Two unnamed women disguised as older were foiled on Wednesday in an attempt to get the coronavirus vaccine in Orlando, Florida.
At a Thursday press conference, the Orange County health administrator, dr. Raul Pino, tells a bizarre story: two women showed up at a COVID-19 vaccination site and posed as eligible senior citizens. The pair were, according to dr. Rino, ‘dressed as grandmothers’ for their performance.
The women were laid out in disguises that included gloves, goggles and even a hood, and even offered legitimate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tickets to indicate that the loop had worked once – they were there for the second round . “I do not know how they escaped the first time,” Pino said.
The prospective “grandmothers” were issued violations by warning authorities at the request of the health department, but were not otherwise charged. They will in turn have to wait to get the vaccine like everyone else.
“Our job as a health department is to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible,” Pino explained, in line with the amended CDC guidelines applied by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health.
Florida has already vaccinated about 42 percent of its 4.4 million seniors. The state also distributes the vaccine among health workers and people with pre-existing health conditions at increased risk. But because of the huge demand, Pino stressed that agencies need to be vigilant towards those who are not eligible to expire before the most vulnerable population is protected.