TAMPA, Fla. — Imagine spending months trying to get an appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, waiting hours in lines to get the vaccine only to lose the card proving you actually got it. That happened to a Clearwater woman.
“I’m a ninny because I threw it away. I own it,” Lyla Kinsel said. “Trying to get it back has been a nightmare.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, if you lose your card, you should reach out to the site where you got your vaccine or the state. Kinsel said that’s exactly what she did.
“They told me to call the Pinellas County health department. I called them. They told me to call the state of Florida. Then I call the CDC,” she said. “ Nobody could tell me anything.”
She spent two long weeks on the phone. ABC Action News also reached out to the State and the CDC. We only heard back from the state, and just like Lyla, they told us to contact the CDC.
She thought all hope was lost until she called her primary care doctor.
“My doctor’s office pulled my information up were able to give me a copy showing I got the vaccine,” she said. “Geez, I’m thrilled.”
However, they weren’t able to give her the card you are given at the vaccine sites, “it’s a document, but it’s proof.”
She’s going to use that document when she travels up to Green Bay next month for her grandson’s hockey tournament.
“I was really nervous about going. I didn’t know if they were going to make me quarantine,” she said. “I don’t want to have to quarantine. I want to watch my grandson play hockey.”
We reached back out to the state after Kinsel spoke to her doctor.
At this point, the process to replace your vaccine card is still unclear. Officials recommend doing what the CDC has on its website. Contact the vaccine site you went to first, then reach out to the state. If that doesn’t work, contact your primary care doctor to see if they can help.