Two Florida women caught dressing as seniors to receive priority Covid vaccine

Desperation to get the Covid-19 vaccine led to two Orlando women attempting to fool health workers about being in a priority age group

The coronavirus vaccine is so coveted that two women in Florida went to extremes Wednesday to get inoculated: They dressed as if they were elderly, health officials said.

The women, both younger than 45, wore bonnets, gloves and glasses to disguise themselves as older than 65, the age cut-off to be prioritised to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida, according to Raul Pino, the director of the health department in Orange County. He attributed the deception to growing interest in the vaccine.

“This is the hottest commodity that is out there right now so we have to be very careful,” Mr Pino said at a press briefing Thursday.

The geriatric guise is the latest instance of people trying to cut the line to get vaccinated from the deadly virus. Last month, authorities identified a wealthy Canadian couple who had posed as locals in a remote Indigenous community to take doses meant for elders.

Meanwhile, an Indiana health department issued a warning earlier this month against what they called “a substantial lack of morality” after people had lied to vaccination site workers about their addresses, jobs and ages.

The Florida women’s costumes may have succeeded before – both had the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention card indicating they had received their first doses. Mr Pino said he did not know how they could have been previously vaccinated, but on Wednesday, workers at the site at the Orange County Convention Center caught on.

Once the staff at the site noticed the discrepancy with their birthdays listed on their drivers’ licenses, the women, 44 and 34, were referred to deputies, who issued trespass warnings against them, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.

The women did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday evening.

They did not get their second shot, and security at the site was heightened in the wake of the incident, said Kent Donahue, a spokesman for the health department.

Mr Pino said there has been a “few” cases of people trying to trick health workers into getting vaccinated, including a man who had the same name as his elderly father.

“As we are engaged in this process trying to move quickly, some people could squeeze in, so it’s probably higher than we suspect,” he said of the number of people who might lie to get vaccinated.

Asked if it was frustrating to him that the two women skipped the queue, Mr Pino said it wasn’t up to him to determine who should be next in line, referring to the priority scale set up by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican.

“Our job as a health department is to vaccinate as many people as possible,” he said.

Mr DeSantis was criticised this week after he unveiled a “pop-up” clinic offering vaccines in an affluent, mostly white neighbourhood of Manatee County.

The state has been allocated 3.4 million doses and administered more than 2.5 million first doses, according to data compiled by The Post.

Orange County has vaccinated more than 200,000 people, Mr Pino said, adding that the county is increasing its capacity to keep up with desire in the community.

“It’s great to see that demand,” he said. “We haven’t had any lack of willing arms to get vaccinated... we have people faking to be old to get vaccinated.”