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The general counsel for the Office of Computer Services said the unauthorized programming link was released this week.
The governor’s office said it was a legitimate internal link that had been mistakenly shared with the public and spread on social media, so people who made the connection “had an unfair advantage over others no ”.
The link not only affected residents of Long Island but also New York State.
The following statement was issued regarding the accidental publication:
“It has come to our attention that an unpublished schedule link was shared without permission on social media this week, allowing some New Yorkers to schedule vaccine appointments for state-run sites. who are not currently open and were not scheduling appointments in Binghamton, Buffalo, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Stony Brook and Utica. As a precaution we referred this matter to the Inspector General. As this pandemic has shown, Fairness and equal access are essential for vaccine distribution and to ensure these principles are met any unauthorized appointments have been canceled. We are currently contacting all who have used the unauthorized link to inform them of the situation. We will continue to protect all information of New Yorkers and ensure equal access to the vaccine for all eligible people. As a reminder, the only way to sign up for vaccinations at state-run sites, it is done through the Department of Health’s Am I Eligible website. “
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Those who made an appointment with this link are told their appointments are invalid and officials say no one who signed up for these vaccines has received one. The appointments were for sites that had yet to be set up, an official said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the site was supposed to go live on Friday and to give everyone a chance to see the spots, the appointments were deleted and became available when they were supposed to be available .
“This isn’t the first time this has happened,” Cuomo said. “There was a similar case in New York. Someone sent a notification that there would be a vaccination site and people have invaded the site.”
Senior assistant to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, said it was believed the site had been hacked or someone leaked the link.
“It’s going to be a bigger problem than that, unfortunately when you have 7 million people and you have such a limited supply, it creates anxiety, fraud, black market,” Cuomo said. “You will see people on the internet saying they will sell the vaccine. You will see vials being sold. I would bet on them because they are valuable. You will see hacking, fraud, theft. It’s almost predictable, so ugly. and unhappy as he is. “
He added that the state attorney general was monitoring such situations.
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Cuomo added that most appointments in the state are booked up to 14 weeks in advance and most distributors are full.
The state hopes for a more federal allocation.
“The federal government created a crisis by increasing eligibility, but not by increasing supply,” Cuomo said.
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