She figured it was worth a shot? The infamous “anti-vaxxer” nurse has now denied allegations that she injected 8,600 patients with a saline placebo instead of the COVID-19 vaccine — claiming that it was only a “one time incident.”
A lawyer for the 40-year-old Red Cross nurse, who worked in Friesland, Northern Germany, has now claimed that she only diluted one coronavirus jab to cover her tracks after breaking a vial of vaccine, the German news outlet DW reported. He added that she feared losing her job over the mistake.
This runs contrary to widely circulated police reports, which accuse the medical professional of going rogue and administering diluted jabs to six people.
Witnesses from the vaccination center also claimed that she used shots that were tampered with a lot more frequently, according to local reports.
“The fact is, we do not know how many of them are unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated,” Heiger Scholz, head of the Lower Saxony COVID-19 crisis team, told NDR earlier this week. “It may be that only every third syringe was manipulated, it may be that there are no further cases. Unfortunately, the woman is not cooperative with the police, she is silent.”
Police had also accused the so-called shot-blocker of airing anti-vaxxer views on Facebook, however her attorney claimed that she herself has received the vaccine.
This comes after local councillor Sven Ambrosy uploaded a Facebook post imploring 8,600 residents to get a second shot as they may have been affected by the nurse’s diluted vaccine this past Spring. Experts claim that while the faux jab was harmless, it may have disproportionately affected elderly people, who are at a greater risk of contracting COVID-19.
As of Friday, 3,600 potentially saline-shot patients made new appointments while almost 2,000 more had reached out to the information hotline, NDR reported.
“The citizens are reacting very prudently,” said a spokeswoman for the state Health Ministry, adding that there was no evidence that saline shot recipients had subsequently fallen seriously ill with the virus, the DW reported.
The disgraced nurse has since been dismissed from her position, although it’s unclear if the suspect had been arrested or charged for her alleged shot switcheroo, the Daily Mail reported. Meanwhile, broadcaster NDR reports that her case has been assigned to special investigation unit that specializes in politically motivated crimes.
