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Professor Terry: Don't Post Vaccination Card on Social Media
04/02/2021
You may feel some exhilaration at receiving your COVID-19 vaccination card, but IU McKinney Law Professor Nicolas Terry advises against posting to social media.
In a recent interview with MarketWatch, Professor Terry said “there isn’t much of a legal angle” related to individuals posting their own vaccination cards online.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the federal healthcare privacy law, shields information, including vaccine records, from disclosure by a covered entity such as a doctor or hospital. But in this case, the disclosure is by the patient, not the covered entity, Professor Terry said.
“What it does illustrate is the well-known limitation of HIPAA in that it doesn’t apply to health information circulating on, [for example], social media,” he said.
Still, Terry advised against posting vaccination cards due to the “surprising amount of information” that could aid in an identity-theft attempt, not to mention “the lack of sensitivity it shows with regard to those who are as yet unvaccinated.” While eligibility across the country is expanding, supply remains limited.
