practitioners. former health minister kostadin angelov has expressed criticism of those medical practitioners who have encouraged their patients not to get themselves vaccinated. in march 2021, some medical experts in bulgaria characterized the temporary suspension of the vaccinations with oxford astra-zeneca as an overreaction and potentially dangerous in terms of stoking fears among the already vaccinated while in september 2021 caretaker health minister stoycho katsarov blamed boyko borisov's intervention at the time for reducing people's trust in this vaccine. the expert council on obstetrics and gynecology has courted controversy by strongly recommending against pregnant women receiving vaccines, contrary to the existing scientific evidence. a number of media sources have taken issue with the government's manner of reporting the official figures regarding the number of individuals who have been vaccinated, believing that it invites confusion. concerns have been expressed regarding the lack of a targeted campaign to vaccinate the children aged 12 and over. the issuing of fake vaccine certificates by people working within the medical field has been noted as a concern, with the media raising the alarm regarding such instances and 14 such signals received by the office of the chief prosecutor as of early october 2021. the manner in which the "green certificates" were introduced by the authorities in october 2021 has been criticized by experts due to being a delayed measure, the lack of a sufficient pre-warning, especially given the low rate of vaccination in bulgaria, for creating panic among citizens, also hampering the work of medical professionals, for potentially encouraging the issuing of fake documents, the inherent health risks due to people with far from completed vaccination courses being able to obtain them, coupled with the scientifically suspect issuing of such documents based solely on antibody levels and due to not being a sufficiently strict measure, serving as an inadequate substitute for a lockdown. specific incidents some of the vaccines that arrived sofia on 26 december were subsequently transported to plovdiv by using a leki food industry minibus, and were then stored in a zil refrigerator on reaching their destination, which resulted in criticism and mockery on social media, but the health ministry cited examples of such reliance on the services of private companies not being an unusual practice in western countries and maintained that all the proper guidelines had been observed. on 9 january 2021, the ministry of health revealed that it was conducting an urgent investigation after receiving information that councillors in sandanski municipality had already received vaccines despite not being part of the groups prioritized during the first phase, as stipulated by the vaccination plan. the director of the hospital in sandanski, iliya tonev, subsequently claimed that a number of the people who were to have priority in terms of vaccinations had ultimately decided against it, so appointments were set up with the councillors (who were among the volunteers in popularizing the pfizer-biontech vaccine) at a short notice in order for the doses not to go to waste. however, after the review of the facts, the minister of health was adamant that the protocols had not been adhered to in vaccinating 24 of the people, as there had been sufficient time for a proper redistribution of the vaccines, claiming that if he had the authority, he would have released the hospital director from his duties. in february 2021, chief national health inspector angel kunchev revealed that people holding anti-vaccination views had in a number of instances deliberately signed up for receiving their injections and then failed to show up in the hopes of sabotaging the vaccination process. the online registration system for vaccinations has been subjected to hacker attacks. in late february 2021, a young couple from pleven was refused vaccination because of not having proper health insurance. the health minister ordered that the case be looked into, confirming that each bulgarian citizen is eligible for vaccination regardless of his or her health insurance status. yordan georgiev, the director of the st. pantaleymon hospital where the situation had transpired, was criticized for not being familiar with the health ministry's policies, with journalists also drawing attention to the multitude of instances of british citizens without health insurance having received vaccinations in bulgaria. the man and the woman were subsequently invited by other hospitals in the city to be administered their doses. in march 2021, angelov revealed that some people had been signing up to participate as electoral commission members (without intending to follow through with their commitments) just so that they could get themselves vaccinated. in may 2021, police had to be called after turkish citizens, some of whom were also with spanish passports, who had travelled across the border to make use of bulgaria's "green corridors" attempted to receive a jab at a mobile vaccination point near the regional health inspectorate of bourgas. according to bulgarian legal regulations, only foreigners permanently residing in bulgaria or those meeting certain criteria, such as foreign students enrolled at bulgarian universities or members of diplomatic missions, as well as those with dual citizenship are eligible to be vaccinated in the country. in september 2021, a group of vaccine sceptics self-styled as "committee of salvation" who demanded a document confirming that the vaccines are authorized to be administered in bulgaria disrupted the proceedings at a mobile vaccination point at the entrance to the sea garden in varna, eventually causing it to discontinue its work. the incident was strongly condemned by the health minister. since late september 2021 banners proclaiming that covid-19 is a hoax and opposing all the vaccines have been placed prominently near the monument to the tsar liberator and the old house of the national parliament by members of the "people's party the truth and only the truth" (bulgarian: "народна партия истината и само истината"), associated with ventsislav angelov, a candidate for president. in early october traycho traychov, mayor of sredets district that covers the area, insisted that the signs be removed, but the party organizers have been able to secure permission from the municipality regarding the continued display of the banners. the same signs had been ordered to be taken