Santa Clara County officials warned this week about unofficial texts inviting residents to schedule a vaccination appointment in the county.
The texts erroneously claim an “extra” vaccine supply and provide a link to the registration of one of the county’s vaccination sites.
As far as the county is concerned, someone was able to access the link that leads to the state’s vaccination platform, CalVax, and sent a text message with that link to an incalculable number of people.
“We know this because we had a large number of people who attended Berger [vaccination site] who didn’t have an appointment and told us that they could get on the list of appointments by gaining access to CalVax without going through our typical system, “said county executive Jeff Smith.
Smith said that a link is provided to those who are eligible for vaccination only after they have completed a statement that they meet the priority requirements.
This currently means people who are in Phase 1A, which includes healthcare professionals and residents and employees of long-term care facilities.
The county hopes to start vaccinating those in Phase 1B level 1 – those over 75 and over and other essential frontline workers.
The county is investigating the wrong text messages. Smith said that whoever sent it had not hacked the system and was instead able to “access” the link inappropriately.
Vaccination systems and county information are safe, Smith assured the county council of supervisors on Tuesday.
To access more information about vaccines for Santa Clara County, people can visit sccfreevax.org.
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