University of Southern California students, faculty and visitors use their phones to display their “Trojan Check” QR code to enter the campus in Los Angeles on Aug. 23.Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Quietly and over some objections, a national digital vaccine card has emerged
Whether they realize it or not, about 200 million people in the United States now likely have access to a Covid-19 digital vaccine card.
The digital pass known as the SMART Health Card is voluntary and minimal by design to protect personal information. It has a person’s name, date of birth and the dates and brands of vaccination doses, all contained within a type of scannable bar code known as a QR code.
And after a relatively quiet start, it has built momentum in recent months as more states and companies have signed on, making it something of a de facto national digital vaccine card.
“The beautiful thing about this is that this multistate coalition is a coalition of the willing,” said Dr. Brian Anderson, chief digital health physician at MITRE, a research nonprofit, and an architect of the health cards.