An Italian man is facing fraud charges for wearing a prosthetic arm to bypass receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in his home country.
The man visited a vaccine hub in Biella, a city in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy, to receive the jab in accordance with recent governmental restrictions preventing unvaccinated persons from participating in a bounty of social activities, The Guardian reported Friday. (RELATED: Italy Requires All Workers To Have Digital Vaccine Passes).
The man paid an estimated hundreds of euros for his prosthetic arm, used the device in effort to obtain a health pass while dodging the actual vaccine, the outlet added.
As a nurse in Biella, Italy, prepared to administer a Covid vaccine on Thursday, she noticed the patient’s arm was pinker than his face — then, she touched the arm.
“It was made of rubber foam,” she said.https://t.co/8PHg1SEZh5
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 3, 2021
Once the man completed his preliminary paperwork, sat down and raised his sleeve to receive the shot, health worker Filippa Bua noticed something peculiar about his arm.
“I felt offended as a professional,” she told La Repubblica, according to The Guardian’s report. “The colour of the arm made me suspicious and so I asked the man to uncover the rest of his left arm. It was well made but it wasn’t the same colour.”
“At first I thought I made a mistake, that it was a patient with an artificial arm.”
The patient pleaded with Bua to ignore his fraudulent act once she made the discovery, the outlet added.
Fake vaccination cards have circulated across the web as an increasing number of people attempt to bypass COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Beginning Dec. 6, Italy will implement plans for its “super green pass” which will restrict access to gyms, theaters, stadiums, restaurants, nightclubs and other closed public spaces for unvaccinated individuals.