A nurse accused of injecting people with saline solution instead of the\u00a0COVID-19 vaccine<\/a>\u00a0said she did it to save her job, according to her lawyer’s testimony on Thursday.<\/p>\n Some 8,557 people who received a jab between March 5 and April 20 may have been affected and have been called up for reinoculation in the northern German district of Friesland\u00a0in the state of Lower Saxony, authorities said.<\/p>\n “I am totally shocked by this episode,” Sven Ambrosy, a local politician in Friesland, wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n The 40-year-old woman is accused of having used the saline solution at least six times in April\u00a0at a vaccination center.<\/a><\/p>\n The woman’s lawyer Christoph Klatt told news agency DPA that it had been “a one-time incident.”<\/p>\n She’d panicked after breaking a vaccine vial \u2014 and out of fear of dismissal, filled the vial with saline solution to continue doing her job.<\/p>\n The shots administered to patients did contain the vaccine, just diluted with saline, Klatt said.<\/p>\n But investigators suspect that the woman had done it many more times than the six times she admitted. Witness accounts at the vaccination center raised the possibility that a larger number of people were affected. The nurse was ultimately fired from the job.<\/p>\n While authorities said the nurse’s motive was unclear, they did note that she aired skeptical views about vaccines in social media posts.<\/p>\n Her lawyer said on Thursday that there was no political motive behind the act.<\/p>\n Approximately 3,600 affected people have made new vaccination appointments with the district, and around 2,000 more people have also contacted the information hotline, authorities said.<\/p>\n “The citizens are reacting very prudently,” a spokeswoman for the state Health Ministry said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Although saline solution is harmless, most people who were vaccinated in Germany during the months of March and April were elderly people,\u00a0who tend to have a high risk of severe illness<\/a>\u00a0if infected with COVID-19.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Lower Saxony’s health ministry there was no indication that severe COVID-19 infections occurred as a result of saline injections.<\/p>\n jcg\/rs (dpa, epd)<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/56069011_303.jpg\" "\\"An")
<\/a>Most people who were vaccinated when the nurse used the saline solution were elderly, high-risk, people<\/p>\n<\/div>\nHow has the nurse responded?<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/58848731_401.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/a>The case has sent shockwaves through locals in the area of Friesland, with thousands applying for new vaccine appointments<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAffected citizens reacting ‘very prudently’<\/h2>\n