A man was arrested for fraud after he reportedly attempted to use a fake arm to avoid getting the COVID-19 vaccine in Biella, Italy.
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The man reported to be in his 50s, entered the clinic while wearing the silicon arm cover in order to receive the jab. However, Filippa Bua, the nurse who was administering the shot noticed that his skin was “too light” and described it as “rubbery and cold.” “At first I thought I made a mistake — that it was a patient with an artificial arm,” she said to La Stampa. She reported the man to the police despite his pleas to keep his scheme under wraps.
The man was a healthcare worker who was suspended from his job because he didn’t get the vaccine. It is mandatory for all healthcare workers to be vaccinated in the country.
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Officials said a Twitter user could’ve been the man after they asked their followers if someone would notice if they were wearing a silicon male chest bodysuit while browsing on Amazon.
“Maybe beneath the silicone I’ll even put on some extra clothes to avoid the needle reaching my real arm,”
Piedmont regional government official Albert Cirio called the crime “ridiculous.”
“The case borders on the ridiculous if it were not for the fact we are talking about a gesture of enormous gravity. [It 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”.