President Zuzana Čaputová wants to see the deal The discussion concerning the Sputnik V vaccine and the request of the Russian side to return the first batch of 200,000 doses delivered in early March is far from over. Following the criticism of Finance Minister Igor Matovič (OĽaNO) of the institutions testing the vaccine, several politicians and scientists have sided with both the Slovak medicines authority, the State Institute for Drug Control (ŠÚKL) and the Biomedical Research Centre of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (BMC SAV), expressing their support over the weekend. “ President Zuzana Čaputová This includes chief hygienist Ján Mikas and the experts behind the Veda Pomáha (Science Helps) initiative, who sent an open letter demanding that PM Eduard Heger (OĽaNO) apologise on behalf of the entire government for the inappropriate and unacceptable statements of Matovič directed at Slovak scientists and scientific institutions. Juraj Kopáček, scientific director of the SAV’s Institute of Virology, has even demanded a public apology from Matovič for his statements.