As Incremental variant of coronavirus Swept the United States, more and more colleges and universities require certification Coronavirus disease Vaccinate students for face-to-face courses. But based on interviews with students, education and law enforcement officials, the new authorization opens the door for those who oppose vaccination to deceive the system.
Faculty, staff and students from dozens of schools interviewed by the Associated Press said they were worried about how easy it is to obtain fake vaccine cards.
Several American universities require COVID-19 vaccination. What do Canadian schools say?
On the Internet, a cottage industry has sprung up to accommodate those who say they will not be vaccinated for personal or religious reasons.
An Instagram account with the username “vaccinationcards” sells laminated COVID-19 vaccination cards for $25 each.
Users on the encrypted messaging app Telegram provide a “COVID-19 Vaccine Card Certificate” with a price of up to $200 each. At least 11,000 app users viewed the seller’s false information, “This is our own way to save as many people as possible from toxic vaccines.”
Increasing inquiries to these and similar sites appear to come from people trying to obtain fake university vaccination cards.
A Reddit user commented in a post about fake COVID-19 vaccination cards, saying in part: “I need one too, for college. I refuse to be a guinea pig.”
On Twitter, a user with more than 70,000 followers wrote on Twitter: “My daughter spent $50 on 2 fake ID cards when she was in college. Shipped from China. Who has a vaccine card? the link to?”
According to statistics from the Chronicle of Higher Education, at least 675 colleges and universities now need to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination. The process of confirming vaccination in many schools can be as simple as uploading a picture of the vaccine card to the student’s portal.
Call for policy and accountability
In Nashville, Vanderbilt University will suspend students’ course registration until their vaccine records are verified, unless they receive approved medical accommodation or religious exemptions.
The University of Michigan said it has a system to confirm the vaccination status of employees and students. A spokesperson for the college told the Associated Press that so far, the school has not encountered any problems with students forging COVID-19 vaccination record cards.
Unlike many American schools, British Columbia does not require vaccinations at colleges and universities
But Benjamin Mason Meyer, a professor of global health policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, questioned how the agency verified these records.
He said: “Unlike most countries with electronic systems, the United States’ vaccination is based on a fragile paper card.”
Meyer said on Twitter last week that he had talked with several students who were concerned about the availability of forged vaccine cards. They knew a classmate who had submitted a vaccine to the university.
“Accountability policies need to be developed to ensure that every student operates for the collective benefit of the entire campus,” he said.
In a statement to the Associated Press, UNC stated that it would regularly verify documents, falsely claiming that the vaccination status or falsified documents violated the university’s COVID-19 community standards and may result in disciplinary action.
“It is worth noting that UNC-Chapel Hill has not found any cases of students uploading fake vaccine cards. These claims are currently only hearsay,” the school said.
But other university faculty and staff expressed concern about suspected forgery of vaccine cards. Rebecca Williams is a research assistant at UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Centers for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. She said that although she is concerned about these claims, she is not surprised.
“That’s why I think the development of a reliable national digital vaccine passport application is very important for all organizations and businesses that want to provide proof of vaccination to employees, students or business sponsors,” Williams said.
Foolproof system
The Associated Press interviewed several students across the country who asked not to be named, but said they knew that someone was trying to obtain a fake card.
Some school officials admitted that a foolproof system is impossible.
Michael Uhlenkamp, spokesperson for the Office of the President of California State University, said: “Like anything that may require certification, individuals can also forge documents.” The school system is the largest in the country, with 23 schools per year. The campus manages approximately 486,000 students.
Dr. Sarah Van Orman, Chief Health Officer of the University of Southern California and member of the COVID-19 Working Group of the American University Health Association, said that university campuses are a particularly challenging environment to control the spread of COVID-19 because tens of thousands of students move from all over the world. Enter the campus. But even if students falsify their vaccination status, the impact may be limited, she said.
“I think the number of students doing this will be very small and will not affect our ability to gain good community immunity,” Allman said.
In March, concerns about fake COVID-19 vaccination cards prompted the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue a joint statement urging people not to buy, make, or sell fake vaccination cards.
Unauthorized use of the seal of an official government agency (such as HHS or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is a federal crime and can be punishable by fines and up to 5 years in prison.
In April, a bipartisan coalition of 47 state attorneys general sent a letter to the CEOs of Twitter, Shopify, and eBay requesting the removal of ads or links selling fake cards.
Many websites have blacklisted keywords related to fake cards, but there are still places to buy these files in messaging apps, chat forums, and the dark web.
Sellers on websites such as Counterfeit Center, Jimmy Black Market, and Buy Express Documents listed COVID-19 vaccine cards, certificates, and passports for sale, some priced (in Euros) 400 Euros or approximately $473.49 USD.
An advertisement on the Buy Real Fake Passport website stated that suppliers can produce thousands or even tens of thousands of fake vaccine cards according to demand.
“It’s hidden under our noses. If you want it, you can find it,” said Saoud Khalifah, founder and CEO of the fraud detection software Fakespot. “If we see signs of fake card entry for things like Lollapalooza and other festivals, then this trend will only continue to enter these universities.”
Controversial political issues
In July, the US Department of Justice announced the first federal criminal fraud lawsuit involving false COVID-19 immunization and vaccination card programs. Juli A. Mazi, a 41-year-old naturopathic physician in Napa, California, was arrested and charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of misrepresentation related to health care matters.
Court documents stated that she sold fake vaccine cards to clients, which appeared to indicate that they were vaccinated against Moderna. In some cases, the documents show that Mazi herself filled out the card, wrote her name, and claimed that Moderna provided a “batch number” for the vaccine she had not actually received. For other customers, she provided a blank CDC COVID-19 vaccination record card and told each customer to write down that she had been vaccinated with the designated batch number of Moderna vaccine.
In some states, requiring vaccinations during college classes has become a controversial political issue. Due to state legislation, public universities in at least 13 states, including Ohio, Utah, Tennessee, and Florida, cannot legally require COVID-19 vaccination, but private institutions in these states can.
In states that introduced and passed bills prohibiting the mandatory use of the COVID-19 vaccine by educational institutions, violations of individual rights or freedoms are often considered a major problem.
But according to a statement issued by the American College Health Association and other educational organizations, these restrictions hinder the ability of universities to operate fully and safely.
“In some decisions made in some places, good public health science has been lost,” Allman said. “Our political leaders don’t always insist on this.”
Some college students have expressed their anger at other students with fraudulent vaccine cards on social media platforms such as Twitter and TikTok.
Maliha Reza, an electrical engineering student at Pennsylvania State University, said that when students can get the COVID-19 vaccine for free, they will pay for fake vaccine cards, which is incredible.
“I’m very angry about this, just like the anger I can’t describe right now,” Reza said. “Considering that the vaccine is free and can be used nationwide, this is stupid.”
View link »
© 2021 Canadian Press
