Health officials are warning people of a scam involving e-mail requests for personal information as part of a bogus H1N1 flu vaccine registry.
The registry doesn’t exist, and people who try to send the information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may instead get a virus installed on their computers.
CDC officials posted a warning on their Web page yesterday, and state officials are planning to add an alert today.
“We have no (registration) requirement for anybody, and neither does the federal government, in any way, shape or form,” said Dr. Megan Davies, state epidemiologist. “People can just show up if they want a vaccination.”
Officials urged people to beware of any e-mail solicitations that ask for personal or medical information.
It’s unclear how widespread the scam is, but Davies said it is similar to false rumors that the federal government was going to mandate vaccinations for everyone.
“That’s not correct, but it plays into those perceptions,” she said.
The vaccination program for the H1N1 virus has been a target of rumor, misinformation and hyperbole from the start.
Some questioned the safety of the vaccine, although it was formulated and manufactured identically to seasonal flu vaccines, and studies showed no unusual problems. Then production difficulties at vaccine plants caused deliveries to arrive slower than promised, fueling criticism about the government’s agility in the face of a health threat.
Davies said vaccine deliveries in North Carolina are expected to pick up later this month. More than 1.7 million doses of H1N1 vaccine have been delivered since early October, and supplies are now also making their way to retail pharmacies.
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Here's the wording of one of the e-mail scams. If you get this e-mail message, the CDC cautions you to delete it and do not respond:
"You need to create your personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov website. The Vaccination is not obligatory, but every person that has reached the age of 18 has to have his personal Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov site. This profile has to be created both for the vaccinated people and the not-vaccinated ones. This profile is used for the registering system of vaccinated and not-vaccinated people."
