Anti-Vaxxers Forging Vaccination Cards

“Have you gotten your vaccine?” Almost everyone is being asked this question. A couple years ago, no one would’ve cared if you got the Flu vaccine or not. But now, due to COVID and the serious consequences that we’ve lived through this past year, it’s a huge topic of discussion. Although there is no formal requirement for anyone to get the vaccine, many respected medical professionals and public health experts do advise people to get the COVID vaccine. Of course, I suggest everyone should do their due diligence and research (using credible sources) before making an informed decision. Listening to a podcaster or Youtuber who doesn’t have any medical experience probably isn’t the best idea. For those that don’t know, the other day a famous podcaster, Joe Rogan, said on his podcast that healthy young individuals don’t need the vaccine. That caused a huge ruckus. People started quoting that and agreeing with him based on nothing except his word. The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Fauci, responded that that was not the best advice to be giving people and that young individuals should indeed get the vaccine when they can. 

Needless to say, vaccinated or not, there is a huge discussion about it because of the misinformation and rumors on the topic. A lot of our relatives have earned the prestigious WhatsApp Degree of Headline Reading and continue to spread those articles that probably aren’t as reliable as they think. What is the right thing to do, though? I don’t know either but what I do know is that I want to protect the people around me and if that means injecting a vaccine into my arm and getting sick for a couple days, then so be it. Even if some people say there is a microchip in it, which for the record doesn’t make sense to me. Like why would there be a microchip in the vaccine? Has biomedical engineering even gotten that far? What would be the purpose? Like mind control? Getting my data? They, whoever they are, get more data from our phones.

Anyways, listening to people who spent their lives studying this topic seems to me like our best bet at getting back to “normal”. Because WHY would they lie? What do they gain? Of course, there’s theories and rebuttals to these arguments. I, as well as many of you, have had these discussions in depth with anti-vaxxers and we know that no matter what, there will be a response that involves some doctor or famous figure that advocates their belief. Usually the conversations are devoid of science and data which are how I, personally, judge facts from non-facts. The Joe Rogan reference above is an example of this. Even though Joe Rogan has apologized since then and even added, "I'm not a respected source of information, even for me", the damage has been done because anti-vaxxers have a new hero's coattails to ride on. One, who projected his opinion to millions without including any scientific or data-driven analysis. 

I am not choosing sides or saying one side is more right than the other. Like I said, there is a lot of misinformation out there and it pretty much depends on what content people are ingesting to further radicalize their views, whether it's for the vaccine or against. A recent poll showed vaccine hesitancy is most prevalent among Republican men at 43% saying they would never receive the shot. It is a personal choice (so far) so if you don’t want to get it, you don’t have to.

Now, what I do have a problem with is lying about getting the vaccine. Yep, that’s what is going on now. People are forging the vaccine cards and selling them to anti-vaxxers. These are small cardboard pieces of paper with very insignificant markings that make it even easier to duplicate. Not that it wasn’t easy enough, the Wyoming and Missouri health departments had high-resolution PDFs of the templates on the back-end of their websites which were scrubbed by hackers. Even though the FBI stated in March that taking part in any forgery or purchasing of a forged card is illegal, on conspiracy, anti-government, and pro-Trump forums, people are uploading card templates and providing detailed instructions on how to create forged cards.

The Biden administration did not create a vaccination database because of obvious privacy concerns so those cards are really the only way to tell if someone is vaccinated or not. New York, so far, is the only state that has adopted the use of a verification app that allows for patients to prove they got the COVID vaccine. As we are getting closer to normal, some employers and schools are requiring people returning to provide proof of vaccination. If people are forging the cards and selling them, how do we know if it’s real or not. The cards are a short-term solution, but it looks like we are probably better off using a verification app like New York has done.

This has a lot of detrimental effects if not taken care of in a quick and decisive manner because, as I understand it, the vaccine does not prevent COVID or the spread of COVID. The vaccine, simply, reduces the severity of the symptoms and reduces the chances of hospitalization due to COVID. We know that this whole COVID episode isn’t over. There are countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan, etc.) that are currently battling a huge second wave due to the multiple variants and ignoring public health recommendations. Those countries have not closed their borders and neither has the U.S. to incoming travelers. We could have another surge in cases and deaths because of people not getting vaccinated. And much worse, they would be attending school and being at work because they have provided (fake) proof of their vaccination. Things could get worse or maybe this won’t matter. Either way, lying about it isn’t the way. Being anti-vax is a choice. Be proud of it. Don’t lie about it and put others at risk.

- TBC

P.S. Feel free to let us know what you think about this in the comments below.