Photos showing the COVID-19 vaccination card as a badge of honor have been circulating on social media for months, but the card is more than food for selfies, it could be your ticket to freedom in the coming months – so it must be protected as such.
The precious paper card contains vital information, including the brand of vaccine you received and the dates you were immunized. According to public health experts, it is crucial to keep this information handy in case you need it to prove your vaccination status or to expedite possible future booster doses.
Vaccination records can probably be replaced if they are lost or damaged, but it is especially important to take good care of your vaccination records during this pandemic, when the country’s health systems are overburdened.
“A vaccination card is a tool that people can use to declare that they have some level of protection against COVID,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., ABC News contributor and epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Being able to assess immunity to COVID is a critical part of trying to resume our daily lives.”
“What these little cards have the potential to do is make something like international travel easier, avoiding quarantine or testing requirements,” Amesh Adalja, MD, FIDSA, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Health Security Center from Johns Hopkins University, he told ABC News.
The logistics around how a “vaccine passport” would work is still under discussion. “Nothing has been done yet,” said Adalja.
Even so, the COVID vaccination card is hardly the first of its kind. Some countries, for example, require proof of vaccination against yellow fever, and many public and private schools require that enrolled children be fully vaccinated.
All vaccines administered in the U.S. must have a paper record, but if your vaccination card can help you navigate through our new normal, you may want to treat it with care.
Below, our experts answer common questions about the COVID-19 vaccination card and how it can be used in the future.
Why is it important to keep the vaccination card?
“It is important that people have a record of which vaccine they received and when they were vaccinated,” Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, vice president of the global health committee at the Infectious Diseases Society of America and emerging leader in biosafety at the Johns Hopkins Center for Safety of Health, ABC News said. “It is your proof that you received the vaccine.”
Although vaccine studies are still ongoing, the vaccine brand and batch number on your card may be relevant when it comes time for a booster, she said.
“Whether at school, entertainment or travel, there will be an expectation that, to resume these activities, you will need to be re-tested and quarantined or provide proof of immunization,” said Brownstein.
What if I lose my card?
It is possible to obtain a duplicate of the blank card, but you will need to fill it in with your vaccination details. Fortunately, both the establishment and the state where you received the vaccine must keep these records.
According to Adalja, “you must go back to where you were vaccinated” and, if it doesn’t work out, you have another option: call your state’s health department, which also keeps a record.
Each state has an immunization database, explained Kuppalli, but that data is not shared across states.
Some national networks, such as CVS and Walgreens, also promise to have applications that show vaccination records, in case you have received vaccines with them.
What should I do with my card after I have it?
Kuppalli suggests that his patients take a picture of the card on their phones. Brownstein agrees, adding that the card must be kept safe together with other important documents, such as social security cards or passports.
Also, since the cards contain identifying information – such as your name and date of birth -, consider hiding that information if you post a selfie with the card online.
Will vaccination records be digital in the future?
Several companies and private organizations are developing secure applications that will use an individual’s vaccination records to verify immunity to COVID-19 – instead of people relying on a fragile piece of paper forever.
International standards will need to be established before a digital “vaccine passport” can be accepted worldwide. “It will work,” said Brownstein, but multinational organizations like the World Health Organization are thinking about these challenges.
What should I do with online ads that claim to sell vaccination cards?
Public health officials have serious concerns about fraud when it comes to these cards, which is another reason why digital verification can be important for the development of vaccine passports.
You should never buy a vaccination card online – even seemingly reliable sources are selling a fraudulent product.
Is there any reason why I don’t want a vaccination record?
The local public health department already keeps a record of COVID-19 tests and vaccination status locked under lock and key, so tearing up the vaccination card will not guarantee you any extra privacy.
And in the “new normal” as we emerge from the pandemic, the vaccine card may just be your “ticket back to normal,” said Brownstein.
Leah Croll, MD, is a neurology resident at NYU Langone Health and a contributor to ABC News Medical Unit.
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