Originally published at: Pharmacist arrested after vaccine cards sold for $10 a pop | Boing Boing
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For $1250, you could print up hundreds of these cards yourself for sale to Covidiots. With the right cardstock, they’d be just as “authentic” as the ones the pharmacist sold to these distributors for further re-sale to the rubes.
I’m glad they caught this pharmacist before he started doing real damage by polluting the state’s vaccine registry database that will eventually form the basis of its pass/passport system. The authorities will have to be on the alert for that kind of behaviour from corrupt or quack pharmacists and physicians once proper vaccine verification systems replace the CDC cards.
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The cards are laughably easy to reproduce, nothing about the ink, card stock or printing process used is difficult to emulate.
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I’m sure they rolled out the cards as fast as possible - the logistics of printing and distributing them in a sort of secure way would be tough.
But every time I try to think of driver’s license type method, it occurred to me how expensive that would be and how much it would slow down people getting them in line in the store.
I mean, electronic would be idea - I wish there was a federal app instead of state ones that coordinate with insurance companies.
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For the most part, anyone who got a legit CDC card was also entered into a state’s vaccine registry database. The card was never intended to be used as proof of vaccination but more as an official personal reference.
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Ah well that’s handy - Looks like my state NC lets you print out a new card, but no app. Which, I’m not shocked considering that it’s run by the Death Cult. Which is why I wish it was federal.
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They are intended to document for yourself the vaccine you received. So that when you get additional shots, you have the information about your own previous shot. Along with, if there was a problem, you could check for yourself if you’re impacted. Perhaps to also update your own doctor for your own health record.
That’s it. None of those actions requires any security measures. There’s no incentive to cheat at any of those goals.
They are absolutely not designed to prove to some third party that you’re vaccinated. People will use them for this anyway. But, since this was never intended or designed into them, they’re only vaguely better than just taking someone’s word.
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TBF, they were never meant to be secure, just a record of vaccination. I am not sure if they did not anticipate the degree of resistance or just underestimated the stupid, but it did not work out so well…
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With the CDC cards, is the lot no., etc. entered in manually? When I got my shots in Japan, they just pasted a sticker with a barcode on my card.
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Mine was hand written.
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In the U.S., yes. They write down all the info, including name, dates and lot numbers in pen.
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Both. It depends on the site and what they happen to be doing.
Across 5 doses in our family, 4 are hand written and 1 is a sticker (a J&J sticker).
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I’m not necessarily saying this is more secure, but it seems a lot more efficient and with less human error risk.
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That is largely by design. The priority was putting together a vaccine distribution plan that could be implemented as quickly as possible across the country. If the CDC had insisted on a vaccination card design that was difficult for local printers to produce it would’ve slowed down the vaccination effort.
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Because nobody anticipated the stupidity of people paying money to fake getting a free vaccine.
We are reaching Peak Idiocy here.
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“ Each count Zhao is charged with is punishable by a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.”
Pretty light for attempted murder.
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Paying money and actually risking jail time by faking an official document.
All to avoid free medicine that has been proven to be safe and has already been provided to 3 billion people.
Horse. Water. Not drinking.
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My question is how would selling blank cards do that?
The card is not your vaccination record. Your medical records are. The card is equivalent to an appointment reminder. Any more formal system is gonna draw from that actual reporting system. Not from the card.
NY’s passport system uses name, birthdate and first vaccine date to add your record to the app. The only involvement of the card is it’s probably where you have those dates written down.
That’s kind of the key idiocy of selling and forging the cards. They’re only a thing because they’re visible, we’re not requiring vaccinations in most cases, and where less formal requirements are in place no one is checking. The cards have just become an adhock casual check for places like restaurants.
Without a passport app, the “official” proof is a vaccine record pulled from a medical provider or insurance.
These idiots are spending way too much for a piece of paper they could make themselves, that won’t count for anything more serious than McDonald’s.
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It wouldn’t. I didn’t say it would. I said (key term bolded):
His selling the blank CDC cards just indicates that he’d also be corrupt enough to use his access to the state vaccination registry to put in false entries there for a price.
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What suckers. I got mine for free! Along with the live saving medicine it represents!
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