ATHENS – The head of Greece’s union of hospital workers will be investigated under a new law aimed at preventing the spread of misinformation over the COVID-19 pandemic for his claims that a number of public hospital Intensive Care Units are being reserved for the privileged if they need them.

A prosecutor will probe the assertion from National Federation of Greek Hospital Workers (POEDIN) chief Michalis Giannakos who said 47 COVID ICU slots are closed off to anyone except the privileged, held for them, said Kathimerini.

He had said that was out of 647 ICU clinics operating nationwide for Coronavirus patients that are overflowing as the New Democracy government hasn’t moved to recruit private clinics despite reports 114 patients are intubated outside the units.

The government is using a newly-passed law against the “dissemination of fake news” that could see peope prosecuted for making false claims about the pandemic and try to rein in rabid anti-vaxxers growing bolder.

But clerics who are making wild claims that the vaccines are the work of the devil or

made with fetus blood aren’t being prosecuted and journalists worry they could be targeted simply for reporting stories about assertions over the pandemic.

The investigation, the paper said, is part of a wider inquiry into reports that patients have died of COVID while being treated in makeshift units and not in the ICUs, with  Health Minister Thanos Plevris, who has no experience in the field, said Giannos’ claims were “a wretched lie” and warned that “those who spread such rumors will be called on to prove what they say or be held accountable.”