Fake vaccination cards threaten university vaccination mandates



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When worried students started approaching Benjamin Meier, professor of global health policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, about the purchase of fake vaccination cards by their peers, he began to worry about the effectiveness of university policy. Classes will start on August 18th.

“(The students) explained to me that they can easily buy fake vaccination cards,” Meier said. “I asked, ‘Do you know of any students who have submitted these documents to the university? “Each of them did.”

A spokesperson for UNC-Chapel Hill said it had not found any cases of students uploading fake vaccination cards. The spokesperson did not respond when asked how the university distinguished between real and fraudulent vaccine cards in photos.

But as thousands of students plan to resume teaching primarily in person over the next few weeks, identifying fake cards through photos on online portals can pose a challenge for university administrators.

“We were talking about handing out fake vaccination cards as a form of protest to make it clear to the administration that if they end up trying to force vaccines, students will find and can find ways around that,” said Dylan Dean, Young Americans for Liberty Chair at Montana State University. “I chose not to do this because it is a crime.”

More than 400 colleges and universities across the country require students to be vaccinated before returning to campus, including Duke University and the universities of Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and California.

While some universities expect students to be fully immunized by the time they arrive on campus, others have only announced their requirements policies in recent weeks and will allow students to receive the vaccination before a certain date.

Many of these universities also have requests for vaccine exemptions for students with religious or medical opposition to vaccination, but students ideologically opposed to the vaccine could face disciplinary action or be banned from enrolling. they do not provide proof of vaccination and are not exempt, according to Duke and University of California system policies.

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And as the Delta variant continues to increase the number of Covid-19 cases, Eric Feldman, professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, is concerned about the threat. unquantifiable fake vaccine cards.

“It’s really hard to know how many of them are there,” Feldman said. “It is inevitably dangerous and it will not be easy to eliminate. I worry if it will become a widespread phenomenon. But how many there are and what risk they pose – we don’t really know yet.”

Students have standardized the creation of fake IDs to buy alcohol somewhat, and the idea of ​​fake vaccination cards is not far from that, Meier said.

Young adults have also fallen behind in vaccination rates, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in June. Almost a quarter of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 are still hesitant to get the vaccine, according to a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in July.

College terms could help change that rate, and many students still want to create a safe environment for their peers, Feldman said.

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“Which (fake vaccine cards) results in those who are unvaccinated and untested to be in environments where they could carry and spread the virus,” Feldman said.

Simon Palmore, a junior at UNC, said the university’s previous policies on Covid were risky, such as when the university opened in person last fall and had to come back online after a few weeks of rapid spread of Covid.

“It’s easier to see these things through the lens of, ‘What can I do, can I attend classes in person, can I go to parties, can I eat? in the dining room? ‘”said Palmore.” But you really have to remember that with every little college failure with Covid, people get really sick. “

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