What To Do If You Lose Your Vaccination Card
There’s been a lot of talk about the vaccine mandate to show proof of vaccination to your employer and to enter businesses and events… but what happens when you get vaccinated and then misplace your card?
KBCS’s Yuko Kodama spoke with Gabriel Spitzer, spokesperson for Seattle and King County public health, to see what options you have.
Resources:
- for a certificate of immunization for print and to download:
- Go to whom you received the vaccination from…your healthcare provider or vaccinator to request records
- Call the State Department of Health at 833-VAX-HELP
For more information you can go to King County’s vaccination verification landing page and look at the FAQs
Producers: Fadumo Ali and Yuko Kodama
Photo: Marco Verch
Y K 0:00
91.3 KBCS community radio, I’m Yuko Kodama. There’s been a lot of talk about the vaccine mandate to show proof of vaccination to your employer and to enter businesses and events. But what happens when you get vaccinated and then misplace your card? I spoke with Gabriel Spitzer, spokesperson for Seattle and King County Public Health to see what options you have when you need to show proof of vaccination, but can’t find your card.
0:30
When do you use a vaccination card, I mean, we hear about the need for proof of vaccination for if you’re a state worker. People might have been being asked when they go to a restaurant or something… but tell me of the other times that you might need it short.
Gabriel Spitzer 0:47
So in King County, we have a vaccine verification policy that’s in place for people who want to go out to eat at restaurants, at bars, and gyms, other kinds of recreational settings, as well as like some larger outdoor events. And so for those kinds of venues, you’re going to have to show some kind of evidence that you’ve been fully vaccinated. And that means that you have had, either the Johnson and Johnson shot or two shots of Moderna, or Pfizer, at least two weeks ago. You will be required to show proof of vaccination status. And if you don’t have that, you can also obtain a negative COVID test and present that as well.
Y K 1:28
Okay, so you can use a negative COVID test, and how long would a negative COVID test last for something like this?
Gabriel Spitzer 1:38
It is 72 hours, you have to have provided a negative PCR test within the past 72 hours, you can use a rapid test that’s administered on site by like an actual testing provider, but at home tests are not sufficient.
Unknown Speaker 1:54
Could you tell me the difference between the rapid test and the PCR test and the at home tests?
Gabriel Spitzer 2:00
Yeah, definitely. So a PCR test looks for the actual genetic material of the virus. It’s looking for the presence of the virus, and they’re extremely sensitive and extremely accurate. So those are the gold standard tests. That’s, you know, Plan A. The rapid tests look for a different piece of the virus, and they are a bit less sensitive, of course, but they’re quick, that’s the trade off. At home tests are usually rapid tests. So the time that you can get in a drugstore, that’s going to be considered an at home rapid test, and that won’t pass muster for the vaccine verification policy. However, you know, some large events might have, say, a clinic or a provider on site doing rapid tests. There might be a fee, so just be aware of that. Rapid tests given on site by a testing provider are okay. It’s if they’re not supervised by a testing provider, if you do them at home, that’s not good enough for this policy.
Y K 2:55
if someone loses their card, and they didn’t take a picture of it, and they don’t want to keep having to get the COVID test, frequently, what are some things that they can do?
Gabriel Spitzer 3:08
So the first thing I would advise people to do is to go to a website called myIR.com. It stands for my immunization records. This is a website that’s through the State Department of Health. And for most people, your records are going to be accessible through my IR. You can look up your record, and then you can get what’s called a documentation or certificate of immunization, for your COVID-19 vaccination. And so you can print it out, you can download it and screenshot it. And that is just as good as the CDC card for the purposes of, you know, going out to eat going to a bar, etc.
3:47
If that doesn’t work out for you, for whatever reason, there’s another website that the state is just getting underway called waverify.org. That should be able to provide you with a QR code that you can show on your phone when you go in and they can scan it and confirm that you’ve been vaccinated. If you don’t have your card, you can also go back to your health care provider or the vaccinator and ask them for your records. So if you got vaccinated at the doctor’s office, they have a record of that you can get a printout of it and bring that or take a picture of it on your phone and show that. That suffices is proof of vaccination. Or if you’ve got it at vaccination site, like a clinic, a pop up clinic or whatever. You just need to know who gave you the shot, and they should have a record that they would be able to share. And if you really run out of options, you can contact the State Department of Health at 833-fax-HELP, and they can advise you on next steps but there’s a lot of options for people. Even if you lose your card. There’s a lot of ways to still prove that you’ve had the COVID-19 vaccine.
4:50
for King County’s vaccine verification policy. We have like a landing page, that’s Kingcounty.gov/verify. And if you go to that page, you can click on the FAQs the frequently asked questions and there is a question under there about what happens if you can’t find your vaccination card.
5:08
You know, it’s a good idea if you have your card now and you haven’t taken a picture of it yet, do so. If you have a smartphone, you can usually favorite that picture or do something that will make it easy to find when you need to do so. Or email it to yourself or something like that. That’s definitely the best proactive thing you can do.
5:27
Thank you so much. Appreciate your time, Gabriel.
5:30
You bet. Take care, Yuko
5:33
That was Seattle and King County Public Health spokesperson Gabriel Spitzer speaking with me about what to do if you can’t find your vaccination card. For more information and links on retrieving your last COVID vaccination card, you can go to kbcs.fm.
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