Because the federal government is no longer distributing COVID-19 vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped printing the little white vaccination cards that were once ubiquitous during the COVID pandemic.
The cards’ elimination is not expected to be a major change. Experts say it’s unlikely we’ll return to the era when COVID vaccine cards served as IDs to enter restaurants, attend a show or board an international flight.
Can we finally empty our wallets and say sayonara to those little white cards? Here’s what experts told Yahoo Life earlier this summer.
Are COVID Vaccine Cards Important?
Dr. David Buchholz, senior founder and medical director of Columbia Primary Care and assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University, tells Yahoo Life he doesn’t think COVID vaccination cards are important anymore.
“There are probably a couple of reasons why they don’t matter anymore,” he says. “First of all, no one ever asks [for COVID vaccine cards] more for access to any public space. The second piece is: COVID-19 is no longer a new virus, and so I think starting this fall there will be an expectation that everyone will get a booster once a year, much like we do for flu shots. For those of us who have had about six shots, there will probably no longer be a need to show it to anyone other than maybe your doctor.”
Who still requires proof of vaccination?
But that doesn’t mean they’re completely irrelevant. Some people — including health care workers — still need proof they’ve been vaccinated.
“There are populations that have to show proof of flu vaccination every year, and those are likely going to be the same people who have to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination,” Buchholz said. “Because I work in healthcare, I have to prove that I have had a flu vaccination in order to see patients. The same has been true historically for COVID-19.”
People who live or work in congregate living settings, such as college dorms or nursing homes, will likely also need to provide proof of vaccination. However, policies vary by region, state, city, and even institution.
“There are still places that have mandated vaccinations — and remember, this isn’t just for COVID-19. For example, kids have long been required to be vaccinated against all kinds of infectious diseases in order to go to school,” Dr. Dean Winslow, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at Stanford Health Care, tells Yahoo Life. “So I think keeping a comprehensive record of your vaccinations is helpful for everyone.”
For parents, this doesn’t necessarily mean you need to keep your child’s original COVID vaccination card. Your pediatrician can usually provide any proof of vaccination that a school or summer camp requires.
“Children get so many vaccines, especially in the first 18 months of life, and then they start a booster at age 4. And COVID is just one of those many, many vaccines,” Buchholz said. “In most cases, the COVID-19 vaccine is documented along with all of those other vaccines. And so you probably don’t need to keep that card in that case, because your doctor, who likely gave the vaccine, has all of those vaccination records.”
What should I do with my card?
You no longer need to carry your vaccination card with you every day, but don’t throw it away yet.
“I don’t think I would ever throw away personal health information, just in case,” Buchholz says. “Like so much of the data we keep, we might not look at it for years and years and years, and then for some reason we want it and wonder why we threw it away. So I would put it in a safe place — like where I keep my Social Security card and my passport — and not throw it away.”
A CDC spokesperson said you should treat your COVID vaccination card like any other medical record and give a copy to your doctor, while keeping one for yourself.
Winslow suggests taking a photo of your vaccination record and saving it to your phone so you can easily find it.
“Most of us now have iPhones or other smartphones that allow us to store data very easily, eliminating the need to carry a large piece of laminated paper in our wallets,” he says.
What if I lose it?
If you lose your COVID vaccination card, Buchholz says you don’t have to worry.
“If you’ve lost yours, I don’t think I would go out and get one unless you’re in a situation where you feel like you need to provide evidence,” he says. “Don’t throw it away, but if you’ve lost it, don’t necessarily go out of your way to get it.”
While the CDC logo is on COVID vaccination cards, they can’t help you get a new one if you want to replace yours. Some states have registries that include adult vaccines, but you may have better luck trying closer to home by contacting your doctor’s office or the pharmacy chain that administered your vaccine. They can’t give you another little white card, but they can give you some other kind of digital or paper verification that you’ve been vaccinated.
An easy way to get proof, Buchholz says, is to get vaccinated with the new COVID vaccine.
“Just get the booster and you’re considered fully immunized,” he says. “You just have to have proof of that one shot.”
Buchholz says the “most likely place someone is going to get a COVID vaccination this fall is either at the doctor’s office — and they always give you a summary of the visit after the visit or something that tells you what vaccines you’ve had. Or, if you go to a pharmacy, if you ask, they’ll always give you a summary of the vaccine that was just administered.”
This article was originally published on August 2, 2023 and has been updated.
