Throughout the global pandemic, Republicans refused to get vaccinated and refused to mask, and before they died, they refused to believe they were dying of COVID. The right-wing media hasn’t helped by both saying that the pandemic is real while also say the pandemic isn’t a big deal—it’s a conspiracy put together by deep-state forces sabotaging the Trump presidency. The results are clear: There are fewer people today who (probably) wore cheaply made red baseball caps than there were in 2020.
One of the marching drum beats among anti-vaxxers is that the motivation to promote lifesaving vaccines is Big Pharma greed. They beat this drum while electing conservatives who in turn vote against legislation that might help stymie the greedy abuses of Big Pharma. Go figure. At the same time, time and time again, anti-vaxxers and MAGA red hats seem to be endless marks for the most obvious cons.
Last week a Utah-based plastic surgeon, two of his employees, and a neighbor friend of his were indicted in connection with a grift where they provided anti-vaxxers with fake COVID-19 immunization shots—for a price, of course.
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The Salt Lake Tribune reports that 58-year-old Dr. Michael Kirk Moore Jr., through the Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah, worked a conspiracy where they “dumped nearly 2,000 doses of COVID vaccine down a drain” and gave out fake vaccination cards. Moore accomplished this feat with two other Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah employees: office manager Kari Dee Burgoyne and receptionist Sandra Flores. It only cost the individuals $50 as opposed to $0.00 dollars that the vaccine costs Americans. Another member of this con squad was Moore’s neighbor, Kristen Andersen.
The con was against the government, say prosecutors, as the four dirtbags reportedly used their medical positions to sign up to be a part of the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program as providers, receiving at least $28,000 worth of COVID-19 vaccines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Then they vetted customers who wanted fake vaccinations, and they collected direct cash payments of $50 for each person or got these people to donate “to a specified charitable organization.” Prosecutors say they were able to pull in well over $90,000 providing this fraudulent service. (That “charitable organization” was connected to Moore and Andersen, by the by.)
You may be wondering to yourself, wouldn’t many of these anti-vaxxers have children they wanted to pretend they gave shots to? Yes. Yes they would, and did. But these scumbags had a solution for that: a saline solution. They would give the children fake shots of saline so the kids would believe they were vaccinated against COVID-19. Good parenting, FYI.
Throughout the scheme, the group reported the names of all the vaccine seekers to the Utah Statewide Immunization Information System, indicating that the practice had administered 1,937 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which included 391 pediatric doses. The value of all the doses totaled roughly $28,000. With the money from the $50 vaccination cards totaling nearly $97,000, the scheme was valued at nearly $125,000, federal prosecutors calculated.
This crew of anti-vaxxers are due in court on Jan. 26.
RELATED STORY: Republican leaders have gotten their wish: Their own base is now dying from COVID-19
