Some digital vaccine cards incorrect

As the world gets traveling again, some Californians are finding that the digital vaccination records they obtain from the state are incomplete. In some cases, shots received and memorialized on a person’s paper record may not appear on the digital version, which comes with a scannable code allowing organizations to verify authenticity.

Two vaccine cards for the same individual requested within a one-hour period from myvaccinerecord.cdph.gov, the state’s online coronavirus vaccination portal, returned different results, one with two initial shots and the second listing only a booster dose. Neither had all three shots listed.

After looking into the situation, the California Department of Public Health said in an email that the discrepancy was caused by different levels of completeness in the digital records created by the two different organizations that delivered the doses.

“In this instance, there were two different records in the registry with sufficiently different information so that the system could not bridge the doses into one record,” the CDPH email said. “In one record the provider had not submitted any address or middle initial.

“In the other record, the provider submitted address and middle initial.”

Some may wonder why records aren’t matched by Social Security number, but the CDPH said that its database does not contain that information “for privacy reasons.”

It was unclear how often the situation has occurred among the state’s 28 million residents who are fully vaccinated, nearly 15 million of whom have received a booster dose. Such a mismatch appears to be most likely in situations where a person receives doses from two or more different organizations.

Those who find that their digital cards, which include scannable “SMART” codes, have incomplete or incorrect information should first re-request the document by following the posted instructions at myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov. If information listed on a freshly obtained card still is incorrect, a fix can be requested through the agency’s virtual assistant at chat.myturn.ca.gov. Individuals can also work through their medical providers to get their records updated.