President to Meet SAV Head Over COVID-19 Vaccine Analysis on Wednesday

Bratislava, 2 September (TASR) – President Peter Pellegrini will meet with President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) Martin Venhart on Wednesday (3 September) at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the results of an analysis of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, TASR learnt from the President's Office website and SAV spokesperson Monika Tinakova on Tuesday. Tinakova added that the SAV will present detailed information about the analysis results on Thursday, 4 September. According to TV Joj, scientists from SAV’s Biomedical Research Centre have already published the details in preprint form on the scientific platform Research Square. This version of the scientific article has not yet undergone peer review. Venhart requested the meeting with the President in response to the government’s decision not to address the analysis during last week’s cabinet session. He was informed shortly before the start of Wednesday’s (27 August) meeting that the analysis would not be discussed. Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has since confirmed that the analysis will not be included in this week’s cabinet agenda either. According to the SAV, the analysis showed that the vaccines contain only trace amounts of DNA molecules, well below approved safety thresholds. The Academy stated that the risks highlighted by Peter Kotlar, the Government’s Proxy for Investigation into the COVID-19 Pandemic Management, were not substantiated. The SAV described his claims of high DNA content as based on flawed methods and/or misinterpreted results, labelling them as incorrect and misleading. mf/mcs