April 23, 2021 • 7 mins
Fake doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been spotted in Mexico and Poland as criminals take advantage of the high demand across the world. There is no indication that this is happening in the U.S. so no need to worry, but investigators said that about 80 people in Mexico got fake shots and in Poland, vials that were labeled as vaccine contained anti-wrinkle treatment. No one has been harmed. Jared Hopkins, pharma reporter at the WSJ, joins us for these counterfeit vaccines.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Friday a. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. Fake
doses of the Fiser vaccine have been spotted in Mexico
and Poland as criminals take advantage of the high demand
across the world. There's no indication that this is happening
in the US, so no need to worry, but investigators
said about eighty people in Mexico got fake shots, and
(00:22):
in Poland, vials that were labeled as vaccine contained anti
wrinkle treatment. Jared Hopkins, farmer, reporter at the Wall Street Journal,
joins us for these counterfeit vaccines. Thanks for joining us, Jared,
thanks for having me. We've been talking a little bit
about fraud when it comes to vaccines recently on the podcast,
we were talking about vaccination card fraud, you know, people
(00:45):
selling these bogus vaccination cards or blank vaccination cards. But
now we're also seeing something with regards to actual fake
doses of the vaccine. And luckily this isn't something that
we have to worry about here in the United States.
With these cases that we're gonna talk about happened abroad.
But Fiser was able to identify some fake COVID nineteen
shots in Mexico and Poland. So you know, the demand
(01:09):
is high in a lot of places in the world,
and you know you got to watch out for these scams.
So Jared tell us a little bit about what FISER
found out what some of their phony vaccine shots. FISER
has so far identified in Mexico and Poland the first
confirmed examples of the counter of it of its COVID
vaccine that it developed with Beyond Tech. So in Mexico,
(01:33):
what happened was there were about eighty people in a
clinic who apparently received a fake vaccines. They were being
charged a thousand dollars of dose. Nobody appears to have
been harmed in that case, but Fightser did internal testing.
They received the vials and the substance and they ship
it up to their laboratory in Connecticut and they have
(01:54):
chemists and other sort of scientists sort of do some
testing and analysis to determine it's not the real vaccine.
And then in Poland, there was a vaccines or or
purpeted vaccine that was recovered in a man's apartment and
that made its way to Fiser's laboratory here in the
US for testing, where Fiser also determined that it was
(02:16):
not authentic. Now, in the case of Mexico, they said
that they found the vials in like a beach style
beer cooler. The numbers that were on the doses, you know,
the lot numbers and all that didn't match to what
was sent to Mexico. Also had wrong expiration dates, so
those were other telltale signs. In Poland, it was a
(02:36):
little weirder because they said that it could have been
anti wrinkle medication or treatment or something that what was
in those vials. So apparently there were a number of
vials that were recovered at this individual's apartment. According to
local authorities, there were some vials that were labeled as
the Fiser vaccine. There were also containers that appeared to
(02:59):
have contained an anti wrinkle treatment. So what might have
happened is that the anti renical treatment bottles were relabeled
as the COVID vaccine. That's possible. What Fiser did find
when they did their testing was that the vaccine likely
contained a substance that is often found in anti wrinkal treatments. Wow,
that's amazing. So these are the first cases that we
(03:21):
know of these counterfeit vaccines, as we mentioned Mexico and Poland.
But they've already shut down at least the government and
the arm that's investigating these for Department of Homeland Security.
They've shut down a ton of websites already, at least
that we're saying they either have vaccines or trying to
maybe get people's personal information. I think that part of
it is what they were most concentrated on those types
(03:43):
of websites, So they've already shut down a few of
those things. If you could stepped back for a second,
the US government and other agencies around the world since
the pandemic began, have been investigating pandemic related fraud, and
we're talking about anything from testing kits that are phony
two masks to sort of ppe personal protective equipment, and
(04:05):
then sort of at some point last year in the
US of federal agency, the Department of Phoneland Security, a
part of that shifted to focus on vaccines which were
then still being tested. And then what eventually began to
crop up our online websites that often are pretending or
casting themselves falsely to be representatives of the pharmaceutical companies
(04:29):
like Fiser or Maderna, another vaccine maker, and what they're
looking for is they're looking for personal information from people
to submit financial information. There is no product that's going
to be shipped. There's no vaccine, there's no counterfeit vaccine.
