I have no way of knowing what the majority of CDC cards have, but I have seen thousands and filled out a few hundred and they all had the lot numbers on them. DoB and name are often filled in by the patient. Location is often just a meaningless abbreviation for the mass vaccination site.

Haven’t taken a flight yet.

I have no idea what the majority of CDC cards have, either. But, I’m still willing to bet that many, if not, the majority of handwritten cards are missing at least one piece of information. Judging by the handwriting on my card, three different hospital pharmacy staff filled out the info on my card on my two visits. I was never told by any of the staff to fill out any of the info myself. I didn’t receive mine at a mass vaccination site.

Pretty much 100% of the CDC cards in the US are handwritten, no? Some will have little stickers for the vaccine type and lot info. The good thing is that when everyone has one of those handwritten cards, no one in the US is going to question the validity. Outside the US will be a crapshoot, which is why I got my shots entered into my standard yellow vaccine passport by my county public health department.

I filled in the name and DoB on my card myself. Two different National Guard medics filled in the vaccination sections after giving me the shots.

My wife’s card used machine printed stickers from the same hospital group, but different location.

What I hope is a simple question...

I am arriving Germany this weekend, direct flight from USA into FRA, then train to Cologne. Later that week, train to Berlin.

Is there a need, or a distinct advantage, to get the app and have a pharmacy validate my CDC vaccination card with it? I suppose it would be beneficial just on the horrific off-chance that I somehow manage to lose the original card...

Accepting that things are always subject to change, just trying to determine best course of action and what basically to expect.

Getting the EU Digital Covid Certificate right now is nice, could prevent trouble if you lose your CDC card, but is not necessary at all. With the current Covid figures being very low in Germany, nobody is going to ask for your vaccination certificate in the cities at least for the time being, and even then your CDC card should be enough. You may wish to download the Corona-Warn or Luca apps if you want to check-in at restaurants/venues (so they can contact you in case somebody who was there at the same time tested positive), but honestly I went to several restaurants and to the theater in Berlin last week and was never asked to do it.

10 days in Germany. The only place where I needed to show proof of vaccination was at a hospital. I used the digital pass, and they never actually scanned it. They up just looked at the barcode and compared the name shown below with the one on the paperwork I had to submit (I.e., not even ID).

So for a trip right now I would not worry.

That said, it is still very early in the rollout of the digital certs. Who knows what the rules and standard procedures will be in a few weeks or months? Perhaps it would be helpful to have for a future trip (and they are standardized for all of the EU+ now). So if I were you, I would ask for a digital certificate at a local pharmacy. Takes 10 seconds to get denied and 3 minutes if they do it. And it’s free. And there are pharmacies all over the place, so even if the first one won’t do it, just try another one.

Thanks both. Appreciate the feedback.

I will likely have some down time in Cologne and sounds like a good idea to get the app / validation. I didn't think about the usefulness for future trips, which would be nice.

Very happy to be visiting again.

If there is an app update, could updating the app mean a problem with the digital certificate carrying over to the updated app?

The pharmacist told me to hold on to the certificates as they are equivalent to the CDC card. You can always re-scan the barcodes if you need to (according to them)

I doubt that you have to rescan the bar codes when the app gets updated; that would seem to be a really bad implementation. I just updated my F-Droid-delivered app and the cert survived just fine. But you will have to rescan the QR codes if you change your phone. And you could even use the QR codes on the print-outs as your digital vaccine certificate if you don’t have a smartphone (or it just died or was stolen)

Another update:

Coworkers who traveled with me were refused at the Apotheke in MUC when requesting their certificates. The worker there said it was for Germans only.

bummer.

That’s the same airport pharmacy which some on FT emailed weeks ago and received responses that it wouldn’t do so, right?

No idea. We were just passing by and gave it a shot. I thought I'd pass it on here.