Heres Why Youll Be Given a Vaccination Card After You Get the COVID-19 Vaccine – Prevention.com

Public health officials have confirmed that people will be given a COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card after they receive their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, CNN reports. The documentation will help officials keep track of who has received the shot, and help people follow through with the second dose of their vaccination schedule, Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, told the news outlet.

Everyone will be issued a written card that they can put in their wallet that will tell them what they had and when their next dose is due, Moore explained. Lets do the simple, easy thing first. Everyones going to get that.

Clinics that offer the vaccine will also log patient information in their state immunization registries to track which shot was given, as two vaccine candidates from pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna are currently pending emergency use authorization from the FDA. This will make it easier for doctors and healthcare providers to find that information if a patient was unsure of their vaccination details, Moore says.

The card will be part of an overall vaccination kit, which will also include a needle and syringe, alcohol wipes, and a face mask.

U.S. Department of Defense

The cards were also mentioned in a press briefing with members of the federal governments Operation Warp Speed. Weve set up everything [in] a draconian process, where when we sent out the ancillary kits which have needles and syringes, weve included paper cards to be filled out and ... given to the individuals, reminding them of their next vaccine due date, Army Gen. Gustave Perna, Warp Speeds chief operating officer, said in the briefing. He added that people will be asked to take a photo of their vaccination cards or to keep them in their wallet.

This isnt a concept unique to COVID-19. Vaccination cards are already distributed when people are vaccinated against certain infectious diseases, including smallpox and yellow fever.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has an international certificate of vaccination or prophylaxis that can be carried by a person who has been vaccinated. I carry a yellow fever card around in my wallet, says infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

There was a time when pediatricians were giving out vaccination cards to parents after routine childhood vaccines, but so many parents lost them and didnt keep up with them that people gave that up about 25 years ago, says William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Now, for certain diseases, you have to have a vaccination certificate or card if youre going to certain countries.

A COVID-19 vaccination card will feature a persons first and last name, birthdate, the vaccines name and maker, and the dates of when the first and second dose were received, according to a sample image from the U.S. Department of Defense. (Both vaccines pending approval will require two doses.)

U.S. Department of Defense

Back in April, Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that there were talks of using vaccination cards or certificates for the COVID-19 vaccine. You know, thats possible, he said on CNNs New Day at the time. Its one of those things that we talk about when we want to make sure that we know who the vulnerable people are and not.

Its unclear at this point how COVID-19 vaccine cards will be used, but experts have confirmed that their main purpose is to simply make sure people follow through with the second dose of the vaccine. It will be very important ... for all Americans who get the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine to have their first vaccine dose and then come back either three or four weeks later to get their second vaccine dose, to complete the immunization schedule, said Moncef Slaoui, M.D., Warp Speeds chief scientific adviser, per NPR.

Moore told CNN that vaccine distribution sites will likely ask you for your cell phone number, so you can also receive a text message to remind you to get your next dose.

Richard Watkins, M.D., an infectious disease physician and professor of internal medicine at the Northeast Ohio Medical University, says the cards might be especially useful for workers that interact with the public and vulnerable populations frequently, like healthcare providers, restaurant servers, and teachers.

Officials have not confirmed that the cards will be used for travel or large events.

Overall, experts say vaccination cards will bring us one step closer to ending the pandemic. Both Pfizer and Moderna have vaccine candidates that are reported to be more than 90% effective at preventing COVID-19 infection in people whole participated in phase 3 clinical trials. The White House Coronavirus Task Force expects the first doses to be administered to healthcare workers and elderly residents of long-term care facilities as soon as mid-December.

It is unlikely that the general public will have access to the vaccine until late spring to summer of 2021, Dr. Adalja says. But when it becomes available to you, its crucial that you get it. Nearly 300,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 so farand getting vaccinated will help save lives. I would be proud to show my coronavirus vaccine card to people, Dr. Adalja says.

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Heres Why Youll Be Given a Vaccination Card After You Get the COVID-19 Vaccine - Prevention.com