They are getting rid of the white COVID-19 vaccine cards that were once very important.
Get rid of your COVID-19 vaccine card. They are no longer being made by the CDC.
The familiar white COVID-19 vaccination cards will soon be phased out, which means the end of an age for a record that was once very important during a pandemic.
Currently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are not producing new cards since the federal government is not distributing COVID-19 immunizations.
The CDC’s most recent data shows that between the end of 2020, when the first shots came out, and May 10, the federal government sent over 980 million cards.
Health officials at the federal and state levels don’t think that getting rid of the cards will be a big deal since most people no longer carry them around with them to get into events, bars, and restaurants. You can still use your card as proof that you were vaccinated if you have kept it. If not, individuals who need their COVID-19 vaccination records will have to ask for them like they would for any other vaccine.
Most of the time, the clinic, drugstore, or health department that gave the shot can give you those records. There is an immunization list in every state and certain cities. There are different rules about when records are included and how you can get copies of your records. Depending on the rules in each state, those databases should also have records from the places where a lot of people got vaccinated early in the pandemic. There is no central database that keeps track of vaccination records.
For instance, in Texas, patients must give written permission to be added to the register, according to David Andres Alegria, director for the San Antonio Metro Health District. In some places, like Wyoming and Philadelphia’s city-specific database system, all shots must be recorded by the person giving the vaccine.
People in a lot of states can get digital copies of their vaccine data online or by means of an app. People who have been vaccinated can save their receipts or a QR code. Certain websites will even keep track of patients and let them know when they need another one.
Some places don’t let you get your records as quickly, so it may take longer to get them. There may also be holes in state databases. For instance, if you got a shot from a government health provider, your information may be kept in a different system.
If you are still holding your old card, you might not want to send it to the Smithsonian just yet. Wendy Gurov, a nurse expert for the Wyoming Department of Health, said that you should keep it safe like every other health record.
She said, “It is always good to put those somewhere safe.”
Since it was approved this past month, the new COVID-19 vaccine has been given to four million individuals in the United States, CDC head Dr. Mandy Cohen said this week. An overall of 10 million doses have already been sent to doctors.
