Maurice Hilleman is a little known scientist who created more than 40 vaccines that saved millions of lives including a shot that combined his vaccine for mumps with vaccines for measles and rubella. Measles, mumps, and rubella, like COVID-19, were all diseases that infected children but rarely killed them. However, those diseases wrought havoc on adults and their unborn children. In other vaccine news, on September 16, Health Canada granted full regulatory approval to both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for use in individuals aged 12 years and older. In an announcement, Moderna said the approval marks “an important milestone,” as it is the first full approval for its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Notably, the Moderna vaccine is not yet authorized in the US for children under the age of 18.
Both the price of fake SARS-CoV-2 vaccination cards and the number of online sellers have increased dramatically in recent weeks, following President Joe Biden’s announcement extending vaccine mandates for most federal workers, healthcare workers, and employees of many US companies, according to cybersecurity company Check Point Software Technologies. As of September 2, the average cost of a fake vaccination card bearing the CDC logo was $100, but that price doubled following President Biden’s September 9 announcement. Additionally, the estimated number of vendors increased from approximately 1,200 to more than 10,000. Many of the cards are being sold through the instant messaging app Telegram, which has 500 million monthly users worldwide and exhibited a 10-fold increase in US users following the mandates, up to 300,000. Most sellers require payment in cryptocurrency and collect personal information that is unnecessary to mail a blank fake card. Government authorities have cautioned against providing such information. Though it is unclear how people receive the fake cards, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has reportedly intercepted thousands of packages of fake vaccination cards sent to the US from China in recent months. Both the FBI and CBP have warned that buying, creating, or selling fake vaccination cards is a federal crime.
CSSE is reporting 42,512,327 positive cases in the U.S. and 680,682 deaths.
