Massachusetts unveils new proof of vaccination website

While some states have created custom smartphone apps to display a person’s immunization status, Massachusetts has set up a website where people can search the information and put it on their phones. The website, called My Vax files, checks a person’s name, phone number, and email address against immunization records in the state’s public health database.

This data is then displayed in text form and in the form of a QR code, which can be quickly scanned by an establishment using a smartphone equipped with a vaccine verification application. The record only shows the person’s name, date of birth, date of vaccination, and which vaccines were used. (The QR code includes a digital certificate confirming that the vaccination record was provided by an authoritative source and is not a fake.)

A user can take a screenshot of the immunization record and store it on a smartphone, or print and carry it. In addition, the recording can be imported into the Health app of an Apple iPhone. Owners of Apple or Android phones can also download an app called Common Health, created by the Commons project, a nonprofit group that helped design the Massachusetts system; a user can store a copy of their vaccination record in Common Health and launch the app to view their vaccination status.

Massachusetts residents who have been vaccinated at large retailers like CVS, Walgreens and Walmart have long been able to download apps that can display digital proof of vaccination. But their immunization records will also be recorded in the state database, so they can use the new system as well.

The system has its limits. It only captures data stored in the Massachusetts Immunization Information System, so it will not include injections received in other states or countries. In addition, the system uses a person’s cell phone number or email address to search for their record and in some cases this information was not recorded. (A state official said people should contact their primary care doctor for help updating their state immunization records.)

The Massachusetts system uses a technology standard called the SMART Health Card that was developed in part at Boston Children’s Hospital. SMART has become a de facto US standard for the digital storage of COVID vaccination data.

JP Pollak, co-founder of the Commons Project, said Massachusetts is the 13th state to adopt the system and a dozen others are testing it. In addition, the SMART system is making its way abroad. It is used in Canada and Japan, Pollak said. In addition, several countries, including the UK, Israel and Singapore, accept SMART health passes from international travelers as proof that they have been vaccinated.

“It’s just a verifiable version of their health records,” he said. “It is certainly not intended as a vaccination passport.”

Pollak added that interest in SMART certificates is even coming from some states that have passed laws or decrees blocking vaccination mandates, which would require residents to show proof of vaccination for activities like eating out or going. At the movie theater.

The question now is how the Massachusetts system will be used.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced that many businesses in the city will be required to apply a vaccine mandate for customers from January 15th. The city announced Monday that it plans to offer its own smartphone app that people can use to verify that they have been vaccinated.

But Governor Baker opposed the idea of ​​imposing such rules statewide, even as he alludes to a deployment vaccination certificates at the end of November. Massachusetts officials on Monday stressed that the new service was not intended to pave the way for a vaccination warrant. At his press conference, Baker said compulsory vaccines was not the goal of the new system.

“We want to make this available for people so that they can have it and they can use it, and they can make their lives easier and less complicated,” Baker said.

Hiawatha Bray can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter @GlobeTechLab.