The coronavirus vaccine is so coveted that two women in Florida went to great lengths to get vaccinated on Wednesday: They dressed like they were elderly, health officials said.
The women, both under the age of 45, wore hats, gloves and glasses to disguise themselves as over 65, according to Raul Pino, the director of the health department, the age limit that was given priority to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida. . division in Orange County. He attributed the fraud to the growing interest in the vaccine.
“This is the most popular product out there at the moment, so we have to be very careful,” Mr Pino said at a press conference on Thursday.
The geriatric guise is the latest example of people trying to cross the line to get vaccinated against the deadly virus. Last month, authorities identified a wealthy Canadian couple posing as locals in a remote indigenous community to take doses intended for the elderly.
Meanwhile, an Indiana health department earlier this month warned against what they called “a substantial lack of morality,” after people lied to workers at vaccination sites about their addresses, jobs and ages.
The Florida women’s suits may have passed before – both had the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention card stating they had received their first doses. Mr. Pino said he did not know how they could have been vaccinated before, but on Wednesday, workers at the Orange County Convention Center location beat it up.
When staff at the site noticed the discrepancy with their birthdays on their driver’s licenses, the women, 44 and 34, were referred to deputies, who warned against them for trespass, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.
The women did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday evening.
They didn’t get their second chance and site security was increased in the wake of the incident, said Kent Donahue, a health department spokesman.
Mr Pino said there have been “a few” cases of people trying to trick health workers into getting vaccinated, including a man who had the same name as his elderly father.
“Since we’re in this process and trying to act quickly, some people may squeeze it, so it’s probably higher than we suspect,” he said of the number of people who could lie to get vaccinated.
When asked if it was frustrating to him that the two women skipped the queue, Pino said it was not up to him to determine who would be next in line, referring to the priority scale set by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican.
“Our job as a health department is to vaccinate as many people as possible,” he said.
DeSantis faced criticism this week after unveiling a ‘pop-up’ clinic offering vaccines in an affluent, mostly white, neighborhood of Manatee County.
According to data from The Post, the state has received 3.4 million doses and administered more than 2.5 million first doses.
Orange County has vaccinated more than 200,000 people, Mr. Pino said, adding that the county is increasing its capacity to keep up with community desires.
“It’s great to see that question,” he said. “We haven’t had a shortage of willing arms to get vaccinated … we have people pretending to be old to get vaccinated.”