COVID-19 Pandemic Brings out the Best—and the Worst BY TOM ROSENTHAL
W
hile the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has brought out the best in millions of frontline healthcare workers, it has also prompted the worst to surface with a host of bogus cures and treatments, problematic tests, financial fraud and fake vaccination cards. Like the flotsam and jetsam that follow in the wake of a shipwreck, hucksters and scammers quickly surface to profit from disasters and tragedies. With snake oil salesmen and fraudsters popping up around the country, the COVID-19 pandemic is turning into another textbook case of how a crisis offers opportunities to reap ill-gotten gains. Consider the Washington State man who, as early as March 2020, posted online that he had a COVID-19 vaccine when no federally authorized vaccine existed, according to FDA investigators who caught up with him after a sting operation. Johnny T. Stine, 55, of Redmond, Wash., was sentenced in March in federal court after pleading guilty in August 2020 to introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce, a misdemeanor. He received five years probation and was ordered to pay $246,986 in restitution. The charges alleged he injected 50 to 100 people with fake COVID-19 vaccines at $400 to $1,000 a pop. To date, authorities have not identified what these people
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actually received. The case was investigated by the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations, Homeland Security Investigations and the Seattle Police Department. Then there’s the case brought to light in a March 2021 federal indictment of a Thai national who was charged with allegedly selling chloroquine phosphate as a COVID-19 treatment to people around the world, including in the United States. The defendant allegedly made tens of thousands of dollars from his scheme in which shipments were disguised as fish tank accessories, the government said. Chloroquine phosphate may do a good job cleaning your fish tank, but it is not indicated by the FDA as a treatment for COVID-19.
Ramping Up Efforts Federal law enforcement officials tasked with combatting fraud ramped up their efforts in February 2020 as the COVID19 outbreak emerged, said Matthew T. Charette, a special agent in charge with the Office of Inspector General at Health and Human Services, who has 20 years of experience protecting the integrity of the Medicare and Medicaid programs— favorite targets of medical fraudsters. Recognizing there would soon be increased funding from Congress to address