This is just a good old fashioned online scam where
you just get to persuade people. And so those have
been very, very common. There has been a number that
(04:50):
had been shut down and seized by the government. And
now when there's actual physical counterfeit vaccines, what security experts
say is we're sort of like entering into a next
natural old phase that was sort of expected after sort
of online scamming starts. And you know, you made mention
in your article about how counterfeiting prescription drugs has grown
to be pretty lucrative. Counterfeit prescription drug market is valued
(05:12):
at two billion dollars annually. And we've talked about this
before about the intense security surrounding the vaccines, at least
here in the United States and other places too. But
you know, it's easier to distribute these fake COVID vaccines,
these counterfeits than it would be to steal the legitimate
ones and get those out to people. The security around
(05:33):
the actual vaccines is very intense right now, and the
measures include dummy trucks, you know, to sort of throw
off thieves of where the vaccines are being transported. And
in the U S they're being transported under under type
security with law enforcement protection. Fiser IS is tracking, and
(05:54):
they're vaccines with special tracking devices as is like UPS
and FedEx. So see, we haven't really least seen you know,
thieves going after these vaccines. But you get into counterfeiting,
particularly outside the United States. Counterfeiting is sort of a
booming business in Europe and Latin America, counterfeiting prescription drugs,
expensive cancer drugs for example, and other sorts of the like,
(06:16):
and it's uh, you know, two hundred billion dollar industry
here for criminals, and COVID vaccines are sort of just
the latest opportunity for that, particularly because the vaccines are
in high demand, there's limited supply, and in particularly in
countries that have a history of prescription drug counterfeiting is
where people are very vulnerable. Yeah, well, we're very lucky
(06:38):
that so far, it doesn't seem like we have to
worry about that here in the United States. We might
be seeing a shift where there's more supply than demand
going on right now, but just interesting to hear these
stories coming out of Mexico and Poland. Jared Hopkins, farm
of reporter at The Wall Street Journal, thank you very
much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Hi'm Oscar
(06:59):
Ramirez and this is in reopening America. Don't forget the effort.
Today's big news stories. You can check me out on
the Daily Dive podcast every Monday to Friday, so follow
us on iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcast
It's Friday a. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily Dive
podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. Fake
doses of the Fiser vaccine have been spotted in Mexico
and Poland as criminals take advantage of the high demand
across the world. There's no indication that this is happening
in the US, so no need to worry, but investigators
said about eighty people in Mexico got fake shots, and
(00:22):
in Poland, vials that were labeled as vaccine contained anti
wrinkle treatment. Jared Hopkins, farmer, reporter at the Wall Street Journal,
joins us for these counterfeit vaccines. Thanks for joining us, Jared,
thanks for having me. We've been talking a little bit
about fraud when it comes to vaccines recently on the podcast,
we were talking about vaccination card fraud, you know, people
(00:45):
selling these bogus vaccination cards or blank vaccination cards. But
now we're also seeing something with regards to actual fake
doses of the vaccine. And luckily this isn't something that
we have to worry about here in the United States.
With these cases that we're gonna talk about happened abroad.
But Fiser was able to identify some fake COVID nineteen
shots in Mexico and Poland. So you know, the demand
(01:09):
is high in a lot of places in the world,
and you know you got to watch out for these scams.
So Jared tell us a little bit about what FISER
found out what some of their phony vaccine shots. FISER
has so far identified in Mexico and Poland the first
confirmed examples of the counter of it of its COVID
vaccine that it developed with Beyond Tech. So in Mexico,
(01:33):
what happened was there were about eighty people in a
clinic who apparently received a fake vaccines. They were being
charged a thousand dollars of dose. Nobody appears to have
been harmed in that case, but Fightser did internal testing.
They received the vials and the substance and they ship
it up to their laboratory in Connecticut and they have
(01:54):
chemists and other sort of scientists sort of do some
testing and analysis to determine it's not the real vaccine.
