Selling fake COVID vaccine cards to the unvaccinated? Find another side hustle

Nothing wrong with a side hustle.

Unless, of course, that side hustle involves breaking federal laws and endangering the lives of your fellow Americans.

Each day, entrepreneurs across the country have decided to embark on a get rich quick scheme that does both.

“2 metro Detroiters charged in schemes to sell fake COVID-19 vaccine cards” reads the headline in the Detroit Free Press

“Arrest warrant issued for Oak Lawn woman after missing Hawaii court date in fake ‘Moderna’ COVID-19 vaccination card case” reads another headline in the Chicago Tribune..

A U.S. Department of Justice press release features the headline “Pharmacist Arrested for Selling COVID Vaccination Cards Online”

Yes, a pharmacist.

The two Detroiters, by the way, include a registered nurse who allegedly stole real vaccine cards from the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center and a man who is “accused of importing fake COVID-19 vaccine record cards from China and selling them using his Facebook and Instagram accounts.”

The State’s own Zak Koeske wrote today about a rise in similar cases popping up here in South Carolina.

“(Vaccine card fraud) has the potential to expose members of the community to a potentially deadly virus, especially if an individual is representing themselves to be vaccinated in order to avoid testing, which might be required in a school or in an employment setting,” the Department of Health and Environmental Control’s COVID-19 incident commander Louis Eubank told Koeske.

The agency is able to refer complaints to the State Law Enforcement Division.

“This is something that’s really come to our attention in the last few weeks,” DHEC’s top COVID-19 attorney Danielle Maynard said. “We don’t have a tracking system set up right now, but we’re working on that process and procedure to be able to track those complaints and then refer them as appropriate.”

The FBI, in a public service announcement noted, “By misrepresenting yourself as vaccinated when entering schools, mass transit, workplaces, gyms, or places of worship, you put yourself and others around you at risk of contracting COVID-19. Additionally, the unauthorized use of an official government agency’s seal (such as HHS or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)) is a crime, and may be punishable under Title 18 United States Code, Section 1017, and other applicable laws.”

Nevermind the seeming inefficiency of paying hundreds of dollars for a fake or doctored vaccine card rather than getting a free-of-charge vaccine that can protect you and those around you.

Nevermind making a decision that could send you to the hospital, prison, or both.

The decision to pretend to be vaccinated rather than face the consequences of your choice not to be vaccinated seems wholly unAmerican.

One of America’s Founding Fathers, the nation’s second President John Adams is famously quoted as having said America was “a nation of laws, not of men.”

If you believe in this nation of laws, then to flout them for selfish gain is the very opposite of patriotism.

More than 675,000 of your fellow Americans are dead because of COVID-19 and more, largely the unvaccinated, are dying each day.

To sell or buy fake vaccination cards is illegal, immoral and shameful.

Don’t do it.

This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 12:30 PM.