An Italian anti-vaxxer ‘tried to avoid getting the jab by turning up to his appointment wearing prosthetic arms’.
The man, who has been identified in Italy as a local dentist, reportedly tried to hoodwink a nurse by hiding fake limbs underneath his clothes.
He arrived at the vaccination centre in the Piedmont region hoping to obtain a green pass, the Covid-19 certificate Italians now need for a range of activities, including going to work.
But nurse Filipa Bua knew something was up as soon as he lifted his clothes to reveal his ‘arm’, which in reality was a prop bought off Amazon.
She told La Republica: ‘He uncovered his shoulder and I realised that the colour of his arm was strange.
‘For a moment I thought I had made a gaffe, because I had asked him for the arm he used less…then I asked him to [show] the other and it was identical. I didn’t want to believe it.’
The man, who has been named in Italian media as 57-year-old Guido Russo, ‘asked to be injected in the fake arm anyway’ but angry staff at the vaccine centre refused to let him get away with it.
He had reportedly already publicly expressed his opposition to the mandatory use of vaccine passports.
According to Italian media, a sign in the window of his Biella surgery read: ‘The presentation of the Green Pass in this study is exclusively voluntary.’
The incident was treated as fraud and so police were called in to investigate.
Russo is said to have told police: ‘I don’t believe in the vaccine, I haven’t done it before and I don’t want to do it now. But I need the green pass to work.’
The nurse said the current phase of the vaccine drive has been ‘difficult days’ because ‘the angriest ones are arriving, who do not want to get the vaccine but feel obligated’.
She said reluctant attendees often ‘scream, swear, sometimes cry’.
Mr Russo has reportedly had his professional licence to practice suspended.
Italy was one of the first countries to adopt a certification scheme and new tougher rules are due to come into force on December 6.
Those who refuse to get jabbed without a valid exemption will be unable to use public transport, work or enter restaurants, bars and other venues.
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