I haven’t seen a real vaccination card yet, but I really doubt that each one has an official seal affixed to it, or impressed on it. The blank .pdf version that has been posted on other threads appears to have the CDC logo printed on it, which is not the same thing in my opinion.
If I were to make a fake vaccination card (which of course I would never, ever do), I would use Photoshop or something to alter the logo very slightly.
I haven’t researched this in depth to determine what constitutes a “seal” under the code. There are only a few cases in the annotation to 18 USC 1017.
Viewed in light most favorable to jury verdict, there was sufficient evidence on all of elements of crimes to support defendant’s convictions: (1) jury heard myriad witnesses and viewed numerous emails detailing scheme, theory behind scheme, and scope of fraud and connections between defendants acting in concert; (2) jury heard that defendant created copy of Department of State seal to place on cards and continually modified seal and cards to make them look more legitimate; (3) though defendant received notice that wrongfully obtaining apostille and misusing seal was illegal, he continued to market and sell cards; and finally, (4) there was evidence that defendant drafted documents to explain to potential customers why it was legal for him to use Department of State seal on cards. United States v. Goodyke, 639 F.3d 869, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 8452 (8th Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 565 U.S. 1172, 132 S. Ct. 1129, 181 L. Ed. 2d 1006, 2012 U.S. LEXIS 625 (2012).
In convictions of mail fraud, wire fraud, misuse of government seal, and conspiring to commit these offenses based on sale of certain mortgage modification forms that contained only minor alteration of free government mortgage modification form, jury instructions for misuse of government seal charge were proper because they made clear that, in order to convict, jury needed to find that defendants knew that seal had been fraudulently affixed to document, and jurors could not logically make such finding unless they also concluded that seal was indeed fraudulently affixed. United States v. Godfrey, 787 F.3d 72, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 8625 (1st Cir. 2015).
Here is what the cards look like:
The ones I have seen are made of card stock and the vaccine lot labels are sticky tape.
People are told “this is your card. This is the only record we currently have that you have had the vaccine. Do not lose your card bring it back for your second round. “
A small fraction of people show up with the card the second time because it was laying by their seat where they sat for 15 minutes and got trashed when they left.
The vaccine lot is on the card, and that info is on record, to track down recipients of a bad lot. It will be very easy to verify fake cards by backchecking that database.