How to Find Your Vaccine History—and Store It Safely
WIRED September 24, 2022
Worries about polio, monkeypox, and Covid-19 are rising. Here’s how to gather your health information, even if you’ve lost the paper records.
REPORTS THAT THE smallpox vaccine may offer protection against monkeypox has baby boomers searching for the vaccine’s distinctive scar while fielding texts about vaccination status from adult children. An increase in polio cases in New York created additional vaccine record searches. All of these, combined with people keeping track of their Covid-19 vaccinations and boosters, have more people concerned about their vaccination histories than ever before. If that sounds familiar, there are some things you can do to fill in the gaps in your memory, before you talk to your doctor about what you may need.
Physicians such as Fred Salley support maintaining vaccination records. He says that “people who received the smallpox vaccine are somewhat protected against monkeypox, so it is beneficial to have this information.” He adds that vaccination records are necessary so medical staff know, for example, which type of shingles or pneumonia vaccine was administered, so patients “can get the higher protection offered by newer vaccines.”
Until a few decades ago, immunization records were stored on paper, making them easy to lose, difficult to read, and prone to errors when moved across medical offices. Electronic records are an improvement, but they may be incomplete with consumers receiving vaccines at drug stores, drive-in clinics, and grocery stores, which maintain their own records and don’t necessarily share data. Immunization requirements continue as we age (shingles, pneumonia, etc.), so maintaining accurate records is necessary for older adults as well.
