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Santa Clara County officials said Tuesday that untold numbers of residents have been falsely urged to receive additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine through spurious text messages.
County officials said some community members said they received text messages falsely informing them of the availability of “additional” vaccines and providing them with registration links for appointments at vaccination sites in the county. Santa Clara County.
“The county is investigating the source of this misinformation and reminding the public that immunization appointments are currently scheduled for healthcare workers who qualify for phase 1A immunizations,” officials said Tuesday. county in a statement.
County Director Jeff Smith told the supervisory board on Tuesday that a web link to arrange vaccine appointments is normally given to an eligible recipient once the person has completed a statement responding to inquiries. prioritization requirements.
But Smith said that somehow the web link was sent to people who had not completed that attestation. State and federal authorities have requested that frontline healthcare professionals, residents, and long-term care facility staff caring for the elderly be in the first priority level, or 1A.
In response to a question from Supervisor Joe Simitian, Smith said that “hacked is the wrong word”, but that accessing the web link was “inappropriate”.
The accident led several residents to show up at county facilities awaiting a vaccine, some of whom had to be turned down because they did not meet priority criteria.
The county expects many health care providers in the area to soon expand access to the next group of residents eligible for vaccination under state direction for Phase 1B level 1 – the elderly. 75 and over and some essential frontline workers such as teachers.
The county website at sccfreevax.org is the official source of information on vaccines in Santa Clara County, and is regularly updated to indicate which community members are currently eligible to receive the vaccine, as well as the how these people can schedule appointments.
To ensure that they meet the vaccination eligibility criteria, each person will be asked to provide a verification of their status when they arrive at a vaccination site for their appointment.
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