Floridians Try to Dupe Hawaii Safe Travels- Fail Miserably

People can be incredibly stupid. Case in point, a recent incident in which Floridians try to dupe Hawaii Safe Travels and failed at it miserably. And the reason why they failed couldn’t be better. But, hey, their plan worked for a little while.

Hawaii’s vaccine passport, part of our Safe Travels screening program, kicked off a little over a month ago. As you’ll recall, the passport requires that you provide proof of vaccination by completing some forms and uploading pictures of your vaccine card. And, of course, your travel date must be two weeks or more after your last dose of vaccine. Don’t want to vaccinate? Fine, you can still get a pre-travel test. If you don’t want to do either of those, well, then you have to quarantine for 10 days upon arrival.

Floridians Try to Dupe Hawaii Safe Travels

Hawaii Safe Travels, while a little convoluted, isn’t a difficult system – whether you’re trying to do things the right way or not. But, apparently, some people just, I don’t know, can’t do simple math? Have no common sense. Hence, the Floridians that tried to dupe the Hawaii Safe Travels system. The couple in question, Daniela and Enzo Dalmazzo flew to Hawaii with their two children on August 11. They cleared through the check at the airport and got to enjoy Oahu for an undisclosed amount of time. Eventually, though, officials caught on that their vaccine cards weren’t legitimate. How? It turns out that their children were born in 2016 and 2017. See anything wrong with that?

At the moment, just three COVID-19 vaccines have emergency use authorizations in the US. Of them, only two are authorized for use with children. What’s more, the vaccines are only authorized for use in children as young as 12. See the problem there? The Dalmazzo children are only five and six, nowhere near being able to get vaccinated.

Charges

In total, the couple received four charges for their familys’ fake vaccine cards. Details on exact charges are scant, but they were arrested and fined a paltry $8,000. The couple has reportedly posted bail already as well.

According to the FBI, falsifying vaccine cards is a felony. Specifically, fake vaccine cards often use the same CDC and Health and Human Services Seals seen on the real ones, which, of course, is wrongfully using government seals. This is punishable by up to five years in prison and “fines.”

Final Thoughts

I’m sorry, but these guys are idiots. I can’t believe that they screwed up by falsifying vaccine cards for their kids, both of which can’t even get vaccinated! But, hey, oh well. That’s better for us! But, I don’t know what’s more concerning to me – the fact that people are faking the cards (I knew this was happening, regardless) or that these guys got by the airport check. Did the person verifying their documents not know the vaccine requirements? If not, then perhaps these people more training?

Regardless of why these got through, I’m disappointed in our prosecutors too. Given the severity of their actions, why not charge them with the maximum penalty? Sure, they have kids so prison isn’t ideal, but $8,000? That’s it? Is that really enough to discourage people from doing this? Mind, you, this was the second such incident in the past week. A father and son duo from California was recently arrested for forging vaccine cards too. No details on their charges were provided, though.