Another wave of pandemic politics is upon us

Like many other countries where the pool of those eager to get jabbed has effectively dried up, Slovakia has now entered the next level of its pandemic conversation. We have moved on from debating how to allocate scarce doses and are now talking about vaccine mandates, as doses of every type of vaccine pile up in freezers, waiting to be used. The key now is to persuade those who are still hesitating.

With only a little over 40 percent of the population vaccinated with at least one dose, as of the second half of July, and the tempo of vaccinations now half what it was in spring – when, let us not forget, many people were willing to travel to the other side of the country just to get that needle in their arm – Slovakia is not in a good place.