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    COVID-19 COVID-19 Vaccine Economy Travel

    COVID-19 VACCINATIONS: How Lies and Conspiracies Have Created a Marketplace

    Orlando Bourzac
    By Orlando Bourzac   |   Staff Editor

    From December 14, 2020 until January 13, 2021 about 13.7 million vaccinations took place in the United States to combat the deadly COVID-19 disease. Among these 13.7 million were first responders, nurses, doctors, critically ill, immunodeficient patients, and many more. After a person receives their first vaccination, they are given a card provided by the CDC that states the date and time of their first dose of the vaccine along with what brand of the vaccine they received. For their second dose they would bring this card, and the person administering this vaccine would fill in the second date of when, where, and what vaccine the patient received. This system was the way that the United States could track and reassure that everyone received a vaccine and were contributing to the overall goal of what is known as “herd immunity”; where citizens would not be affected by COVID-19 given that they were immunized against it. Now, a problem that much of the health community did not anticipate when approving this new vaccine and its administration was the danger of false reports and evidence surrounding not only the effectiveness but also the side effects that such a vaccine could cause on the person. Reports falsely claiming that people would grow another limb or that they would ultimately die solely because they were administered the vaccine began circling early on in the vaccination process and have trickled down into the year 2021. This destructive narrative caused by some individuals were based on unconfirmed reports and fallacies to disrupt the process of immunizing the country against the still deadly and prevalent COVID-19 virus.

    With such a negative trend on the rise comes opportunity to take advantage and to profit from such a narrative; that is the black market. Several cybersecurity firms, including Check Point Software, released reports stating that its researchers have discovered fake vaccine doses selling on the black market for $1,000 and fake vaccination cards selling for about $200 on the dark web. This crime hits as close to home as Illinois where recently the FBI has uncovered individuals posting blank CDC vaccination identification cards selling on online marketplaces such as Ebay, Craigslist, and Offerup. All because businesses such as Royal Caribbean are mandating customers to have a vaccine to be able to purchase tickets on their cruises moving forward. On March 19, 2021, Royal Caribbean announced that it will resume its voyages to the Bahamas for passengers with proof that they received a vaccine for the deadly COVID-19 virus. As with any other vaccine, there are people that have speculated to the effectiveness and side effects and do not wish to receive it; these individuals turn to these fake vaccination cards to be able to still go on the cruises and enter into certain businesses while still not being truly vaccinated against COVID-19.

    The spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding the effectiveness and side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine is something that must be addressed swiftly and without delay. The only way that life could return to the pre-pandemic state it was in at the beginning of 2020 would be with everyone making an attempt to immunize themselves against the virus. At the same time, there must be an understanding towards individuals that actually fear the effects of a vaccine and how it could impact their health in the future. For this, there must be a way to inform and target these concerns in a way that will allow the countries health officials to continue its efforts to protect the nation from another COVID-19 outbreak. Recently, many agencies such as INTERPOL have conducted operations to dismantle these fake COVID-19 vaccine networks and charging several of its kingpins with fraud and conspiracy charges. Efforts such as these will be followed in the United States along with severe legal penalties that will begin to deter other scammers and con artists from continuing to profit off of conspiracies such as these.

     

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