Italy dentist with fake silicone arm gets vaccine - for real

An Italian dentist who presented a fake arm for a COVID-19 vaccine says he has since gotten a shot and that the vaccine “is the best weapon we have against this terrible disease.”

ROME -- An Italian dentist who presented a fake arm for a COVID-19 vaccine says he has since gotten a shot and that the vaccine “is the best weapon we have against this terrible disease.”

Dr. Guido Russo faces possible criminal fraud charges for having worn an arm made out of silicone when he first showed up at a vaccine hub in the northern city of Biella. Italy has required doctors and nurses to be vaccinated since earlier this year.

Russo insisted during a Wednesday night appearance on Italian talk show La7 that he wasn’t trying to defraud the government or to dupe anyone because the arm was obviously not real. He said he wanted to make a personal protest against vaccine mandates.

A nurse who spotted the silicone arm reported Russo to her managers. The dentist acknowledged his protest failed and said he received a vaccine dose in one of his actual arms the next day “because the system obliged me to.”