Santa Clara County residents could have received a text message Tuesday that local medical providers had “extra” COVID-19 vaccines and to sign up for an appointment.
According to the province, these texts come from ‘unofficial sources’, and health care providers still only vaccinate residents in the state’s vaccination phase 1A, which includes health workers and long-term residents.
The country is still investigating the source of these text messages and does not know how many people received the notification about the ‘extra’ vaccines.
Supervisor Joe Simitian said he received several communications on Tuesday about this text asking individuals to sign up for a vaccine.
“I’m worried it might just be the tip of the iceberg,” Simitian said. “If someone is able to fundamentally undermine trust in our reporting system, which could have potentially catastrophic consequences.”
Jeff Smith, the county’s chief executive, said incorrect texts had bypassed the state platform (CalVax) to sign up for a vaccination appointment. The site is not owned by the province.
“We are going to communicate with the state to find out how we can improve the security on the program,” Smith said. At the same time, we are going to increase our service population so that we do not want the left hand to say ‘No, do not show up’, while the right hand says, ‘Yes, come up. ‘”
It is likely that healthcare providers across the South Bay will soon expand to phase 1B level 1 vaccination, which includes individuals aged 75 and over, as well as other essential workers.
The province reminds all residents that the country’s website at sccfreevax.org is the best way to see if they are currently eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
It is the official source of vaccination-related information in Santa Clara County and contains information on the schedule of vaccinations if a resident is eligible.
To ensure that they meet the admission requirements for vaccination, each person will be asked to verify their status upon arrival at a vaccination site for their appointment.
Contact Madelyn Reese at [email protected] and follow her @MadelynGReese.