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Scammers recycled covid nose-swabs
Indonesia has experienced one of the worst covid outbreaks in Asia, with 1.6m cases and 46,000 deaths. Early on, the country took prevent measures so travelers wouldn’t carry infection domestically and abroad, requiring fliers to get an antigen nasal swab before boarding.
It turns out that this might have actually led to further spread of the disease, because corrupt employees of the Indonesian pharma giant Kimia Farma were enriching themselves by repackaging and reusing nasal swabs.
Ewww.
The practice of re-using swabs is thought to have begun on Dec 17, 2020 at Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, and is believed to have affected at least 10,000 passengers.
Five Kimia employees including the regional business manager face criminal charges, and two lawyers among the affected fliers are bringing a class action against the corporation seeking 1b rupiah per passenger in damages.
Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, and blogger. He has a podcast, a newsletter, a Twitter feed, a Mastodon feed, and a Tumblr feed. He was born in Canada, became a British citizen and now lives in Burbank, California. His latest…
