A Belgian former professional basketball player, Pieter Loridon, deliberately infected himself with the coronavirus to obtain a recovery certificate so that he "will no longer be punished" for being unvaccinated.
Last weekend, Loridon posted a poll on Twitter to ask whether it was an option for healthy, unvaccinated people under 50 to "boost" their natural immunity (after a previous coronavirus infection with the original strain) by deliberately infecting themselves with the less severe Omicron variant.
"Yes, I deliberately infected myself," he posted to Facebook and Instagram one day later. "Rammed other saliva up my nose, with positive result."
Loridon soon has to go abroad for business, "and even that is something a healthy person cannot do today without CST," he said. "So I am going for a natural booster of my natural immune system that does work against the variants."
Related News
People who deliberately infect themselves are "totally irresponsible," said virologist Marc van Ranst on Twitter. "You have a mass of followers, Pieter," he said. "It is completely irresponsible to deliberately infect yourself, and to promote this to your supporters, just to get a recovery certificate."
Je hebt een massa volgers, Pieter. Het is compleet onverantwoord om jezelf moedwillig te besmetten, en dit naar je achterban te promoten, gewoon om aan een herstelcertificaat te komen.
— Marc Van Ranst (@vanranstmarc) January 24, 2022
In a reaction to De Morgen, Van Ranst said "putting someone else's snot in your nose, since when do we do that? With an unknown amount of virus? People have already died after so-called contamination parties. Just a few days ago there was a known case."
He referred to Hana Horka (57), a Czech folk singer who died last weekend after deliberately allowing herself to be infected in order to gain easier access to public places and events in her home country.
"Boosting the immune system naturally, as mentioned, means having the natural disease and all the possible side effects," Van Ranst said. "Such a practice cannot be taken seriously."
In the meantime, Flemish Health Minister Wouter Beke also took to Twitter to denounce Loridon's action. "Our excellent healthcare system will also take care of you if you end up in hospital. However, it shows an incredible lack of respect for the many healthcare workers who have been giving the best of themselves for two years now in extremely difficult circumstances."
Onze uitstekende gezondheidszorg zal ook jou verzorgen als je in het ziekenhuis belandt. Het is wel een ongelooflijk gebrek aan respect ten aanzien van de vele zorgverleners die al twee jaar lang in uiterst moeilijke omstandigheden het beste van zichzelf geven. https://t.co/cMNQiSMBTV
— Wouter Beke (@wbeke) January 23, 2022
In November, the Dutch Health Ministry posted a statement on its official website to warn against the danger of deliberately infecting yourself after several business propositions made headlines, adding that anyone who infects themselves is deliberately endangering public health.
"While a lot of hard work is being done throughout the healthcare sector to help both Covid patients and all other patients, there are apparently organisations that deliberately want to spread the virus further," said Dutch Inspector-General Marina Eckenhausen.
"I find that disconcerting. It is a slap in the face for everyone who has been working for more than a year and a half to fight the pandemic," she added. "And of course also for the surviving relatives of people who have lost their lives to the coronavirus."
