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An unassuming 3- by 4-inch piece of cardstock could become your ticket back to normal, with colleges, airlines, event venues, and other weigh-in plans requiring documentation of a COVID vaccine -19. So, to protect this precious proof of inoculation, should you have it laminated?
OfficeMax and Staples currently have promotions where residents can laminate their cards for free. But some fear the cards will still be writable for on-the-go reminders.
“If you want to laminate it, be aware that it might be difficult in the future to do anything more,” Panagis Galiatsatos, a physician at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told NJ Advance Media.
His recommendation: Laminate a copy of the card. But more importantly, Galiatsatos said people should take a photo, write down confirmation numbers, and send a copy to your doctor’s office.
“There are other ways to keep proof of vaccination without compromising the card … there is a better way to do that than to just rely on the cards they give you,” he said.
However, Stephanie Silvera, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at Montclair State University, believes the concern about stratification is likely overdone.
“I’m not particularly worried about the possibility of writing on a particular card in a year, so I think if people want to laminate it, it may be useful to do so at least in the short term,” he said. she told NJ. Advance Media.
Former New York Giants football star Tiki Barber shows off his COVID-19 vaccination record after being vaccinated at a vaccination site in Jersey City on March 24. He shows his birth name, Atiim.
Residents will likely need to receive COVID vaccine booster shots in the future, although by then Silvera is hoping we’ve found a more efficient and centralized system to record people’s vaccinations.
“In the future we will need a better system for tracking our vaccinations as we hope people don’t lose their cards,” she said.
While it’s too early to say how society will recover and respond to the continued threat of the virus in the long term, Silvera predicts that our annual flu season will turn into flu and COVID season. Vaccine booster shots every six months or annually are likely being carried out, although it’s still far too early to tell, she said.
Whether a vaccine card may be required to attend business or travel is also open, though Gov. Phil Murphy has urged New Jersey residents to “hang on”.
“Don’t get rid of the card,” Murphy said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier this month. “It will probably be something valuable. Keep the card, laminate it, and put it in your wallet. “
“And in terms of the value that this card will have, other than your own personal health, (must) be determined,” added Murphy. “But that’s under study and there are a lot of different potential uses for it, whether it’s for a sporting event, for getting on a plane, etc. So hang in there and, again, we’ll take our advice from the CDC first and foremost. “
Health confidentiality issues
The Republican Governors Association hit back at Murphy for his comment, calling him a “minefield for the protection of privacy.”
“Hard-working New Jersey residents have the right to keep their health care decisions between themselves and their doctors, and don’t need Phil Murphy in the waiting room to tell patients to ensure they “laminate” their vaccine card upon release, “Republican Governors Association spokesperson Will Reinert said in a press release.
Regardless of Murphy’s or the CDC’s decision, the need to provide proof of vaccination is already becoming a hallmark of post-pandemic life. Rutgers University has become one of the first schools in the country to require a coronavirus vaccine as a condition of enrollment in the fall. And legal experts told NJ Advance Media that employers are free to apply the same rule in the workplace.
In Camden County, authorities have urged residents to laminate, make copies and keep the card with them at all times, like a driver’s license.
“For us as a community to get back to normal completely – and as Rutgers pointed out with his new policy last week – proof of vaccination will be key to the process of protecting public health in general,” Directed Commissioner Louis Cappelli Jr. said in a press release.
Currently, the United States does not have a central database for vaccines, leaving paper maps as the only proof of inoculation for many of the 145 million Americans who have received coronavirus vaccines. nowadays. The Biden administration is working on developing a standard diploma or “vaccine passport,” but the effort will require coordination among dozens of agencies and faces a number of other challenges, the Washington Post reported.
For now, if residents want to make their vaccine cards or copies more durable, they can visit Office Depot and OfficeMax stores through July 25 using coupon code 52516714 or Staples stores indefinitely with coupon code 81450.
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Josh Axelrod can be reached at [email protected]. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
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