Topline
A CVS employee in Long Island, New York, was arrested this week for stealing Covid-19 vaccination cards to distribute, Nassau County Police said Thursday, one of a growing number of people facing consequences for pushing fraudulent vaccination cards as the fake documents become a looming threat to the country’s effort to eradicate the coronavirus.
A stack of COVID-19 Vaccination Record Cards from the CDC.
MediaNews Group via Getty Images
Key Facts
Zachary Honig, 21, was arrested Tuesday on charges including petit larceny and criminal possession of a forged instrument after taking eight pre-filled vaccination cards and 54 blank ones, and CVS said in a statement they had terminated his employment and were cooperating with investigators.
Authorities noted that it does not appear Honig sold any of the cards—though an investigation is ongoing—but told police he intended to sell the cards to students and “share them with family members and friends, so that they could go into venues and possibly even use them at schools.”
A bar owner in California was arrested last week for selling fake vaccination cards, after undercover agents were able to purchase fraudulent cards on four occasions for $20 each.
The bar owner, Todd Anderson, was charged with identity theft, forging government documents and falsifying medical records, the San Joaquin District Attorney’s office reported.
State Capitol Police in Connecticut seized a box of fake vaccination cards at an anti-vaccination rally in April, which police said the Department of Health and Human Services was investigating.
The FBI has warned that making and buying fraudulent Covid-19 vaccination cards is a violation of federal law, and using a government agency seal without authorization by making a card purporting to be from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a crime.
Crucial Quote
“You can’t have scams like this occurring,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said about Honig’s arrest. “The idea of getting us all back to normal is that when you walk into a place and they’re requiring that card, you want to make sure that card is factual.”
Big Number
25%. That’s the percentage of Americans who say they would not agree to be vaccinated against Covid-19 if offered a shot, according to a Gallup poll conducted April 19-25. That number has been declining, however, with Gallup noting the 25% figure was the lowest recorded so far, down from 26% in March and 29% in January and February.
Key Background
The sale of fake vaccination cards has “mushroomed” as the U.S.’s vaccination rate has risen, the New York Times reports, with the Washington Post finding that one eBay seller alone had sold more than 100 blank cards over the span of two weeks. Attorneys general from 47 states have called on companies like Twitter, eBay and Shopify to crack down on the proliferation of vaccine card sales on their platforms, but though online companies say they’re taking some steps to thwart their sales, the fraudulent cards are still being distributed through channels like encrypted messaging apps and forums like 4chan. The issue is likely to only get bigger as more places start requiring proof of vaccination, with CEOs from major companies like Delta and United Airlines suggesting they’ll make vaccinations mandatory for at least some employees and venues like sports stadiums creating vaccinated and unvaccinated seating sections. Many colleges and universities have also said they’ll require students to get the shot by the fall, and NBC News reports at least some major schools have said the verification process will consist of students uploading their CDC cards.
Tangent
Nassau County authorities noted that any fake vaccine cards Honig distributed would not have worked with New York’s digital Excelsior Pass showing proof of vaccination, which rely on digital vaccination records and not the paper cards. Whether proof of vaccination should be digitized has been a growing debate: a number of experts have raised concerns about relying on paper cards that can be easily forged, but digital privacy advocates have also cautioned against tracking Americans’ health data through a digital system. “Setting up massive systems for tracking folks, collecting their information, and then with no kind of exit plan, how is that data going to be treated?” Hayley Tsukayama, a legislative activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told NBC News.
