The April 22nd front page news story of the Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer had identified counterfeit versions of the Covid-19 vaccine in Mexico and Poland. The counterfeit doses were seized by authorities in separate investigations in the two countries.
The global vaccination campaign, which includes the German-US BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, is unfortunately attracting fraudsters out to profit from the great demand. The fake Mexican vaccine did not harm anyone, while the Polish vaccine is believed to be an anti-wrinkle treatment. Polish authorities said no one received the counterfeit doses which were seized at a man’s apartment.
This is not the first instance of someone trying to cash in on fake Covid-19 vaccines. In January, 2021, a man in Redmond, Washington State, who claimed to be a biotech expert was arrested for introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce that he injected into as many as one-hundred people by falsely claiming it was Covid-19 vaccine. He charged patients from $400 to $1,000. Authorities have yet to determine what was injected.