Cards on the Table

The golden ticket

Last month we noted the arrest of a Bay Area homeopathic doctor for counterfeiting vaccination cards and were surprised that the crime was not more widespread.

The vaccination card is a piece of light cardboard to which is affixed some stickers, date stamps, and a nurse's handwriting ...the government ought to make it as hard to counterfeit as a driver's license.

Vaccination mandates by governments and employers, not to mention the retail sector (e.g., restaurants, cruise lines, sporting events), unsurprisingly has led to a proliferation of fake cards.

In recent weeks, schemes to sell illegal proof of vaccination have multiplied on social-media sites, messaging apps such as Telegram and on the dark web, according to government investigators and cybersecurity experts...

In the U.S., fake vaccination cards purportedly issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have appeared for sale on sites such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy. In May, officers arrested a bar owner in California for allegedly selling fake vaccination cards costing $20 each. The alleged perpetrator was charged with identity theft, forging government documents and falsifying medical records.

Europeans take counterfeiting seriously: "The EU has
a digital vaccination certificate with a dedicated QR
code for each person. (Wall Street Journal photo)

9/11 not only resulted in a requirement for a photo ID to be presented at airports, office buildings, government facilities, etc., it forced the identification card itself to be upgraded to a "Real ID".

Most Americans accepted the stricter measures against terrorism because they believed lives were at stake. If the governments really believed that the coronavirus was a serious threat to lives, and that vaccinations really protected against infections and death, they would impose much more controls on vaccination cards.

If they do not, then we will know what they really believe.