State bill seeks to criminalize use or sale of fake COVID vaccine cards in Washington

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A lawmaker in Washington state wants to make it a crime to use or sell a fake COVID-19 vaccination card.

The measure would make it a misdemeanor to use a forged or falsified COVID-19 vaccination document along with making it a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine to sell or transfer false COVID-19 vaccine cards. The state of New York has a similar law on the books.

Using a fake COVID vaccination document is already a federal crime, but there is new impetus among lawmakers in Olympia to bolster the law.

Showing proof of vaccination is designed to send a message of the holder being vaccinated and protected while also protecting others.

But state Sen. Jesse Salomon (D-Shoreline) said people with fake cards are violating that mutual protection implied by the vaccination card.

“This is about truth in advertising,” Salomon said. “People who are medically vulnerable who want to go to a place that has vaccine requirements should be able to go there without wondering or experiencing somebody using false vaccine proof and possibly exposing them.”

Salomon is sponsoring SB-5667, which will make it a misdemeanor to use a fake vaccination card. The offense would be punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Violators who make or sell a fake vaccination card would be hit by a felony level crime with a prison time of up to five years and a $10,000 fine.

But some people testified Monday the legislation goes too far.

”Are we really going to call 911 and have law enforcement charge an 18-year-old for providing a fake vaccination card to enter a concert?” said Amanda McKinney, a Yakima County commissioner. “Or are we going to charge his mother with a felony for printing and assisting her son to fill out the card?”

“If they’re going to argue that people have a right to present fake forged documents in a public health matter that will put other people at risk," said state Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, who is co-sponsor of the bill. "That’s a hard leg to stand on in my opinion.”

But opponents of the bill say there is no need for it because it’s already a federal crime.

“Is it a feel good law?” asked Jeff Pack, a citizen who is against the bill. “Folks don’t want to be lab rats, and by the way it’s already a federal crime to create one of these things or possess one. So, there’s already federal law on this from my understanding.”

But the FBI says it would be good to have both the federal and state laws so local prosecutors can get involved.

“It would be another level of deterrent to get people to think twice about doing something like this when they’re actually putting themselves at risk and people around them at risk," said Steve Berndt, spokesman for the FBI field office in Seattle. "If they realize that there are penalties at the local level and maybe at the federal level for what they’re doing.”

As for enforcement, Berndt suggests filing a report at Tips.FBI.Gov.

“I do see it as a deterrent more than something that is going to create a lot of cases,” Salomon said. “I would hope that at most only a few cases are filed and word gets out and people think twice about it. That’s really the goal here.”