The attorney general at the Information Technology Services Office said the unauthorized scheduling link was posted this week.
The governor’s office said it was a legitimate internal link that was mistakenly shared with the public and posted on social media, so the people who had the link “had an unfair advantage that others did not.”
The call affected not only Long Island residents, but the entire state of New York.
The following statement was released regarding the accidental publication:
“It came to our attention that an unpublished scheduling link was shared without authorization on social media this week, allowing some New Yorkers to book vaccines for state-run sites that are not currently open and were not making appointments in Binghamton, Buffalo , Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Stony Brook and Utica. As a precaution, we referred this problem to the Inspector General. As this pandemic demonstrated, equality and equal access are essential in the distribution of the vaccine, and to ensure that these principles are followed, all unauthorized appointments have been canceled – at the moment, we are contacting everyone who used the unauthorized link to inform them of the situation. We will continue to protect all information from New Yorkers and ensure equal access to the vaccine for all As a reminder, the only way to sign up for vaccines in places administered by the state is done through Department of Health website I am eligible. “
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Those who made the appointment via this link are being informed that their appointment is not valid and the authorities say that no one who signed up for these vaccines received it. The appointments went to locations that have not yet been set up, an official said.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said the site should go live on Friday and, to give everyone a fair chance at the venues, the nominations were deleted and made available at the time they were supposed to be available.
“This is not the first time this has happened,” said Cuomo. “There was a similar case in New York City. Someone issued a notification that there would be a vaccination site and people broke into the site.”
The governor’s aide, Melissa DeRosa, said there was speculation that the site was hacked or someone leaked the link.
“It will be a bigger problem than that, unfortunately, when you have 7 million people and you have such a limited supply, it creates anxiety, fraud, black market,” said Cuomo. “You will see people on the internet saying they will sell the vaccine. You will see some bottles sold. I would bet on that because they are valuable. You will see hacking, fraud, theft. It’s almost predictable, as ugly and unhappy as it is.”
He added that he has the attorney general’s eye on such situations.
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Cuomo added that most appointments in the state were being scheduled up to 14 weeks in advance, and most distributors are fully booked.
The state is waiting for more federal allocation.
“The federal government created a crisis by increasing eligibility, but not increasing supply,” said Cuomo.
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