Nurse in Italy arrested for faking COVID-19 shots

Italy’s police arrested a nurse who allegedly faked coronavirus vaccinations for at least 45 people so they could obtain health cards fraudulently, throwing vaccines in a bin and even wrapping her “patients” in bandages to mask the fraud, according to ABC news.

Meanwhile, police in Ancona, a city on Italy’s eastern coast, arrested four alleged accomplices, claiming they found vaccine-averse customers who were willing to pay for health passes rather than get vaccines.

According to a police statement, 45 people who allegedly received the passes as part of the scam are under investigation, required to check in daily with police, and prevented from leaving their cities.

Despite being a huge vaccine hub, police were able to film the nurse putting a band-aid on her arm after pretending to inject the patient. She apparently threw away the needle while pretending to inject the patient before dumping it into a medical waste bin, the same source said.

The suspects face allegations of corruption, falsifying information, and embezzlement, although police said that the fake vaccination scheme wasted “fundamental public resources.”

In Italy, the unvaccinated have experienced an increasing number of restrictions, requiring proof of vaccination or a recent recovery from the COVID-19 as a requirement for accessing activities and services. It is estimated that 86% of the over-12 population in Italy has been inoculated and that just over 60% of the eligible population have received boosters since the outbreak first hit Europe in February 2020.

The police have investigated several cases of fake health passes, as well as the case of the dentist who went in to get a jab while wearing a silicone fake arm. A few days after he was dragged into a criminal investigation for his stunt, the dentist announced he got vaccinated and he was merely protesting the government’s vaccine mandates for health care workers.