A false report circulated in Czechia and Slovakia that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the EU had entered into a pandemic treaty that gives the WHO the power to enforce mandatory vaccination and mandatory quarantines in the event of a pandemic. In the Czech Republic, 13 percent of the population was affected by this information, and 24 percent in Slovakia. (source: Pixabay)
Slovaks are among the most likely to believe in conspiracy theories, new research has shown, after the country registered one of the highest 'conspiracy index' scores ever recorded.
In a survey carried out by the Centre for Bioethics at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius (UCM) in Trnava Slovakia scored 30.27, one of the highest among countries where research using the same methodology has been conducted so far.
This was even higher than the top country in a 2021 study by French scientists published in the Social Science Information journal where Turkey scored 25.29. Denmark had the lowest score at 6.29.
The Slovak survey, which was carried out in cooperation with the Focus agency on a representative sample of 1,514 respondents in August, was part of the European operational program addressing societal threats due to the Covid-19 pandemic (2020-2023).
"Research indicates that Slovakia is a record holder in acceptance of conspiracy theories not just in Central- and Eastern-Europe, but globally," Peter Sýkora, director of the UCM Centre for Bioethics, said as quoted by the SITA newswire.
