Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska came up with an original, and also shocking, explanation for the complete failure of the Zaev Government to provide coronavirus vaccines. At a time when almost all neighboring countries are conducting vaccinations, Macedonia has been left without a single dose, and the Government wasn’t even able to transport some promised donations from neighboring countries.

But according to Sekerinska, the Government was prepared to purchase vaccines, but did not do so because it feared it would raise suspicions in the country.

What we are doing is we are trying to obtain vaccines but without having anybody accuse us that we are offering our population for testing. Imagine what would have happened if we came out a few months ago and said “we will have the vaccines but some of the tests will be conducted here”. We did not do that because we wanted to take them once the testing period is completed, Sekerinska said.

She did not elaborate further whether some vaccine company was offering Macedonia to have the vaccines early, and to use them during the testing stage, or if this was just a poorly thought out attempt to come up with an excuse for a huge failure of the Government. But the statement was seen as Sekerinska toying with anti-vaxxer thinking and raising doubts about the safety of the vaccines.

VMRO-DPMNE spokesman Naum Stoilkovski responded by sharing pictures of world and local leaders being vaccinated early in the inoculation campaign and asking Sekerinska if they were also, in her opinion, “used as guinea pigs”.