national vaccine card

Thanks Stan for sharing. Just this past month this system was introduced to my Medical organization on MyChart. It has a COVID-19 QR Code Verification. According to the latest info. “different organizations have different rules for verifying vaccinations or test results.” “SMART health cards are designed so they may be used by organization that wants to use them.” Yes, there are a number of States that are on board.

is that a guarantee that they are compatible with the European system?

No, Nigel, it is not. That's why I noted it doesn't solve international travel issues. But with some luck, maybe more countries will recognize it as better than the paper CDC cards. Or maybe the whole situation will be overtaken by events.

The Smart Health Card (SHC) format was actually developed at Boston Children's Hospital as a way to encode generic health information, not just Covid vaccinations/testing/recovery status. It is a handy standard format, which is why many states and organizations have adopted it. While my state, Oregon, does not have state issued codes (yet), my health care provider (The Portland Clinic), does.

When all of this stuff started, and the EU rolled out their Green Pass, and California et. al. rolled out their Smart Health Cards, I looked into the specs (retired software engineer here). Both do exactly the same steps to record, ecode, encrypt, and build the QR codes. Differently, or course. Even so, it would take a software engineer maybe a week to build an app that converted one form to the other. There are complete specifications including sample code available. Whatever entity doing such conversions would need official sanction to be able to decode the SHCs and generate the equivalent Green Pass.

Arizona uses MyIRMobile, as mentioned in the article. I was an early adopter and signed up as soon as I could after getting my 2nd Moderna shot last March.

I got my booster on October 29th and recently downloaded the QR code for all 3 to my phone and tablet. All you get with that is the code.

I also printed a copy. The printed version is a bit bigger than the CDC card and includes the details of the QR code printed out as well as the code itself. At the top left, above the code, it says SMART Health Card. The line below that says COVID-19 VACCINATION.

In the top right corner on the right side of the code, it says As of, with the date I printed it. Below that and directly to the right of the code is my name and my DOB ( date of birth). Following that are each of my doses with the dates I got them, and the Manufacturer / Lot Number for each.

I've been carrying that with me, along with my CDC card. If I need to get a 2nd booster due to my age and health before traveling in the summer, I'll go through the downloading and printing process again. Just like the first 3, a 4th shot will be automatically reported to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised that AZ started this so early.

The initial process has a bit of a learning curve, but all states should have the data. It's just a matter of making it available to us in some usable way.