Posted on 07/20/2021 6:46:59 AM PDT by george76
A black market for fake COVID vaccine passes has emerged in France, where the government is trying to make them a mandatory condition of entry for venues like bars, restaurants and cafes.
Clinics in Paris are offering the passes for around €300 euros ($350 dollars) without the need to take any jabs.
“Certain vaccination centres, flagships of the fights against Covid-19 are now plagued by corruption,” reported French newspaper Le Parisien, revealing that low paid French health service workers are making as much as £4,000 a month through selling the fraudulent documents.
In doing so, they are risking 3 years in jail and fines of up to £38,000 for being complicit in the trafficking of forged documents.
“Money was handed over in a curtained-off area of a clinic in the northern Paris suburbs, where the jab was meant to be administered, and placed ‘under the table where the needles and sterile pads are,” reports the Daily Mail.
A spokesman for France’s General Directorate of Health said the Health Ministry said the matter was under serious investigation, with claims that the practice was also taking place at the Sainte-Anne Center, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris.
Demand for the fake vaccine passports is surging after the French government announced COVID passes would be mandatory to enter all kinds of venues, including large shopping malls, cinemas, bars, restaurants, cafes and to use public transport.
Macron walked back part of the plan yesterday after the country was hit by unruly protests.
Now COVID passes now only required for malls with a surface area of more than 20,000 square meters.
However, expect the protests to become more volatile over the coming weeks as the system is rolled out in August.
As we previously documented, under the the draconian law, people in France who enter a bar or restaurant without a COVID pass face 6 months in jail, while business owners who fail to check their status face a 1 year prison sentence and a €45,000 fine.
That’s what they used around here. And quite a few people lost it before they got out of the clinic. About half still had the card when they came in for the second vaccine.
Really secure.
Fake vaccine passports? I never saw that coming.
Just kidding. Even a half-alert kindergartener could see that coming.
The black market is what happens when real entrepreneurs try to meet the needs of their customers—and are willing to risk the wrath of the evil state to do it.
That’s just the card. Your vaccination details are also in a database which can be linked for COVID passports, depending on where you live.
The wife have fake ones but I haven’t had to use them yet
+1
Perhaps that is why we go to a high tech mark on the forehead or hand?
I’m not sure that is true, as it is private medical information. A record of my visit is probably in a database but I don’t believe there’s a well integrated backend system across vendors (e.g. CVS Pharmacy I used) or legal means of the government using it for COVID passports, at least in the US.
...yes I could be wrong.
Wow, right on schedule. Knew this was coming.
It is 100% true. I am sitting in France as I type this, and have both my white CDC vaccination card, as well as a printed copy of my digital COVID record with the QR code—this digital record contains the info on the card.
I just updated the French vaccine passport to the latest version, but it still doesn’t accept the U.S. QR code. Hopefully they will fix this interoperability gap before August 1.
I should add that I got my vaccinations at a Rite-Aid.
So with the privacy laws we have in the USA my medical information is going to be shared internationally without my consent?
Is that true for all the hundreds of sites that popped up a few months ago? Some sites were even breaking the rules at the time and just giving out vaccines to anyone rather than certain age groups or whatever because they didn’t want vaccines to go to waste. One of my shots was at an official government site and has a printed sticker for the line. The other was at a little pop-up place and is an almost illegible scribble. I don’t know if that one really had a record linked to any database.
No, it won’t. You have to install the passport app and then import your shot record via QR code.
If you received the CDC card, then it’s probably recorded. One of my employees went through a drive-through vaccination site, and we checked and she’s in the database. I’m in the database and I went to a Rite-Aid way out in the sticks back in February.
Hmm ok. That said, I don’t have much faith in governments being able to do anything fast, especially implementing & integrating different systems...I’ll just wish you luck on Aug. 1st :)
...and also, what is the general sentiment in France on this topic? I’m seeing protests but it’s always difficult to see through media from a distance.
I laughed when I received my COVID card. There’s nothing secure about it. It’s just a bit of cardboard with your name and date/type of vaccination. There’s no micro-dots, no barcode, no identifying technology - it is a piece of thick paper.
+++++++++++++
I’m sure there is someone out there that can do a better job than the clowns in AZ that copied the mail-in ballots.
France is 100% open in the southwest. So refreshing—no masks, except in corporate box stores.
I think the entire country is open, but I can only report on what I see.
No protests here—nationwide, 50% vaccination rate and climbing.
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