--- title: New York State Probes 'Fraudulently Obtained' COVID Vaccines description: ParCare, a New York healthcare provider, may have offered COVID-19 vaccines in violation of priority guidelines, the state government says canonical: https://time.com/5925135/new-york-covid-vaccines-fraud/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-12-28T13:01:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:33:48.761Z article:section: Health og:title: New York State Probes 'Fraudulently Obtained' COVID-19 Vaccines og:description: New York state police has started a criminal investigation, which could be the state’s first vaccine distribution-related scandal og:url: https://time.com/5925135/new-york-covid-vaccines-fraud/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt692331e07f311eaa/698a15a7011682058a9802c0/parcare-new-york-covid-vaccine-police.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Health Workers Administer Covid-19 Vaccines At Bronx Nursing Home og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New York State Probes 'Fraudulently Obtained' COVID-19 Vaccines twitter:description: New York state police has started a criminal investigation, which could be the state’s first vaccine distribution-related scandal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt692331e07f311eaa/698a15a7011682058a9802c0/parcare-new-york-covid-vaccine-police.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New York State Probes 'Fraudulently Obtained' COVID-19 Vaccines, Criminal Investigation Opened > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg Contributor Dec 28, 2020 1:01 PM UTC  A pharmacist prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at the Triboro Center nursing home in the Bronx, New York on Dec. 21, 2020. A pharmacist prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at the Triboro Center nursing home in the Bronx, New York on Dec. 21, 2020. Eric Lee—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg Contributor Dec 28, 2020 1:01 PM UTC (Bloomberg) — A health care provider in New York may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccines and diverted them to members of the public in violation of [priority guidelines](https://time.com/5919956/covid-19-vaccine-distribution-d-day/), the state government said on Saturday. New York state police has started a criminal investigation into the matter, which could be the state’s first vaccine distribution-related scandal. The State Department of Health is aware of reports that ParCare Community Health Network, a provider with a clinic in upstate Orange County, “may have fraudulently obtained Covid-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines, and diverted it to members of the public,” the state’s health commissioner Howard Zucker said in a statement. ParCare’s website shows it has six locations, including four in Brooklyn, New York, and says its patients are “mainly Orthodox Hasidic Jews, Hispanics, and African Americans.” **Read more:** [_Yes, We Have COVID-19 Vaccines That Are 95% Effective. But That Doesn’t Mean the End of the Pandemic is Near_](https://time.com/5913113/covid-19-vaccine/) A hyperlocal Orthodox Jewish news site, BoroPark 24, published a [story](https://boropark24.com/news/parcare-community-health-network-receives-3-500-moderna-vaccines-today-vaccinates-500-patients) on Dec. 21, saying ParCare had received a shipment of Moderna Inc.’s vaccines, and showed boxes of the vaccines in what appeared to be a refrigerator. It also had what appeared to be a copy of a ParCare advertisement touting availability of “The Newest Healthcare Revolution!” on a “first come first serve” basis. Gary Schlesinger, chief exeuctive officer of ParCare, was cited saying people who are a “health care worker, are over 60, or have underlying conditions” can register online to get a vaccine. That differs from state guidelines, which allow only frontline health care workers, or staff and residents of nursing homes, to get the first batch of vaccines. “We take this very seriously and DOH will be assisting State Police in a criminal investigation into this matter,” said Zucker in the statement. “Anyone found to have knowingly participated in this scheme will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” Representatives with ParCare didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent on Saturday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5925135/new-york-covid-vaccines-fraud/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5925135/new-york-covid-vaccines-fraud/"},"headline":"New York State Probes 'Fraudulently Obtained' COVID-19 Vaccines, Criminal Investigation Opened","datePublished":"2020-12-28T13:01:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T09:33:48.761Z","description":"ParCare, a New York healthcare provider, may have offered COVID-19 vaccines in violation of priority guidelines, the state government says","url":"https://time.com/5925135/new-york-covid-vaccines-fraud/","keywords":["COVID-19","News"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt692331e07f311eaa/698a15a7011682058a9802c0/parcare-new-york-covid-vaccine-police.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt692331e07f311eaa/698a15a7011682058a9802c0/parcare-new-york-covid-vaccine-police.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Health Workers Administer Covid-19 Vaccines At Bronx Nursing Home","caption":"Health Workers Administer Covid-19 Vaccines At Bronx Nursing Home","creditText":"Eric Lee—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5925135/new-york-covid-vaccines-fraud/","name":"New York State Probes 'Fraudulently Obtained' COVID-19 Vaccines, Criminal Investigation Opened"}}]}] ```