When the first Covid-19 vaccines were in development, the question on many lips was about how we would be able to tell if someone had gotten the shots or not. Rumors of vaccine passports flew, and no one was immune to having an opinion about the positives or negatives of these proposed documents.
In Oregon, anyone who has received a Covid vaccine has been issued a card with the details of which brand, the lot number from the bottle, and a date. The card, however, was too large for a wallet, too easily bent for a pocket, easily lost, and generally destructible. So the state stepped up, forked over $2.4 million, and set us all up with a digital vaccine card which only about 50,000 of us have signed up for.
Released on April 25 – with fanfare– the digital card (not passport, we noticed) takes in an individual’s name and date of birth, adds either a cell phone number or email address, and has a user set a Personal Identification Number (PIN).
When your personal QR code is created from the state vaccine registry, you’ll receive either a text message or an email.
You can begin the whole process at the Oregon Health Authority website. And it is very easy. This reporter was able to complete the process in less than a minute and is now able to leave the larger purse with the safe-for-vaccine-card pocket at home.
One concern is that, currently, the state of Washington has us beat 11-to-1 on people signing up for this service. Therefore, we are asking you – nay, pleading with you – to go on out there and sign up so we can be Number 1!
Of course, one-upmanship aside, the OHA wants us protected.
“The download rate isn’t something we are measuring as indicative of project success,” said OHA spokesperson Rudy Owens. Rather, the OHA is looking at the focus on Covid as we learn to live with this now endemic disease.
By Marissa Roberts
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com