Senior News Line: Scammers and the omicron vaccine

The latest scam against seniors appears to have started the very day the new COVID omicron vaccine was announced as being approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The call I received promised to help me get to the front of the line — ahead of all the people who were going to be eligible at the same time.

All I had to do was provide my banking information or Medicare card number so they could “hold a place” for me in the appointments.

After all, the scammer said, millions of people were going to be rushing to get the vaccine. I didn’t want to be left out, did I?

I had a few minutes, so I decided to test the scammer’s actual knowledge about the vaccine. He was fuzzy on the information and stumbled to answer, sometimes making it up as he went.

Here are some facts to remember should you get one of these vaccine scam calls:

• The truth is that not everyone is going to be eligible. Those who haven’t had any previous COVID vaccines cannot get the omicron vaccine until they take the other ones. Then you have to wait two months before getting the new one.

• The Pfizer booster will be for those age 12 and over, with the Moderna for those 18 and up. They don’t know yet about children younger than those ages.

• No, at this point there haven’t been any clinical trials about how well the omicron version works. Mice, yes, but people, no. Moderna and Pfizer both did mini-tests of 600 people each.

• The omicron vaccine will cover not only the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, but also the original COVID, as well. It’s called a “bivalent” vaccine because it covers both.

But the big thing to remember: These scammers don’t want to help you get the new omicron booster. They only want your personal information.