After a year I think we all are looking forward to forgetting, Santa has swooped in at the 11th hour to deliver us the gift that’s at the top of all of our Christmas lists: a COVID-19 vaccine.

Of course, in this festive metaphor “Santa” is all the people in the medical research field who have worked day and night to develop an injection that will end this complete and utter nightmare—and did so with a novel virus at neck-breaking speed. In this situation, I have to give credit where credit is really due. Sorry, St. Nick.

One vaccine has already been approved for use in the United States, and five others approved in different parts of the world. Behind those are several more vaccines nearing completion on trial phases.

Hopefully very soon we can return to some semblance of normalcy around here. Personally, I can’t wait to get out there and see how bizarre my loved ones have gotten since I last saw them. At least, I hope they’ve gotten bizarre. I don’t want to be the only weird one at the reunion.

But for right now—and presumably into the next several months—vaccine quantities are extremely limited. They’re rightfully being reserved for those who most need them, primarily the healthcare workers risking exposure every single day. This group also includes workers in long-term care facilities where COVID has a particularly strong stranglehold.

After that, it is expected the second priority group in most states will be people over 65 years of age. This is especially critical because, aside from seniors being vulnerable in general, it will cut off the virus’ favorite breeding ground: nursing homes. Nursing facilities have been the source of many early outbreaks in this country.

Producing, shipping, and administering vaccines to those highest on the priority list is a process certain to take quite a bit of time. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar estimates the general public won’t have access to the vaccine until Spring 2021, so it looks like we’ll have quite a while to wait.

Knowing that, none of us should be expecting to receive any kind of communication telling us to pull up at the COVID Shot Store any time soon. Even seniors who will be among the first to receive the vaccine shouldn’t expect it—we’ve only just started to deliver doses to frontline health workers.

With thousands of healthcare workers waiting on the first vaccines to arrive, there is absolutely NO chance of getting any kind of early access to the shot. Zero. Zilch. Not possible. No way, and no how. There are very few doses even being made yet, and every last one of them is spoken for.

But if we know ANYTHING about scammers, we know they are shameless opportunists. Judging by how they reacted to the first available COVID tests, the Department of Health and Human Services is getting out in front of the vultures before they really start circling.

The Office of the Inspector General at HHS is already issuing warnings about any communication the public might receive—be it email, phone call, or text—about offers and access related to the COVID vaccine.

To paint a picture of just how fast scammers can mobilize campaigns, the Food and Drug Administration authorized use of the first COVID vaccine six days ago. Just three days later, we got the first reports about vaccine-related scams.

Per usual, scammers are making these calls and emails sound and look as if they’re coming from genuine government and health institutions, like the FDA, the CDC, Medicare, or local physicians and pharmacies. There may be very little in the way of red flags to let you know the communication is from an imposter: emails will spoof email addresses and use legitimate branding materials, and calls may used spoofed phone numbers that on a cursory look-up seem to be coming from a legitimate place.

But as we’ve explored in the past on this blog, it is nothing for a scammer to fake a local or legitimate number or throw together a halfway decent facsimile of a recognized and trusted website. This is 101-level stuff for a fraudster.

Normally I’d give some tips about how to recognize these things or maybe a list of things you can do to steer clear (I do LOVE a bulleted list). But telling you how you can avoid having your personal information stolen by these particular scammers is, thankfully, much simpler than that:

You can’t get the vaccine.

There is no vaccine available to the general public.

There won’t be a widely available vaccine until second quarter next year.

That’s really all you need to know. Anyone offering you some kind of super secret VIP access to the shot in the meantime is trying to get something from you. Absolutely NO ONE can get this shot except a select few who really, really need it. That’s it. That’s all. End of.

The day we have enough of the vaccine to distribute it to the public, it will absolutely consume the news cycle. I imagine there will be lines outside every PCP and pharmacy door that would make you think someone was handing out free suitcases of diamonds (or toilet paper, AM I RIGHT?! Hahahaha! Help, someone, please.).

There will be no questions at all when this thing becomes available or if it’s available. We will all know when that time comes. And that time is not any time soon.

So, know that in the coming months these vaccine scams will be everywhere. Scammers will contact people in all the ways they usually do, via any means, and they will be really good at making themselves out to be something that they’re not.

And as it gets colder and darker and the cabin fever starts setting in (if it hasn’t WELL before now), they’re going to use that to tempt victims into thinking they can get this shot that will allow them to get back to life.

Don’t fall for it. It’s going to be a tough winter, but we made it this far. We all just need to keep following the rules for a few more months so we can end this nonsense once and for all.