“Prescribing a vaccine is the business of the attending physician, it is not for the State to make it compulsory.” Since August, Baptiste *, 32, has had a fake health pass, like tens of thousands of people in France. “I presented a false positive Covid-19 test at the time of my vaccination so that I only had one dose, explains this senior executive in finance. My pass is therefore valid until March and I hope that the government measures will have evolved by then so as not to have to do a booster dose “, add this “centrist” disappointed with macronism.
This is not really the spirit of the bill “strengthening the tools for managing the health crisis”, examined in committee at the National Assembly on Wednesday, December 29 and discussed in public session in the Hemicyle on January 3, for a possible entry into force on 15. The text substitutes a vaccination pass for the health pass in force and reinforces measures to fight against fraud. The fact of presenting a pass belonging to another or lending his pass to a third party will in particular be punished by a fine of 1,000 euros, against 135 currently. Pretend to be vaccinated, “it is much more than a circumvention of republican law […] it is a deliberate act of endangering others “, the Prime Minister hammered on Monday evening, Jean Castex.
The Interior Ministry has counted no less than 182,000 fake health passes in circulation, as part of 400 investigations launched since last summer. Among the operating methods identified is the purchase of false vaccination certificates on the internet, via trafficking networks or sometimes with the complicity of a health professional or one of his administrative employees. Such a “true false” health pass is established in the name of its beneficiary, registered as vaccinated in the health insurance files. The authorities also list the use of false certificates of recovery from Covid-19 (positive tests of less than six months), as well as the fraudulent use of a QR code assigned to a third party.
This is how Julien *, 36, proceeded. This employee of an art gallery, who has “grew up in an environment where we were interested in alternative medicine”, borrowed a friend’s pass. “It will be difficult if the obligation of the health pass in business is adopted”, he admits, admitting to hesitate, if necessary, between being vaccinated or becoming independent again. This measure, considered by the executive, is ultimately absent from the bill. On the other hand, the text provides for strengthening the verification of identities when presenting the health pass. Today the prerogative of the police, it could be carried out by the managers of establishments open to the public, such as restaurateurs.
These reinforced controls do not resolve the issue of “real false” health passes, whose QR code corresponds to the identity of the detained person. The death of a 57-year-old woman in a hospital in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine) at the end of October shone the spotlight on this problem. In possession of a forged certificate, the patient died of Covid-19 without having been able to benefit from appropriate care for an unvaccinated person. Hospitals are concerned about the influx of this type of patient. According to Carole Ichai, head of the intensive care unit at the Nice University Hospital (Alpes-Maritimes), 30% of her patients in intensive care have a fake health pass.
“We are forced to deprogram operations. This is not responsible! At that point, we take it all in, we don’t come to the hospital!”
Carole Ichai, head of the intensive care unit at the CHU de Niceto franceinfo
Even if it is not the major part, some of these real false health passes are established with the complicity of a health professional. Several of them are in the sights of justice, such as a doctor from Plan-de-la-Tour (Var), suspected of having provided hundreds of false certificates.
Charlotte *, 31, obtained her pass through this. This personal development coach is not an “anti-vax” but has had “big disappointments vis-à-vis traditional medicine in his personal career”. And she didn’t feel “not ready to take the plunge at the time of the campaign for the first dose, in the spring”. “A relative then told me about a person from the medical profession who was giving false vaccinations. I went there. I just paid the price of the consultation: he did it out of pure personal conviction”, she tells franceinfo.
Benoît *, 26, also benefited from the complicity of a doctor, this time for a fee. This neuroscience researcher admits not having been vaccinated by “pure spirit of contradiction” with his pro-vaccine family, with whom he is “in conflict”.
