The “Maderna” vaccine won’t get you into Hawaii.
But Chloe Mrozak of Illinois, 24, reportedly learned that the hard way this past weekend.
Hawaii police say that Mrozak tried to use a fake vaccination card to enter the aloha state. The card says that Mrozak received the “Maderna” vaccine, which presumably refers to the “Moderna” mRNA shot.
24-year-old Chloe Mrozak from Illinois was arrested after allegedly using this fake #COVID19 vaccine card to enter Hawaii and avoid travel restrictions — it says “Maderna” instead of “Moderna” @KITV4 pic.twitter.com/1EWp3eG3OR
— Tom George (@TheTomGeorge) September 1, 2021
State police reportedly arrested Mrozak as she tried to exit the state, after realizing that the card she had uploaded to a state portal in order to avoid a mandatory quarantine was fake.
Mrozak’s fake CDC card contains a few other intriguing oddities. In the column for “healthcare professional,” someone appears to have written “NRA.” It’s not clear whether that is a reference to the National Rifle Association, or a misspelling of mRNA.
The card also purports doses given six weeks apart, beyond the four-week interval recommended for Moderna vaccines.
The woman’s foiled Hawaii getaway comes as authorities begin to crack down on the use of fake vaccine cards.
New York prosecutors accused the operator of an Instagram account called AntiVaxMomma of a scheme to sell fake vaccine cards, saying that the account’s owner — Jasmine Clifford of New Jersey — was charging $200 apiece for the cards, and managed to sell more than 250 of them.
That scheme caught attention in part because the vaccination cards had real serial numbers. Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance announced on Tuesday that charges had also been filed against another woman, Nadayza Barkely, who entered ten unvaccinated people into the state’s immunization registry as part of the scheme.
Vance’s office also charged thirteen others who bought the cards, all of whom, the office said, are believed to be health care workers.
For Mrozak, it’s not clear from reports how she obtained the vaccination card. She was arrested on arrival at an airport on the island of Oahu.
