Slovak COVID inquiry: 'There was no pandemic'
New government condemns actions of previous leaders
Slovakia has for a while been an outlier in Europe with its Prime Minister, Robert Fico, stating at the end of last year that the country’s previous government had “grossly violated human rights” with its COVID response, primarily regarding the shots. Fico told members of his party in November that,
... today it turns out that our free perspective on past vaccination and the government’s measures to fight against COVID, grossly violating human rights, was correct and justified. One study after another confirms the scandalous consequences of mass vaccination with untested experimental vaccines.
Fico also promised that his government, then only recently elected, would be establishing an official inquiry into the previous government’s actions:
Yes, I can confirm as chairman of the party and I also confirm it as the prime minister, that I will support the efforts of some politicians from the new government coalition to politically assess what was the government fooling around between 2020 and 2021, and also have a look at the financial side of extensive, often completely meaningless, purchases of medical devices and vaccines.
Fico also insisted that Slovakia would not ratify the WHO’s new pandemic treaty and that his party, SMER, “will not support strengthening the power of the World Health Organization at the expense of sovereign states in managing the fight against pandemics.”
No restrictions without clear definitions
Several months later, Fico’s government has yet to conclude its investigation of the Slovak “pandemic” response — the final report (including the inquiry’s recommendations to the government) is due to be presented to the General Prosecutor's Office of the Slovak Republic in September. However, Peter Kotlar, the government’s representative in the inquiry, has now presented an interim report to parliament which gives some idea of the general slant of the inquiry.
What Kotlar had to say was quite dramatic:
There is clear evidence that, considering what a pandemic means, considering the incidences and other measurable parameters, there has been no pandemic in Slovakia.
Kotlar then added that because a pandemic has never been clearly defined, it is therefore impossible to meaningfully declare one.
We currently have a vague definition that it is an epidemic of a large scale that jumps across continents...
Kotlar does not dispute that there was an epidemic of COVID-19, but he insists that without clearly defining a pandemic, lockdown and other restrictive regulations should not be legislated:
The only thing that matters to me is to define the definition of a pandemic, and now not only in the world, but also the pandemic situation in Slovakia. Based on that, we can then issue orders and prohibitions that limit the common man.
A pandemic, or an act of war?
Those Opposition politicians who had been in government during the COVID era reacted with scorn and condemnation, with some accusing Kotlar of “spitting in the face of everyone who works in the healthcare system,” and the former head of the Health Ministry asserting that, “any questioning of the pandemic is disrespectful to its victims.”
Politicians from other political parties, however, such as Stefan Harabin, welcomed Kotlar’s words, saying,
Kotlar should be thanked for telling the truth.
Kotlar’s words were not widely reported beyond his country’s borders. However, one of his statements indicated that the official Slovak inquiry into the country’s COVID response may have a wider purview than many would like:
On the other hand, if it is found that the virus was artificially created, it was not a pandemic, but an act of bioterrorism.