“I told a childhood friend of mine who is a doctor about my situation. He happened to have some financial problems. In September, he therefore agreed to give me a fake certificate in exchange for a certain sum of money. ‘money. And that’s for both doses. “
Benoît, 26 years oldto franceinfo
Using, procuring or selling a fake health pass is punishable by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros. With the bill, the simple possession of a false pass will be punishable by the same penalty. And the authorities want to be particularly severe with those who have taken the Hippocratic Oath. “Doctors or health professions who give false passes, false injections: so there, zero tolerance”, warned Olivier Véran during a hearing in mid-December before the Social Affairs and Laws committees in the Assembly. On the disciplinary level, they risk radiation, reminds Franceinfo the National Council of the Order of Physicians.
Still, a number of professionals have had to prove their good faith after having their account hacked. This is the case of a doctor in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), whose name appeared on the false health pass of the woman who died in Garches. He and she had never met. Victim of identity theft by a vast network of fake health passes, as CheckNews reveals, he lodged a complaint. This mode of operation is now the majority, as explained to franceinfo by General Marc Boget, who heads the ComCyberGend, the command of the gendarmerie in cyberspace: “They are not international mafias but we are today on more evolved mechanisms of hijacking the usernames and passwords of health professionals. Behind, crooks, hackers and resellers, with a number of passes generated a lot most important.”
Investigations into these channels are divided between the police and the gendarmerie, overseen by the Central Office for the fight against attacks on the environment and public health (Oclaesp). “The objective is to ban this black market which harms our public health”, emphasizes Marc Boget. These cyber investigations led to several arrests, as in Metz (Moselle), where a couple of counterfeiters had recovered the identifiers of 15 pharmacists on the site of the National Order of Pharmacists. Result: between 5,000 and 10,000 false passes generated, for an estimated profit of two million euros, according to information from franceinfo.
In passing, buyers of fake passes are identified. In Angers (Maine-et-Loire), seven of them were taken into police custody as part of an investigation into the pirating of a pharmacy at the end of August. “My client, in the anti-vax movement, got a tip from Snapchat. She deposited 330 euros in cash in a bush”, explains to franceinfo his lawyer, Marc Morin. The 30-year-old woman, prosecuted for “forgery”, was tried via plea-guilty and sentenced to four months in prison. “She has a modest income so she chose the penalty rather than the fine”, specifies his advice.
Since then, the executive has announced that it is considering a repentant status for holders of fake health passes who would like to be vaccinated.
“Me, as a lawyer, this story of repentance is a form of blackmail that upsets me a little.”
Marc Morin, lawyerto franceinfo
What form would this abandonment of proceedings take? “This is a measure in progress, the contours of which will be specified shortly”, we respond to the Directorate General of Health. Christophe Lamarre, general practitioner in Roubaix (North), “welcomes Olivier Véran’s approach” but wants to be careful. He assumes that he has offered vaccination to several of his patients with a false pass, “terrorized by the sanction”. “I let all the people who have fake passes know that I will cancel them for a vaccination”, he argues. This manipulation is technically possible but currently reserved for errors, specifies the doctor, regretting that the government has “lack of pedagogy” on vaccines and “got out” health pass “too early”.
Charlotte would like to benefit from this repentant status, “provided that this does not cause problems for the person who [l]’falsely vaccinated “. The 30-year-old has seen her “position on the vaccine” after having “transmitted the Covid to two people, who passed it on to one person each, in the middle of the holiday season”. Benedict “valued” also have done “a mistake” by buying a fake health pass.
“I have spoken to a lot of people who have made a fake around me: they live with the fear of being discovered. And also the shame that points to some of them.”
Benoît, 26 years oldto franceinfo
The searcher “thinks he infected a friend who had only had one dose of the vaccine: he was still quite vulnerable at that time. He had a long Covid and had health problems because of it. So I really uncomfortable with him. I should have thought collective. “ While waiting for the establishment of this statute of repentant, the time has come to strengthen controls and heavier penalties. But at the Ministry of Health, we assure him: “Our policy has never been to point the finger at anyone. We are not going to leave the 10% of unvaccinated by the wayside.”
* All first names have been changed.