For purposes of this question, let’s focus on Illinois, but if you’re aware of any laws in other states that apply, please mention them.
I’m not aware of any law that makes it illegal to line jump for the covid vaccine. I don’t think Illinois has any laws that apply to vaccine sign ups. I don’t think the registration process on the websites I have seen are under oath or that illinois has law that would give effect to that oath.
So, if a person lies and says she is a frontline grocery worker but she’s really a stay-at-home mom, can the state do anything to her if she tricks the store into giving her a shot?
Not that I have read. But it might well be that the state can do something to the pharmacy that provided the shot. I’ve read sites in many states that require you to bring a paystub or workplace ID badge if you are seeking a vaccination as an essential worker.
After scanning the first 10 articles that came up when I did a search for “lying about occupation to get vaccine,” I would say the answer is “no.” With the situation being so relatively recent and governmental things moving extra slow, it’s not something that’s been addressed.
That being said, if the ultimate goal is to vaccinate as many people as possible, the hassle of having to verify people’s occupations before giving them a vaccine (and punishing them for lying) is probably not worth the trouble of legislating against line-cutting for the relatively few assholes out there who would do such a thing.
It would seem to me to fit under the general category of fraud. The person would be misrepresenting themselves for the purpose of gaining something of value. It could also be said to be (temporarily) depriving someone else of the vaccine who did qualify.
Granted, I could see an argument that, if they just didn’t ask, you didn’t defraud anyone. But I’m pretty sure most ask for identification and proof of eligibility.
That said, perhaps it would be civil fraud, not criminal fraud. I’m not clear on the distinction. I would love for a lawyer to come in and discuss fraud and whether it would apply here.
It might be illegal if one represents themselves as a first responder (to get the vaccine), I think some states have laws against that, but if one says they are a worker in a retirement home, not sure and heard from someone I know that someone they know did exactly that, which the retirement home she was voluntarily at is really a adult-child living with her elderly parent who is retired and lives at home (thus volunteering at a retirement home).
This was my thought as well. It could conceivably be considered a form of criminal fraud. Also, I believe that the vaccine is funded by the feds, and the production and distribution is across state lines, so it’s potentially a federal crime as well. However, I have a hard time believing that stretching the truth to get ahead in the vaccine line would end up in a prosecution.
I am only eligible because I am living in a multi-generational home. (My 84 year old mother lives with us.) When I signed up, the webpage told me to bring proof, so we scrambled around and came up with documentation showing her residency.
When I checked in for my first shot, I handed the worker the documentation and my completed release form. The worker glanced through the papers long enough to find the release form and gave the documentation back to me while saying he didn’t need anything else.
Several “Essential Worker” friends reported the same experience at different locations.
I won’t bother bringing anything but the release form for my second shot.
(My mother also got her first shot, she was told to bring her ID, but when I checked her in, nobody wanted to see it. She reported that she was never asked to show it later in the process either.)
Line jumping doesn’t seem that complicated to me, get an appointment, show up, get shot. Easy peasy.
Every sign up I’ve seen has you assert that you meet the requirements for vaccination in your state - its a checkbox. So its likely to be fraud if you get an appointment checking that checkbox if you don’t actually meet the requirements.
I haven’t looked at the statutes, but my guess for most likely way it might be illegal is fraud in obtaining a government benefit. Probably illegal under state law as well as federal. But, I don’t know what the exact elements are, so I’m not sure if it falls under that or not. I’ll try to find the statutes later and have a look.
A medical clinic in the state of Georgia vaccinated teachers out of turn and the state pulled their supply of vaccines for six months. None of the teachers were disciplined though.
Going under the government benefits fraud, it would seem the statute in Illinois would be:
I guess it would depend in part on the definition of “benefits” as meant by the statute. Does it mean it in the plainest sense of “something that produces good or helpful results or effects or that promotes well-being” or is it something like a term of art, with a narrower definition? It would also seem to hinge on whether or not the “private pharmacy” was at least in part funded in its vaccine efforts by state funds.
