Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan was vaccinated against coronavirus on May 3. Official reports do not say which vaccine he received. Pashinyan did not answer this question from the NA tribune. However, the available visual material proves that Pashinyan was vaccinated with Russian Sputnik V.

How was the vaccine discovered?

A video about the vaccination of Nikol Pashinyan and Anna Hakobyan was published on May 3, but neither the video, nor the reports of the RA Government, nor the Ministry of Health, nor their personal accounts specify which vaccine they received.

Nikol Pashinyan did not specify the issue of choosing the vaccine from the NA tribune. Instead, he informed that one of the deputy ministers was vaccinated with AstraZeneca, the other will be vaccinated with Sputnik V. He also expressed hope that one of the NA presidencies will be vaccinated with the Chinese vaccine.

Pashinyan did not explain why he did not publish the name of the vaccine, but it is possible to find out from the published video. In one scene, the vaccine vial is close-up: It has a design with blue letters on a white background.

This is the design of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which is registered as ‘Gam-KOVID-Vak.’ Of the other two vaccines used in Armenia, the design of the English AstraZeneca is purple-white, and that of the Chinese Sinovac is orange-white.

What vaccine did the officials get?

Arsen Torosyan is the first official in Armenia to be vaccinated against coronavirus. As Minister of Health, in December 2020, he was vaccinated with Russian Sputnik V․ This was the only vaccine available in Armenia at that time, the samples of which were transferred by the Russian side. Acting RA Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan and Acting Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan were vaccinated with AstraZeneca on April 28.

So far, it is clear from the content published by the Ministry of Justice that the following officials have been vaccinated:

• Karen Giloyan, Deputy Minister of MES,
• Tsovinar Vardanyan, NA Deputy,
• Mesrop Mesropyan, Governor of Kotayk,
• Hovhannes Harutyunyan, Governor of Shirak,
• Artavazd Vanyan, General Director of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health.

It is not clear which vaccine they received.

Some heads of international organizations and diplomats have also been vaccinated in Armenia:

• Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia
• Andrea Wiktorin, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia
• Agemar de Mendonça Sanctos, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Brazil.

What vaccine have leaders in other countries chosen?

Current and former leaders of different countries participate in information campaigns on the coronavirus vaccine. They are vaccinated in front of the cameras, choosing either the vaccine produced by their own country or the one that arouses the most suspicion among people.

Pashinyan is not the only leader who does not announce the name of the vaccine he received. Russian President Vladimir Putin did the same. The Kremlin said it had been vaccinated with a Russian-made vaccine, but did not specify the vaccine.

Who was vaccinated by the vaccine that was targeted for raising the most concern, AstraZeneca:

• The President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel
• The Prime Minister of Great Britain Boris Johnson

US President Joe Biden was vaccinated with German-American Pfizer-BioNTech, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was vaccinated with Chinese Sinovac. Former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have been vaccinated.

Arshaluys Barseghyan