(Brussels) Belgian justice is investigating a doctor suspected of having recorded 2,000 false vaccinations against COVID-19, the “most serious” fraud to date in the management of the pandemic in Belgium, according to the Walloon Minister of Health who revealed the facts on Tuesday.
This practitioner from the French-speaking part of the country would have offered his services “to the four corners of Wallonia”, sometimes by being paid for injections that did not take place.
The objective was to provide the patient with a health passport allowing him to escape the restrictions in force.
“Astronomical number” of false certificates
“It is a vaccination fraud on the part of a doctor who encoded an astronomical number of people he would have vaccinated […] 2000 people in total, ”said Christie Morreale, Minister of Health for the Walloon region, into the microphone of French-speaking Belgian Radio Television.
According to her, it is impossible that a single doctor could have vaccinated so many people in so many different places.
Justice and the order of physicians have been seized of the case, and this general practitioner has already been deprived of access to the database which centralizes vaccinations.
An investigating judge from the first instance court of Hainaut (in the south of the country) was seized of an investigation for “forgery” and “computer fraud”, said Vincent Fiasse, prosecutor in Charleroi. The only incrimination of “forgery” can be worth up to five years of imprisonment.
“Doctors need to be aware that society trusts them. They must write medical certificates with objectivity and sincerity ”, for his part declared on television Benoît Dejemeppe, president of the National Council of the Order of Physicians. “Everything will depend on the circumstances, but the sanction can go as far as delisting,” he added.
As for the people who benefited from the fraud, they are also liable to legal proceedings, specified the Minister, Mr.me Morreale.
Initially, their health passport was “suspended” and they will be contacted to be offered a vaccination in due form.
“We realized on anti-tax sites that there were calls to buy false certificates”, some giving access to false vaccinations (to be in contact with the doctor recording the act), also explained this socialist leader of the regional government of former Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.
COVID-19 outbreak and hospital overload
“This is the most important and the most serious anomaly, it is an extremely dangerous act […] a breach of trust, ”she insisted, stressing that these“ false vaccines ”expose their social contacts to the disease.
The judicial investigation was opened after a complaint with the constitution of civil party of the AVIQ, the administration which manages the vaccine platform in Wallonia.
These facts are revealed at a time when Belgium is experiencing an explosion of new contaminations (more than 15,000 on average each day against 2,000 approximately six weeks ago), leading to a new overload of hospitals.
In addition, as elsewhere in Europe, the polarization is increasingly strong between vaccinated (75% of Belgians are completely) and non-vaccinated presenting themselves as defenders of “freedom”. On Sunday, a pro “freedom” demonstration brought together 35,000 people in Brussels according to the police. It degenerated into clashes with the police.