The various dingbats and wingnuts of the pro-Donald Trump web have been keeping busy by spreading detailed instructions on how to create fake official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention coronavirus vaccination cards rather than just get the damn shot. Doing so, the FBI says, is a federal crime that can be punished by up to half a decade in prison.
According to NBC News, templates and detailed instructions have spread like wildfire on right-wing forums like 4chan and TheDonald.win, as well as anti-vaccination boards, a task made easier by the decision of certain state governments to leave high-resolution PDF versions of the cards available on their website. The fakers might be relatively small compared to the 140 million or so Americans who have gotten legitimate CDC vaccination cards, which certify the dates the holder received their shot(s), the type of vaccine administered, and where. Some of the posts also described the correct resolution and type of stick-on labels used by some vaccination centers to mark dates on the cards.
The coronavirus vaccines authorized for emergency use are known to be safe and effective. Refusal to receive one of them without a very rare medical exemption such as going into anaphylactic shock following a prior vaccination is politely referred to by health authorities as vaccine hesitancy. Polling has shown that the number of Americans who say they will not get vaccinated against covid-19 has been dropping, but a recent CBS News poll found that 18 percent still gave a “maybe” answer and 22 percent just said no. Continue reading.