Some former President Trump supporters and anti-vaxxers are forging vaccine cards using a government-issued template to falsely state they received their shots.
NBC News reports that people are making their own vaccination cards using an online template and flashcards.
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“It’s a cardboard paper card,” said Alyssa Miller, a cybersecurity expert. “There’s absolutely nothing about it that would prevent you from reproducing it.”
Using high-resolution PDFs from the websites on the Wyoming and Missouri health departments, conspiracy and anti-government forums give graphic templates on how to make a convincing vaccination card.
Certain websites, like Patriots.win, formerly known as TheDonald.win, instruct how thick the cardstock needs to be and how some vaccination centers attach stickers on cards to indicate the date. Some websites have printed labels for dates.
The CDC has informed both the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and Wyoming’s Health Department, both of which were aware of the misuse a month ago.
“It would be best for states to no longer have that material available online as some were using the card/file for fraudulent use,” a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Health said.
“The initial goal for posting the document was to make things a little easier for community providers,” the Wyoming department spokesperson said.
The cards, handwritten and containing very little information, are being exploited by right-wing forums that challenge President Biden’s vaccination mandates.
The Biden administration said it was not interested in creating a federal vaccination passport, saying some might have privacy concerns. New York is the only state to have a verification application called Excelsior Pass or the vaccine passport, as reported in Black Enterprise.
The FBI released a public warning in March, asserting created or bought fraudulent vaccine cards are illegal.
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