off in rousse, angelov's hometown, by the mayor of the city, pencho milkov, with some sources criticizing his sofia counterpart yordanka fandakova for not following the same course of action. one of the controversial banners of the "people's party the truth and only the truth". in october 2021, the police dismantled a criminal network operating across the whole country and involved in the issuing of fraudulent covid-19 vaccine certificates, with four suspects being detained in veliko tarnovo. it was determined that at least five such documents had been provided, with two of the recipients no longer residing in the country. people employed in a hospital in kyustendil and a paramedic from yablanitsa are also believed to be part of the scam. the issue has received attention in neighbouring greece, as some greek citizens have obtained such certificates, with the headquarters of a number of criminal groups involved in the practice believed to be in the city of sandanski. on 20 october 2021, caretaker minister of education nikolay denkov was accosted by a number of sympathizers of the vazrazhdane party who were protesting against the green certificates and other policies such as the wearing of face masks by schoolchildren. one of the involved attempted to get physical with the educator, but the presence of police officers prevented an escalation of the situation. on 23 october 2021, kostadin kostadinov, leader of vazrazhdane, posted a video on his facebook profile, alleging that expired vaccines were being administered to bulgarians. the ministry of health refuted this, maintaining that there have been no instances of vaccines being used past their expiry date and that ema had changed the shelf life of the pfizer vaccine from 6 to 9 months in accordance with the standard procedure. on 24 october 2021, boyko borisov made the same allegation, as a result of which the health minister alerted the prosecutor's office in sofia due to what he regarded as the spreading of fake news. in november 2021, a fraud scheme for covid-19 vaccine passes in sofia, involving velichko georgiev, a politician from the patriotic front coalition, was unravelled after a nova tv investigation. the immunity of georgiev, who was a candidate to be a deputy in the national parliament, was waived and he was expelled from the nfsb. during the same month, police broke up another fake covid-19 vaccine certificate network, operating in asenovgrad and rakovski, involved in the issuing of at least 250 such documents, arresting four people. in november 2021, chief health inspector angel kunchev who had been vaccinated with two doses tested positive for covid-19. fake news that he had been hospitalized in serious condition and lost the battle against the disease were subsequently spread on the internet. on 31 december 2021, a few hours before new year's eve, a 53-year old former army serviceman was detained by the police at the alexander of battenberg square in sofia after expressing anti-vaccination views and threatening to detonate a grenade. in january 2022, controversial conspiracy theorist ventsislav angelov aggressively confronted and got into a serious physical altercation with a medical practitioner who had administered a janssen vaccine, which was alleged to have contributed to a fatal outcome in the case of the recipient, and was subsequently arrested by the police. on 21 january 2022, it was reported that the chief prosecutor's office was in the process of investigating infectiologist atanas mangarov due to his allegations (refuted by the ministry of health) that more than 500 fatalities had occurred as a direct result of the administration of vaccines. in october 2022, the sofia district prosecutor's office decreed that mangarov's statements did not equate to inciting panic and he could not be held legally liable for them. in february 2022, police broke up a network at a medical center in sofia involved in the issuing of more than 3000 fraudulent green certificates. criticism from abroad in december 2020, bulgaria stated that it will take the initiative in securing vaccines for north macedonia and other states from the western balkans, but as of mid february 2021, with the country struggling to obtain enough vaccines for its own citizens, this had not materialized, generating critical headlines in the macedonian and bulgarian media. on 29 may 2021, it was confirmed that bulgaria would donate 50,000 of its vaccine doses to north macedonia as a "friendly gesture". in november 2021, the european commissioner for internal market thierry breton visited bulgaria to meet with caretaker prime minister stefan yanev, expressing full support for bulgaria's fight against covid-19 and offering help while also emphasizing that the low vaccination coverage in the country could potentially result in the creation of an additional variant of the virus, putting other eu citizens at risk. european commissioner for health and food safety stella kyriakides voiced similar concerns in december 2021. a banner of the representative office of the european commission in sofia intended to popularize the vaccination campaign in bulgaria, on which a young couple is depicted. another poster advertising the vaccination campaign, on which a man and his granddaughter are shown. a billboard in the ilinden district with the message that the vaccine saves lives. attitudes of the general public assessment of government response to the pandemic according to an april 2020 gallup survey, over 75% of the citizens expressed support for the lockdown-related pandemic control measures taken by the government and the members of the national operational headquarters for the fight against the coronavirus in bulgaria, but the subsequent loosening of restrictions and the exponential rise in cases in october and november caused public support for the authorities' strategy to plummet to slightly over 30%. in an alpha research survey conducted between 8 and 15 september 2021 24.2% of bulgarians expressed approval of the caretaker government's performance in managing the pandemic and the vaccination campaign while 42% had a negative view. in а маrch 2022 alpha research survey 42.2% of bulgarians rated the petkov government's policies in relation to healthcare and the pandemic as successful while 55.6% regarded them as unsuccessful. views on the vaccinations while bulgaria has historically been characterized by receptive attitudes to vaccines, with the country having a long tradition of compulsory immunizations against certain diseases and a