And then in Poland, there was a vaccines or or
purpeted vaccine that was recovered in a man's apartment and
that made its way to Fiser's laboratory here in the
US for testing, where Fiser also determined that it was
(02:16):
not authentic. Now, in the case of Mexico, they said
that they found the vials in like a beach style
beer cooler. The numbers that were on the doses, you know,
the lot numbers and all that didn't match to what
was sent to Mexico. Also had wrong expiration dates, so
those were other telltale signs. In Poland, it was a
(02:36):
little weirder because they said that it could have been
anti wrinkle medication or treatment or something that what was
in those vials. So apparently there were a number of
vials that were recovered at this individual's apartment. According to
local authorities, there were some vials that were labeled as
the Fiser vaccine. There were also containers that appeared to
(02:59):
have contained an anti wrinkle treatment. So what might have
happened is that the anti renical treatment bottles were relabeled
as the COVID vaccine. That's possible. What Fiser did find
when they did their testing was that the vaccine likely
contained a substance that is often found in anti wrinkal treatments. Wow,
that's amazing. So these are the first cases that we
(03:21):
know of these counterfeit vaccines, as we mentioned Mexico and Poland.
But they've already shut down at least the government and
the arm that's investigating these for Department of Homeland Security.
They've shut down a ton of websites already, at least
that we're saying they either have vaccines or trying to
maybe get people's personal information. I think that part of
it is what they were most concentrated on those types
(03:43):
of websites, So they've already shut down a few of
those things. If you could stepped back for a second,
the US government and other agencies around the world since
the pandemic began, have been investigating pandemic related fraud, and
we're talking about anything from testing kits that are phony
two masks to sort of ppe personal protective equipment, and
(04:05):
then sort of at some point last year in the
US of federal agency, the Department of Phoneland Security, a
part of that shifted to focus on vaccines which were
then still being tested. And then what eventually began to
crop up our online websites that often are pretending or
casting themselves falsely to be representatives of the pharmaceutical companies
(04:29):
like Fiser or Maderna, another vaccine maker, and what they're
looking for is they're looking for personal information from people
to submit financial information. There is no product that's going
to be shipped. There's no vaccine, there's no counterfeit vaccine.
This is just a good old fashioned online scam where
you just get to persuade people. And so those have
been very, very common. There has been a number that
(04:50):
had been shut down and seized by the government. And
now when there's actual physical counterfeit vaccines, what security experts
say is we're sort of like entering into a next
natural old phase that was sort of expected after sort
of online scamming starts. And you know, you made mention
in your article about how counterfeiting prescription drugs has grown
to be pretty lucrative. Counterfeit prescription drug market is valued
(05:12):
at two billion dollars annually. And we've talked about this
before about the intense security surrounding the vaccines, at least
here in the United States and other places too. But
you know, it's easier to distribute these fake COVID vaccines,
these counterfeits than it would be to steal the legitimate
ones and get those out to people. The security around
(05:33):
the actual vaccines is very intense right now, and the
measures include dummy trucks, you know, to sort of throw
off thieves of where the vaccines are being transported. And
in the U S they're being transported under under type
security with law enforcement protection. Fiser IS is tracking, and
(05:54):
they're vaccines with special tracking devices as is like UPS
and FedEx. So see, we haven't really least seen you know,
thieves going after these vaccines. But you get into counterfeiting,
particularly outside the United States. Counterfeiting is sort of a
booming business in Europe and Latin America, counterfeiting prescription drugs,
expensive cancer drugs for example, and other sorts of the like,
(06:16):
and it's uh, you know, two hundred billion dollar industry
here for criminals, and COVID vaccines are sort of just
the latest opportunity for that, particularly because the vaccines are
in high demand, there's limited supply, and in particularly in
countries that have a history of prescription drug counterfeiting is
where people are very vulnerable. Yeah, well, we're very lucky
(06:38):
that so far, it doesn't seem like we have to
worry about that here in the United States. We might
be seeing a shift where there's more supply than demand
going on right now, but just interesting to hear these
stories coming out of Mexico and Poland. Jared Hopkins, farm
of reporter at The Wall Street Journal, thank you very
much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Hi'm Oscar
(06:59):
Ramirez and this is in reopening America. Don't forget the effort.
Today's big news stories. You can check me out on
the Daily Dive podcast every Monday to Friday, so follow
us on iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcast
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