When I signed up on my county’s website, I don’t recall whether there was any language to the effect of “I verify that everything I said is true, under penalty of fraud” as you often see on websites. And certainly when I went in for my first shot, they did not ask me for any proof that I met the designated conditions. I visibly do, as one of them is obesity, but I had my inhalers with me in case I was asked.
Of course, the inhaler doesn’t have my name on it, so I could have borrowed one from someone.
I would think that the main mechanism would be that if the signup site had language such as noted above. And I suspect that even so, it’ll be tough to prove and unlikely to be prosecuted even so.
One high-profile case. - to the best of my knowledge, she is not being sanctioned in any way.
I suspect that even if the government-run websites had the “don’t commit fraud” verbiage, private websites might not.
My son called me the other day (he’s away at college) and was wondering if he could sign up because of his asthma. Well, the last time he required any medication for anything asthma-like was the year he got H1N1, which was 2009. Yeah, one doctor’s visit had paperwork that included “asthma” as a diagnosis. I said “I suppose you could, but really it’s been so long, and I don’t think you’re in as high-risk a group as many”. I didn’t go so far as to tell him NOT to sign up, but I didn’t encourage him to, either.
It seems like it would plausibly be fraud – obtaining health care services through false pretenses or representations. I’m not sure I understand who is providing and/or paying for the vaccines sufficiently to know what kind of fraud it is (i.e., whether it would fall within the federal healthcare fraud statute).
I think any real question of prosecution would depend on how flagrant the line jumping was – a lot of these categories are ill-defined.
Several posters have brought up that you’re not under oath. I don’t see the relevance to fraud- perjury yes, but not fraud. If I claim I am a licensed and bonded contractor in order to get work, I’ve definitely comitted fraud though no oath is involved.
Chances are every state has a fraud statute that could be applied. The website where you sign up doesn’t have to have any magic language or fraud warnings; people understand that they shouldn’t obtain property to which they aren’t entitled by lying. Websites that carry the fraud warnings are trying to discourage people from committing fraud but the language isn’t necessary to establish a case. Perjury charges generally apply to lying in court proceedings or in evidence (like affidavits) that are to be submitted to a court. Needless to say, lying to CVS about vaccine eligibility isn’t in the course of a court proceeding. I’m not sure that this would be fraud in the distribution of government benefits in most states. In Illinois, if I understand correctly, it is illegal to obtain government benefits by making misstatements to government officials (like lying to a welfare case worker to get benefits) but this would involve making misstatements to CVS. I’m not sure it would apply. Some states may have statutes that are more broadly worded where it could apply. I’m not going to do a 50 state survey.
My hunch is that fraud charges are possible but would be hard to prosecute. The prosecutor would have to prove that the person knew that they weren’t entitled to the vaccine. So, to build on one story from this thread, a person had a diagnosis of asthma 20 years ago but hasn’t had any flare-ups since. That person reads on Facebook that vaccines are now being offered to people with asthma. That person believes he is entitled to the vaccine now and he signs up for it. But the website doesn’t have a slot for “asthma,” so he signs up as a teacher. Turns out, he misread the Facebook post, which was referring to the next county over. His county wasn’t yet offering the vaccines to young asthma patients so he wasn’t actually eligible yet. He just thought the website hadn’t been updated yet so he tried to execute a workaround. Or maybe, in another case, a mother signed her son up and just told him where and when to go. He never saw the qualifications on the website and didn’t know he wasn’t eligible.
Even if prosecutors could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did cheat to skip the line, the value of the vaccine is around $40 so it’s going to be a misdemeanor charge in most or all states. And you better hope that no one on the jury also skipped ahead. Or supported their kids when those kids skipped ahead. Or that the jurors don’t think the vaccine is a hoax so there is no value to a stolen vaccine. Or…
Skipping ahead is wrong and probably illegal almost everywhere. There will probably also be very few cases for doing it.
Seriously, everyone is entitled to a vaccine. Stating the obvious, these priority groupings are a way to manage resource volumes so that 1,000,000 people don’t show up on the same day. Yes yes, they are working their way down the list based on at-risk categories, but there is very little negative (and much positive) in giving a vaccine to someone who is not currently in a designated category. So, I don’t realisticlly anticipate any legal/legislative pressures.