An Italian health worker got exposed while trying to receive a COVID-19 jab with a fake arm in Biella, a city in Italy.
Gatekeepers News reports that the man who is in his 50s was said to be a health worker who had been suspended from his job because he had not been vaccinated as the jab has been made mandatory for all health workers in Italy.
The man, whose identity was not revealed, had planned to dodge being vaccinated against Coronavirus by showing up at the vaccination centre with a silicone mould covering his real arm, hoping to fool the health workers and get a COVID vaccination certificate.
He was however caught by a nurse who reported him to the Police who are now investigating the incident.
The nurse explained that when she had rolled up his sleeve, she found the skin “rubbery and cold” and the pigment “too light”.
After being caught, the man tried to persuade the nurse to turn a blind eye, la Repubblica reported. But instead, she reported him to the police for fraud.
Head of the Piedmont regional government, Albert Cirio, in a statement on Facebook, said: “The case borders on the ridiculous, if it were not for the fact we are talking about a gesture of enormous gravity.”
He noted that the ploy was “unacceptable faced with the sacrifice that our entire community has paid during the pandemic, in terms of human lives, the social and economic cost”.
La Repubblica believes the incident may not be connected to a message on social media that may have been written by the man.
The Twitter post quoted by the paper featured a silicone male chest half-body suit, complete with fake arms and neck, that was on sale on Amazon for €488 (£416).
“If I go with this, will they notice? Maybe beneath the silicone, I’ll even put on some extra clothes to avoid the needle reaching my real arm,” the Twitter user reportedly wrote.
