My COVID-19 vaccination card doesn't have the date when the vaccine was administered. Is it ok if I write it in myself?
I received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. The provider gave me a CDC vaccination card which lists my name, date of birth, vaccine name, lot number, and name of the provider. But they didn't fill out the date in the third column of the card.
Now I am planning to travel internationally and obviously I want to prove that I am fully vaccinated. Is it ok if I write in the date myself?
I'm worried that immigration officials will notice that the handwriting for the date differs from the handwriting on the rest of the card. If they are convinced that I have forged a vaccination record, I could face severe consequences. But some of my friends have told me that some providers expected the patient to fill in the date themselves since they were too busy to do it. If that's the case, then it seems like there's nothing inherently dishonest about also filling in the date on my own card.
Best Answer
It seems unlikely to me that immigration officials will care about the handwriting on the card, given the general level of sloppiness that I have seen on photos of those cards online. But I can't say for sure how any immigration official will react and I doubt anyone else here can either. To be absolutely on the safe side, from what I have heard pretty much any provider in the US has a procedure for replacing lost or damaged vaccine records: they can look you up in their system, verify that they gave you a vaccine, and give you a new card, which you could then make sure they write the date on correctly.
If you live in a state like New York that issues electronic vaccine passports, that may be another option.
Pictures about "My COVID-19 vaccination card doesn't have the date when the vaccine was administered. Is it ok if I write it in myself?"
Clearing up confusion about COVID-19 vaccination cards
More answers regarding my COVID-19 vaccination card doesn't have the date when the vaccine was administered. Is it ok if I write it in myself?
Answer 2
Did you sign up through VAMS (CDC)? If so, you can print out a certificate from there. Is it secure? Not really, but then anybody can print out their own card from PDFs online. It's probably worthwhile having multiple documents as backups.
By the way, I'm looking at my card, and I just noticed that the provider messed up the date of the second shot, so she crossed it out and wrote the correct date. I suspect there's a wide variety in what they see on these cards.
Answer 3
This is a Medical Certificate and therefore should only be filled out by authorised persons.
Therefore, in theory, any unauthorized changes could invalidate it.
A possible solution would be to write (preferably with pencil) the missing date as: [date], impling that something that should have been there in the first place, has been added for clarity and is not an alteration of the original.
Inserting or Altering Words in a Direct Quotation - Writing Commons
When writers insert or alter words in a direct quotation, square brackets—[ ]—are placed around the change. The brackets, always used in pairs, enclose words intended to clarify meaning, provide a brief explanation, or to help integrate the quote into the writer’s sentence.
For the International Certificate of Vaccination:
The form must be fully completed in English or French by a medical practitioner or authorized health worker and must include the official stamp of the administering centre.
Answer 4
Fill it out
First, take a picture of it without the date, fill it out then take another picture of it with a date. This is for your own security.
If they questioned you about it, tell the truth. Those guys will probably double-check it to the vaccination site or the doctor.
They might argue with you and they don't want to verify it. This will unlikely going to happen, but just in case, use audio recorded before you go there (again, for your security).
If the immigration officials talk to them, the provider of the vaccination card might also argue with you for filling it out without their permission. In my estimation, this has around 98% probability will not gonna happen since they will probably just verify the date of vaccination and not the handwriting. If they did, you can just argue back to them for not doing their job properly, they are responsible for this anyway and you will probably win this argument.
I said all of this though, in the end, they will not notice it. The more volume of people who fall in line, the lesser chances they'll notice it. Being in the first in line or in the middle is the lowest probability rate of them noticing it.
Be positive about this, you're not at fault in the first place.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Anna Tarazevich, Thirdman, Anna Tarazevich, Thirdman