New Zealand health authorities are investigating claims that a man received up to 10 COVID-19 vaccination doses in one day on behalf of other people, in the latest effort by members of the public to skirt tough restrictions on the unvaccinated.
The New Zealand Ministry of Health said it was taking the matter seriously.
“We are very concerned about this situation, and are working with the appropriate agencies,” said Astrid Koornneef, the ministry’s COVID-19 vaccination and immunization spokesperson.
The man is believed to have visited several immunization centers and was paid to get the doses, the Stuff news site reported.
In New Zealand vaccines can either be booked through a Web site, via a doctor or people can turn up to walk-in centers. To be administered a vaccine, a person must provide the healthcare worker with their name, date of birth and physical address, but no further identification is required.
“To assume another person’s identity and receive a medical treatment is dangerous. This puts at risk the person who receives a vaccination under an assumed identity and the person whose health record will show they have been vaccinated when they have not,” Koornneef said. “This could affect how their health is managed in the future.”
The ministry urged anyone who has had more vaccine doses than recommended to seek clinical advice.
Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccinologist from the University of Auckland, said there was no specific data on using the vaccine in this way, but the man was not likely to come to serious harm.
Petousis-Harris said that she had heard of others being paid to receive the vaccine on someone else’s behalf.
People are not required to show photographic identification when receiving the vaccine, to make the process as accessible as possible, but that makes the system vulnerable to abuse by “a small minority of people,” she said.
“I think it is a very selfish act on the behalf of the buyer, and exploiting, perhaps, somebody who needed to get some money and is willing to take those risks, which is not very community-minded,” she added.
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