Traveling in and outside of America has become complicated with the rise of the vaccine passport. The process, which has come under fire by pundits and critics, has been a preventative measure against the international spread of the coronavirus and its variants.
No matter what side of the discussion you fall upon, as long as you’re not Chloe Mrozak, you should be fine.
The 24-year-old woman was arrested in Hawaii after presenting a fake COVID-19 vaccine card with the shot maker listed as “Maderna,” instead of Moderna. In violation of Hawaii Gov. David Ige’s emergency proclamation, Mrozak is facing up to $5,000 in fines and potential jail time.
In order to bypass Hawaii’s 10-day traveler quarantine, Mrozak uploaded a vaccination card to the state’s Safe Travels program and arrived in Honolulu at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
“Airport screeners found suspicious errors … such as Moderna was spelled incorrectly and that her home was in Illinois but her shot was taken at Delaware,” Wilson Lau, a special agent with the Hawaii attorney general’s investigation division, wrote in an email to USA Today.
The email, which is included in documents filed in court, led to Mrozak being charged with two misdemeanor counts of violating Hawaii’s emergency rules to control the spread of COVID-19. She had been in custody on $2,000 bail until a judge released her at a hearing Wednesday, Sept. 1, and scheduled another hearing in three weeks, according to the public defender’s office.
State Public Defender James Tabe, whose office has been at her hearings this week, declined to further elaborate on her case. There is no indication whether or not Mrozak will hire her own attorney or apply to have a public defender represent her.
With too many loose interpretations of why and how Chloe Mrozak was able to enter Hawaii with sketchy information, she was found after the assistant manager of the hotel she allegedly stayed at found a photo of her sporting a “distinctive tattoo,” which led to authorities finding her at a Southwest Airlines counter when she was trying to leave Honolulu on Saturday, Aug. 28, according to court documents.
Other visitors to Hawaii have been arrested for fake vaccination cards, including a father and son from California, who appeared in court via Zoom Wednesday and waived their rights to a jury trial.
