Government Acknowledges Kotlar's Report on His Analysis of mRNA COVID Vaccines

Bratislava, March 26 (TASR) - The government at its session on Wednesday acknowledged a report by Government Proxy for the Investigation into COVID-19 Pandemic Management Peter Kotlar on the results of his analysis into mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. The cabinet tasked Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) with forming a group made up of representatives of the Public Health Office, the Office for Supervision of Health Care, the National Centre for Health Information, the State Institute for Drug Control and the Slovak Academy of Sciences to draft an expertise-informed stance and to explore potential measures regarding Kotlar's analysis. It's supposed to do this by July 31 and submit the documents to the government. During the drafting of the expert stance, Kotlar is required to extend full cooperation to the working group. In addition, the government also extended the powers of the government proxy in implementing measures concerning the protection of data linked to pandemic measures and the analysis of COVID-19 vaccines. Furthermore, Kotlar is to "expertly cooperate in processes linked with procurements of mass-use vaccines, carried out directly by the Health Ministry, in such a way so as to also negotiate in advance the costs of liquidating unused vaccines by the manufacturer". Kotlar should cooperate with the Health Ministry in drafting an amendment to the Protection of Health bill to revise the definition of a pandemic. Kotlar is also expected to cooperate on a revision of International Health Norms and processes related to exploring expert and legal aspects of rejecting these norms, with an emphasis on evaluating the risks for Slovakia. The government proxy was cleared to participate in drafting legislation on compensating those whose health suffered in reaction to vaccination against COVID-19 and to look into the state of readiness of the State Material Reserves Administration in regards to another potential epidemic/pandemic. mf/df