Once or twice a week, in his vaccination center in Bouches-du-Rhône, doctor Abdel B.* finds himself faced with the same situation. A patient presents for vaccination, but when registering, an anomaly occurs. And for good reason: the patient is already registered in the database of the VAC-SI platform (Covid vaccine information system). Diagnosis is quick: “False passes are a bit of a disaster in Marseille”, testifies the general practitioner and emergency doctor, on condition of anonymity. After having spent hundreds of euros to acquire a pass of convenience, the fraudster is remorseful. And then the trouble begins.
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These false passes are sometimes registered in good and due form, thanks to the complicity of a health professional or an employee with the famous CPS card, which grants access to the database. The fraudster is then considered to be vaccinated in the files of the health insurance. Impossible for him to backtrack, and therefore to actually benefit from the vaccine. The doctor must then improvise, with a good dose of tinkering. “I make a correction on the VAC-SI tool by reporting an input error, which cancels the old vaccination cycle”, explains the professional interviewed by franceinfo. He then creates a new one, thus washing away the original sin of the fraudster.
The Marseille doctor would like the implementation of a regularization protocol “more simple”, in order to encourage fraudsters to come out of hiding. “Many are afraid to come, and when they come, some ask me not to report them”, he continues. “I remind them that everything is covered by medical secrecy. Above all, don’t hesitate to talk to your doctor about it.”
“These people are also victims. Of ignorance, misinformation… We have to give them a way out.”
A general practitioner and emergency physicianat franceinfo
Deleting a vaccination cycle on a national basis is not trivial, however. “I understand his point of view, but it is illegal”, comments UDI Senator Françoise Gatel, member of the Law Commission. “A healthcare professional is then guilty of an offence, and his liability may be engaged. cannot accept that a doctor has to tweak to protect a fraudster”. Same reservations from the doctor Christian Lehmann, who denounces the weight of traffic. By modifying the VAC-SI database, the professional trusts the patient and “considers that the vaccines have not been made, but he does not know!” So there is no need to procrastinate, according to this retired doctor. In the face of false passes, it is necessary “alert the authorities – CPAM and ARS -, which will alert the police and gendarmerie cells.”
“Forgery pass dealers, whether they are in the medical field or not, endanger the lives of others. We cannot remain passive and consider that it is not our problem.”
Christian Lehmann, physician and writerat franceinfo
But this solution presents the risk of deterring some “repentants”, who fear to “grill” the identity of their supplier. This is a matter of conscience for professionals. Should we encourage the vaccination of those who have benefited from false passes, at the cost of some accommodation, or fight trafficking at all costs? “It’s delicate”, summarizes Jean-Jacques Fraslin, general practitioner in Loire-Atlantique. Personally, he refuses to suppress a fraudulent vaccination cycle. “I don’t know if Social Security is archiving data from canceled cycles, but if there’s an investigation, I could be charged with erasing evidence.”
Knock Knock knock. One fine day, a “repentant” knocks on the door of his office. “He had spent 450 euros for a fake pass, but he changed his mind when his father, sick with Covid, ended up in intensive care.” Jean-Jacques Fraslin then finds a solution: keep the fraudulent cycle by adding two other doses, very real this time. The GP administers the first injection, making the patient promise to come back for the second, otherwise he will not get his certificate. This one now “is noted four out of four doses”. In case of future investigation, the data of the fraudulent cycle will always appear on VAC-SI.
“We have no instructions, but when these people come, we have to vaccinate them!”
Jean-Jacques Fraslin, general practitionerat franceinfo
Professionals today are on their own, forced to act in their soul and conscience. Like his colleague from Marseille, the general practitioner from Nantes is therefore awaiting national instructions to manage these people. It is time to decide, because the question concerns many French people: on December 30, the Ministry of the Interior counted at least 192,000 false passes, but this number is undoubtedly higher.
The government has nevertheless shown its desire to reintegrate the greatest number of people into vaccination, even if it means giving up the towel and abandoning possible prosecutions. Heard in mid-December in committee at the Senate, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, had defended the notion of “repentance” for holders of fraudulent passes. “This allows someone who was determined not to be vaccinated, and therefore obtained false documents, to realize that he has made a big mistake”, explained the Minister, pleading in favor of oblivion and a fallback solution, “because the main thing is to be vaccinated.”
The bill on the vaccine pass, adopted Sunday, January 16 by Parliament, provides for a fine of 1,000 euros for no-show, presentation of a pass belonging to others, use or possession of a fake. The text, however, grants a period of thirty days to escape the fine, on condition of going to be vaccinated. But this provision seems intended for fraudsters caught red-handed, more than for those who would spontaneously wish to regularize their situation. This measure, still poorly defined, will require “in all cases the implementation of a specific procedure”, specifies to franceinfo the general direction of health (DGS).
In the meantime, the health authorities call on professionals to exercise the greatest caution in the management of these fraudsters in search of regularization. The “technical possibility to carry out these cycle cancellations in VAC-SI” is just open “in case of error by health personnel”, insists the DGS. “It is advisable not to cancel a vaccination cycle (…) in the event of a false health pass for the moment”.
The holder of a pass of convenience can always try to deactivate his health pass, by reporting it as fraudulent (you must then write an email to [email protected], with a copy of the QR code and an identity document, as well as the identifier of the health certificate, that is to say the sequence of characters displayed under the code in “border” mode on the TousAntiCovid application). Without any guarantee on the consequences of the procedure.
To sum up, there is, to date, no clear instructions on the ethical aspect of the file, any more than on the technical and administrative management of the persons concerned. Questioned by franceinfo, the National Council of the Order of Physicians did not wish to speak. “We have actually had feedback from professionals concerned by this scenario“, confirms for its part the Order of Nurses. “The objective is to maximize vaccination coverage. The competent authorities must therefore provide them with details on the procedure to follow to enable them to vaccinate” those who had decided so far to bend the rules.
* The first name has been changed