[Cyprus Times] Nurse arrested in Italy for giving fake doses of vaccine to anti-vaccinators (video)

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A nurse was arrested in Italy for giving fake doses of the vaccine to anti-vaccinationists She allegedly received up to €400 for each fake dose /quote]

Italian police[/B] have arrested a nurse in Palermo who allegedly pretended to vaccinate antivaccinees against coronavirus, so that they could be issued with health passports that would allow them to travel and enter bars, restaurants and public transport throughout the country.

The video that "burned" her

Police officers used a hidden camera to film the 58-year-old nurse working at a vaccination centre in the Sicilian capital. The video, posted on Twitter on Thursday, shows the worker filling a syringe with a dose of coronavirus vaccine and then emptying it into a tissue before pretending to vaccinate the arms of anti-vaccinators.

#Digos Palermo ha arrestato un'infermiera impiegata presso il reparto malattie infettive, autrice di fittizie vaccinazioni contro il #Covid_19[/URL]
È indagata per falso ideologico e peculato. Anche lei avrebbe beneficiato di una falsa vaccinazione relativa alla dose booster #15gennaio pic.twitter.com/rQnZi5Q69t

- Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) January 15, 2022

The police even claim that the booster dose she supposedly received was fake, and proceeded to arrest her on charges of fraud and abuse.

Fake vaccinations are a scourge in Italy

This is not the first time an Italian nurse has been arrested for this offence. Dozens of health professionals, including at least three doctors, have been arrested or are under investigation on suspicion of administering fake vaccines in recent months, with some receiving up to €400 for their services.

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Last Wednesday, an Italian nurse from Ancona was arrested on charges of administering fake doses to at least 45 people. The health professional was allegedly emptying the vaccines into a medical waste bin.

According to investigators, anti-vaccine protesters are willing to pay as much as €300 for the service in order to receive the Italian government's new enhanced green passport. From December onwards, this document is necessary to access cinemas, gyms, nightclubs and stadiums, as well as to be able to sit inside bars and restaurants.

Second time in the same hospital

The nurse arrested on Friday in Palermo is the second employee of this hospital to end up in jail. On December 21, Sicilian authorities uncovered another alleged fraud involving dozens of anti-vaccinationists - including a police officer - who paid the nurse as much as €400 for fake doses.

The woman, who faces corruption and fraud charges, recently pleaded guilty and began cooperating with authorities, revealing details of the scam as well as the names of her accomplices. The woman told police that she was carrying out fake vaccinations because she needed the money to support her son who is studying at university. She also admitted to supplying the anti-vaccinators with fake vaccination certificates and negative coronavirus test results.

"We have exposed the dark and fraudulent conspiracies of these hard-core anti-vaccinators who do not hesitate to break the law," said Palermo police commander Leopoldo Larizia in a statement. "This investigation also shows that, unfortunately, there are still unvaccinated health professionals working in hospitals in close contact with patients."

Stricter measures, more inventive anti-vaccinators

As more and more countries in Europe introduce stricter measures to curb the spread of the Omicron variant, increasing numbers of anti-vaccinators are attempting to circumvent the law to obtain health passports.

In early December in Biela, a town near Turin, a man showed up at a vaccination center wearing... a fake silicone hand. After completing the bureaucratic part of the procedure, which includes signing a consent form in front of the doctor, the man, a 50-year-old dentist, lifted up his shirt sleeve and offered his fake hand to be vaccinated.

But when the nurse looked closely at the limb and felt the texture, she asked him to take off his shirt. So his plan went awry and he attempted to convince health professionals to look the other way.

The Omicron variant is now responsible for more than 80% of new infections in Italy, and daily numbers have begun to show a downward trend in recent days. Rome is expected to reach a vaccination coverage of 95% by May.

Source: in.gr/With information from Guardian

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