When Will Vaccine Mandates End?

They’re good! But they have to end at some point.

I was so excited when I got my second Moderna shot that I made 15 copies of my vaccine card and had them all laminated. I couldn’t wait to show my passport to the new world … and then it stayed, unused, in my wallet for months. Unfortunately, the Delta variant (along with the millions of people who refuse to get the shot) changed the calculus, and by August, cities like New York and San Francisco, and many local businesses, were requiring that people show proof of vaccination. I was sad we’d fallen backward so quickly, but secretly part of me was pleased: Now I could show off those cards I was so proud of!

The problem was: When the UPS Store made my cards, they cut off a small section of the CDC logo on them. You can still make out all the information, Moderna, the dates I got the shots, where I got them (Go Publix!), so on. But the logo is a little wonky. And it can make the card look, well, fake. At least that’s what the bartender at one of my favorite bars here in Athens said when I showed my card to get in a few weeks ago. “You can’t see the logo,” she said. “This is a weird one.” I told my whole story about laminating them and then not using them, it’s real, I swear, and the bartender smiled and said, “It’s cool. You just legitimately get people with obviously fake ones in…