USA: two young women disguised as grannies to get vaccinated

MIAMI – Many older men and women want to look younger than they are. But the pandemic has turned the world upside down and the opposite has happened in Florida, where two women pretend to be innocent grannies to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

If the trick did not work, the case has exposed the limitless resources of the imagination in the service of a desperate exit from the pandemic which makes the United States the first global victim. And it also revealed a new way to profit in the midst of disaster., when the death toll and cases nevertheless start to improve.

Raúl Pino, director of the Florida health department in Orange County, said in statements released to local media that two young women arrived at a vaccination center “dressed as grandmothers,” wearing hats. , glasses and gloves typical of the elderly.

Both phonies at the Orange County Convention Center had valid vaccination cards from the first dose, revealing the success of a first foray into their new costumes.

Dr Pino stressed in a press conference that he did not know how the women went through the vaccination process the first time around, but hinted that in this second step there was a problem with the identification of one of them. “It’s the most popular product right now,” he said of the Covid-19 vaccine. “We have to be very careful with the funds and resources provided to us,” he added.

The county sheriff’s office identified the women as Olga Monroy-Ramirez, 44, and Martha Vivian Monroy, 34. After seeing the wrongdoing, the two were dismissed but no charges were laid.

The situation is reminiscent of the “vaccine tourism” scandal that benefited foreigners who specifically went to Florida to be vaccinated, a controversy that also benefited Argentinian tourists.

According to authorities, there have been cases of people pretending to be something other than receiving a dose, adding that the distortions were probably “greater than we suspect.”

The county has beefed up security at the vaccination center to “deter any possible malicious intent from a person,” Pino said.

The New York Times

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