A 60-year-old German man got himself vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine 90 times so he could sell forged vaccination cards with real batch numbers. The Magdeburg resident received the jabs at vaccination centers in Saxony, Germany. He is currently under investigation after being caught getting a COVId-19 vaccine two days in a row in Eilenburg Saxony.
A man receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine at a vaccination center in Nuremberg, southern Germany, on March 18, 2021, amid the ongoing novel coronavirus / Covid-19 pandemic.
German Police Catching Vaccine Passport Forgery Suspects
The German man is not arrested but is under investigation, especially since it is not yet clear what the 90 jabs of different brands of COVID-19 vaccines have done to the man's body and personal health, Associated Press (AP) reported.
The police have confiscated several blank vaccination cards from him and started initial criminal proceedings. The government of Germany is now requiring vaccine passports to access public amenities and venues like restaurants, theaters, swimming pools, and workplaces.
The German police have been catching vaccine passport forgery suspects in the past months as many people refused to get vaccinated. Health experts still push people to get vaccinated as the number of COVID-19 positive cases has continued to rise. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 safety measures were lifted Friday, meaning wearing masks is no longer compulsory in groceries and most theaters but still mandatory in public transportation.
What Does A COVID-19 Overdose Do to the Body?
COVID-19 vaccine overdose could be risky. Although the German man presented no immediate symptoms of overdose, he is still put under investigation in case health issues arise.
He is not the first COVID-19 vaccine overdose case. A 23-year-old woman from Italy was overdosed with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine when the nurse accidentally injected her one vial of the vaccine all at once, according to Live Science. The said vial consists of six doses and has not undergone the necessary diluting techniques.
The nurse quickly realized her mistake and the woman was monitored for 24 hours at the hospital, where she was given fluids and medications for fever as prevention. But the only physical symptom she had was pain at the injection site, so she was released from the hospital after.
Moreover, a paper titled "Antibody Response Induced by the Boost Overdose During COVID-19 Heterologous Prime-Boost Vaccination Strategy" published in Elsevier Public Health Emergency Collection last December 2021, also showed that no one among the vaccine overdose recipients (VORs) in the study experienced major systemic side effects. The most common symptom reported were headaches and general malaise.
Some reportedly experienced fever, tiredness, and mild to moderate pain in the injection site that lasted between 72 to 96 hours. It is the most frequently described local reaction in VORs.
Infectious disease expert and vaccinologist Professor Jim Buttery told ABC News in an interview in February 2021 that the main risk of an overdosed COVID-19 vaccine is a higher chance of localized reactions, such as tenderness and swelling known as systemic reactions.
He added that an overdose would not be life-threatening and would not lead to the patient developing COVID-19 since the vaccine does not include a live virus. Also, the risk of adverse events is lower in the elderly than the young people because their immune systems do not react as strongly. Early trials of Pfizer-BioNTech had included higher dosages and it did not find a significant impact on the people involved in those clinical trials.
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