Determined and unconcerned about travelling abroad. Who are the people interested in the Russian vaccine?

Sputnik V rollout launched in Slovakia on Monday. This is how the first day looked.

Sputnik V vaccination in SlovakiaSputnik V vaccination in Slovakia (Source: Sme - Jozef Jakubco)

If it had not been for the large banner that reads Vaccination Centre, few would have guessed that the small building in the wider centre of the northern-Slovak city of Žilina is where vaccinations are being conducted. This relates to the Sputnik V vaccination, although the name of the Russian vaccine is nowhere to be seen.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

About a dozen, mostly older people are sitting or standing in the waiting room. It feels overcrowded because the room is barely three per four metres in size.

"Given the expected interest it's not that many people," Silvia Pekarčíková, head of the health department of the Žilina Self-Governing Region, says of her first impression of the vaccination centre.

SkryťTurn off ads

Until Friday, June 4, only 609 people had registered for the Russian vaccine in the Žilina Region. The first region, along with Bratislava, where the Sputnik V vaccination was launched on Monday, June 7. The remaining six regions are expected to join in the coming days.

As of Monday, June 7, the Health Ministry reported 4,814 people registered for the Russian vaccine. A small number, considering that first 100,000 doses of the two-dose vaccine are sitting in storage at the Imuna Pharm company in the eastern-Slovak town of Šarišské Michaľany. If the authorities do not use the doses within a month, they will expire and will most likely need to be trashed.

Slovakia is now working under time pressure mainly because former health minister Marek Krajčí (OĽaNO) imported Sputnik V on March 1, but then hesitated for weeks on whether to launch the vaccination. As minister, he may have decided on the rollout the moment the plane with 200,000 Sputnik doses touched down at Košice airport.

SkryťTurn off ads

Americans only steal scientists

The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.sk
Subscribe now for full access

I already have subscription - Sign in

Subscription provides you with:
  • Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk
  • Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail)
  • PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, emailed directly to you
  • Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk

Top stories

Stock image.

Twice as many Ukrainians work in Slovakia now than before the Russian invasion.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


SkryťClose ad