Anti-vax doctor accused of faking vaccine records, giving hoax shots | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

An anti-vaccine doctor accused of falsifying COVID-19 vaccination records for patients who shunned the shots has admitted to administering a saline solution to people who actually wanted the inoculations, sources said.

The Metropolitan Police Department on Sept. 12 arrested Takenori Funaki, 51, director of the Oji Kitaguchi Medical Clinic in Tokyo’s Kita Ward, on suspicion of fraudulently registering COVID-19 vaccination records.

Funaki is known for his anti-vaccine beliefs. He has admitted to providing likeminded patients with fake vaccination records that could be used for travel and other purposes.

Sources said Funaki has now told investigators that he provided a fake vaccine to patients who wanted the COVID-19 shots.

The doctor told investigators that he warned patients at his clinic about the dangers of the vaccine, hoping they would decline the shots.

“To those who still wanted the vaccine, I administered a saline solution,” the sources quoted him as telling investigators.

He never told the patients about the switch, the sources said.

The bogus vaccine came to light after the Kita Ward public health center received inquiries from patients who were “vaccinated” at Funaki’s clinic.

Five people who received what they thought were COVID-19 shots consulted the center in January this year because they had no adverse reaction to the vaccine.

The center asked Funaki about the shots he was giving. He replied, “I am doing it properly.”

The center checked about a dozen ward residents who received shots at the clinic. Several of them showed low antibody levels, indicating they were not vaccinated against COVID-19.

The center reissued vaccination vouchers to them.

There have been no reports of any ill-effects from the saline solution, the center said.

PSEUDO PROOF

Funaki was initially arrested on suspicion of falsifying vaccination records for three people—a woman in her 50s and her two children aged between 10 and 29.

The bogus records were registered in the central government’s Vaccination Record System through the city government of Sapporo, where the three live.

The doctor illicitly received a total of 14,000 yen ($97) from the city government as a commission for administering the COVID-19 vaccine, the sources said.

Funaki met the woman at an investment seminar several years ago. They are both against the administering of COVID-19 vaccines.

But the woman was worried that being unvaccinated would put her at a disadvantage, so she asked Funaki to provide her with “proof of vaccination,” the sources said.

Funaki and the unvaccinated woman later obtained a vaccination certificate from local authorities. They called the document, “a pseudo proof of vaccination,” the sources said.

In principle, people are required to receive COVID-19 vaccinations in the municipality where they are registered.

Records show that around 60 Kita Ward residents received vaccine shots at Funaki’s clinic.

But since July 2021, many of the 230 of so people who received a shot at the clinic have come from other parts of Tokyo and 12 prefectures.

Police are investigating if Funaki has provided fake vaccine records for others.

They are also investigating the extent of his saline solution practice.

‘IT IS UNFORGIVABLE’

A woman in her 60s who lives in Kita Ward said she received two shots from Funaki at the clinic in July 2021.

When her body showed no reaction to the shots, she thought that her constitution was strong.

But an acquaintance who heard that the clinic was “cheating” advised her to check her COVID-19 antibody level.

The figure was 0.01, way below even the “extremely low” level of 125.

The woman went to the public health center, where she was reissued vaccine vouchers.

When she received the shots again, she developed a pain in her arm and a sense of fatigue.

Her antibody level was nearly 1,500.

“I trusted the doctor. If I was deceived, it is unforgivable,” she said.

The woman says she often wonders, “What was in the shot I got at the clinic?”

(This article was written by Masayuki Takashima and Keita Yamaguchi.)