Italian man’s shocking attempt to avoid the Covid vaccine

He went to extreme lengths to avoid getting jabbed but still wanted a vaccination certificate, which would give him huge freedoms.

An Italian man tried to trick a nurse into giving him the Covid vaccine via a fake arm. Picture: Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP

An Italian man has tried to deceive medical staff by bringing in a fake silicone arm to his Covid vaccine appointment.

The 50-year-old was attempting to get the vaccination certificate, which allows people many more freedoms including access to bars, restaurants, theatres and other indoor entertainment venues, but without actually receiving the jab.

However, an eagle-eyed nurse, Filippa Bua, spotted the man’s sneaky move just before she was about to give him the vaccine on Thursday.

She realised there was something off about the arm, with the colour of the skin on it much lighter compared to his hands or face.

She was about to administer the vaccine. Picture: iStock

The nurse took a closer look at the fake arm and realised it was made of silicone, however she didn’t suspect any sinister motives at that stage.

“I first felt sorry for the man, thinking that he had a prosthesis and wondering if I had somehow forced him to give me the wrong arm,” she told CNN.

“But then he admitted he was wearing the fake arm on purpose to avoid getting the vaccine.”

Ms Bua has been a nurse for almost 35 years and since the pandemic began has delivered thousands of vaccines and said the man’s trickery caused a range of emotions.

“At the very beginning I was surprised, then I was angry, I felt professionally offended, he showed no respect for our intelligence and our profession,” she said.

“I would never expect such a thing in my life.”

A nurse prepares the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Picture: Andrej Ivanov / AFP

The regional Italian government of Piedmont in northern Italy, where the man lived, described his actions as one of “enormous gravity” and “unacceptable” considering the huge sacrifice the community was already being forced to make.

President of the Piedmont regional government, Alberto Cirio, added the incident was an “offence to the region’s health system”, particularly as the area is one of the few places in Europe that has kept Covid infection rates below 1 per cent.

A complaint has been filed with the local prosecutor’s office about the incident.