaccines.

The outrage in Slovakia about the government commissioner’s report is correspondingly great. His conclusions are described as wrong even by the Slovak public media, which are under increasing pressure from the government.

Doctors and scientists react even more horrified. “As a scientist who has been dealing with the Virus research we are deeply concerned about the claims that Kotlar has made to the public, “said a group of experts on the website of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. “The views presented question facts that have been reviewed and accepted by the global community of experts and the relevant authorities and cause public discomfort.”

The opposition also protests against Kotlar’s report and its conclusions. Oskar Dvorak, a deputy from the largest opposition party, Progressive Slovakia, and deputy chairman of the parliamentary health committee, said to reporters: “If we had a competition for uselessness, Peter Kotlar would win it. The pandemic investigation officer has no analysis, no evidence, but is abusing his office to spread dangerous disinformation. ”