According to CBS News, New York City’s Department of Sanitation has confirmed that it is investigating claims that employees used fake vaccination cards in order to keep their jobs. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all municipal workers must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or they will be placed on unpaid leaves. Last month’s announcement.
“These are very concerning allegations and we take them very seriously – getting vaccinated is important to public health, and we do not tolerate anyone faking something that is a requirement of City employment,” Joshua Goodman, the department’s assistant commissioner for public affairs, told CBS News via email. Goodman stated that anyone found to be falsifying their vaccinations will be terminated without pay.
Goodman didn’t say how many employees were being investigated but noted that more than 87% of the department’s approximately 10,000 employees have been fully or partially vaccinated.
Most city employees — including police officers, firefighters, trash haulers and building inspectors — had a November 1 deadline for getting the first vaccine dose, de Blasio said. The city had previously mandated vaccinations for hospital workers and teachers in public schools.
But according to a department source who spoke with CBS New York, at least 50 employees claimed to have received the Johnson & Johnson shot at CVS locations on Staten Island and in Brooklyn — but the locations they claimed gave them the shot were not administering the Johnson & Johnson brand.
Goldman stated that the Department of Investigation was informed by the department. CBS News was contacted by a spokesperson who stated that the department of investigation “is aware” of allegations regarding the issuance of fake vaccination cards, but declined to comment further.
CBS News also reached out to the mayor and the union of sanitation workers and is currently awaiting a response.
It is a crime for COVID-19 cards to be made, bought, or used. The U.S. Department of Justice established a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in May. This task force works with many agencies to combat and prevent pandemic fraud.
In July, a California doctor was arrested for allegedly falsifying COVID-19 vaccination cards to make it appear like customers had received the Moderna vaccine, according to the DOJ.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection stated it Fake vaccine cards seized shipped from China in August, in what the agency said it was the 15th such shipment that night. The agency claimed that inside were 51 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccine cards of low quality.
Officials at dozens of colleges and universities are also concerned about students using fake vaccine cards, the Associated Press reported.
COVID-19 vaccinations are safe and highly effective. The CDC recommends that all eligible Americans, ages 5 and above, get a COVID-19 shot as soon as possible.
Source: CBS News
