“I bought a fake health pass … and then I caught the Covid-19”

Even at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in October 2020 in France, when the number of deaths exceeded 500 per day, Lexa * never really believed in the dangers of the coronavirus on young people. “For me, the severe forms only affected the elderly. I thought that people, like me, could present two or three symptoms and that’s it,” said this 25-year-old Parisian to France 24.

For Lexa, getting the vaccine was never an option considered: “There are plenty of reasons I don’t want to. But the main one is that I think the vaccine hasn’t been studied enough. years to design a vaccine [sûr], and that was too fast. “

“And anyway, I assume that if I have to die, I will die,” she adds, adding that she is completely ready to accept the risks associated with this decision.

But when the government introduced the health pass on June 9 to access public spaces such as bars, restaurants and cinemas, Lexa said the authorities were going too far. For the young woman, the state interferes too much in her private life and her personal choices.

This pass, issued in the form of a digital or paper certificate, proves in France that a person is either fully vaccinated against Covid-19, or that they have tested negative against the coronavirus in the last 72 hours.

“I couldn’t even go to the gym,” says Lexa, frustrated, as she embarked on an ambitious weight loss program to try to get rid of the pounds gained during the three confinements decreed in France .

A date in the middle of the night

It was then that the instant messaging app Snapchat suddenly offered him a “way out”. “A friend of mine told me she knew someone at Social Security who could sell a ‘real’ health pass, so I added that person to my Snapchat contacts.” Shortly after, Lexa said she had received at least 10 suggestions from friends, including employees of government agencies and doctors, also selling the famous fraudulent health passes.

“When you start to search, you realize that there are plenty of them doing it,” she said of the fake sesame receivers. Some of them take precautions and ask her to “snap” a photo of her in real time “to verify” that she is not “from the police”, relates the young woman.

False health passes are severely punished in France. Those who broadcast them risk up to 75,000 euros in fines and five years in prison, and buyers up to 45,000 euros in fines and three years in prison.

But this does not frighten Lexa, who decides to take the plunge, accompanied by her sister and her brother-in-law, also interested in fraudulent QR codes. The young woman finally decides to contact a seller who seems to offer the best price on the market: 250 euros per piece.

After providing the person with the names, dates of birth and social security numbers, Lexa and her relatives receive a message from the receiver who gives them an appointment in the middle of the night for the transaction. “The guy met my brother-in-law in a car and asked him to come up with him on the passenger side to hand over the money to him and he left. Three days later we received links to our health passes on WhatsApp. “

Stunned by Covid-19

A few weeks after purchasing this pass, Lexa, who, thanks to this document, was finally able to resume her gym workouts, suddenly felt dizzy. “I was in the gym, indoor cycling and my head started spinning. So much so that I had to stop. Then when I came down the stairs, I had to stop. I was so dizzy I could barely hold on to the handrail. “

A PCR test revealed that Lexa had been infected with the coronavirus. She started showing all of the symptoms: fever, muscle pain, headache, loss of taste and smell, and difficulty breathing. The following days were spent in the fog for the young woman. “I was knocked out. I almost couldn’t move. With each sentence, I had to catch my breath,” she recalls. She still has some after-effects from this episode. A month after recovering from Covid-19, she still has not regained the taste and smell. “I would say I’m 15% of what I usually feel.”

Trapped in her lie

The experience cooled Lexa, who says she changed her mind about the severity of Covid-19. “It really touched me, I was very surprised. I do not intend to be alarmist by saying that it is super dangerous [pour les jeunes], but if you are over 40 or have some other type of pathology, I think it is, “said the young woman, before adding:” it probably would have killed my mother who has a heart problem. “.

However, Lexa has not changed her mind about the vaccination. “No, that still scares me,” she repeats. Even so, the Parisienne is stuck. Even if she reverses, she is already registered as “vaccinated”. So if she ever wishes to benefit from a vaccination against Covid-19, she will have to confide in a health professional, who will then be obliged to report the fraud.

France boasted on Wednesday September 29 of a vaccination coverage of 83.8%, with 48.34 million French people registered as fully vaccinated. One of the best scores in Europe. But Lexa doesn’t believe those numbers. “I know about a dozen other people who bought fake health passes, so to me those statistics don’t mean anything.”

* The first name has been changed

This article has been translated from English, click here to read it in its original version