Three Vermont State Police troopers have resigned as a result of an investigation into fraudulent vaccination cards, the state’s Department of Public Safety said on Sept. 7.
Two of the men, Shawn Sommers and Raymond Witkowski, submitted their resignations on Aug. 10, one day after another trooper reported them. The third, David Pfindel, resigned on Sept. 3 as a result of a DPS investigation, the department
announced.
All three of the troopers are suspected of having taken part in creating fake
CCP virus vaccination cards. Fellow troopers reported the conduct to Vermont State Police supervisors, who, in turn, alerted federal authorities about the alleged misconduct.
“The accusations, in this case, involve an extraordinary level of misconduct—a criminal violation of the law—and I could not be more upset and disappointed,” Col. Matthew Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police, said in a statement. “If these allegations are proved to be true, it is reprehensible that state troopers would manipulate vaccination cards in the midst of a pandemic, when being vaccinated is one of the most important steps anyone can take to keep their community safe from COVID-19.”
“I’m embarrassed that this situation has occurred and know that it has tarnished the reputation of the Vermont State Police.”
The FBI is investigating the allegations, Vermont State Police said; the department withheld additional information, citing the continuing federal probe.
“Based on an initial internal review, we do not believe there is anything more the state police could have done to prevent this from occurring,“ Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Michael Schirling said in a statement. ”As soon as other troopers became aware of this situation, they raised the allegations internally, and commanders took swift and decisive action to hold these individuals accountable and report this matter to federal authorities.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has on more than one occasion
seized fake vaccination cards from China. Blank templates for the cards as well as instructions for filling them out are readily available online.
A number of states have enacted a variety of vaccine mandates, prompting those who don’t want to take the shot to falsify their vaccination status. An Illinois woman was
arrested last week for allegedly attempting to use a falsified COVID-19 vaccination card when entering Hawaii.
More than 176 million people in the United States have received the full COVID-19 vaccine regimen as of Sept. 7, according to the CDC. A number of
recent studies have
shown that vaccine effectiveness declines over time.
Recent
research from Israel suggests that people fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine are 13 times more likely to become infected with the Delta variant and 27 times more likely to develop symptomatic illness compared to those who had recovered from a previous infection of COVID-19. The figures apply when comparing cases where the first vaccination or infection occurred between January and February.
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
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