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XHere's How You Can Show Proof of Vaccination in Los Angeles
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.

A new law under consideration would require that Los Angeles city residents show proof they've received at least one vaccine dose before they will be allowed inside restaurants, bars or grocery stores.
The proposal by L.A. city councilwoman Nury Martinez is headed to committee before it goes before the full Council. The city proposal only requires that residents show proof of a single vaccination, in part, to accommodate those who've received vaccinations in different municipalities and might have difficulty proving it.
"We know even one vaccine provides a significant amount of protection. Getting one is better than getting no vax," said USC public health expert Rita Burke.
The city's proposal would mean L.A. residents will bear the burden of proof to show they are vaccinated. Here are three ways to do it:
Photo by Jernej Furman/ Flickr
CDC Paper Record
The CDC-issued paper vaccination card are issued whenever a resident is vaccinated by a health care worker and may be the easiest way to show your proof of vaccination, whether you received the shots in or outside of California. That's because the systems that support digital vaccine cards rely on a web of city and state vaccination tracking systems, none of which are well-integrated with one another.
But there are problems. Paper cards can be lost or forged. While residents can contact the facility they were inoculated at for another card, forged cards are difficult to spot. It puts both residents and businesses in a difficult position.
California's Digital Vaccination Record
California unveiled its digital vaccination record in June. Residents who got their shots in the state *should* be able to access them through the state Department of Public Health's website.
Here's how to access your record:
- Visit myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov
- Enter your name, date of birth, and either your cell phone or email
- Create a PIN code to access your digital record
- The record is only available for 24 hours. To keep a permanent record, screenshot it on your phone or print it.
But there's a hitch. Digital vaccination record systems can be inconsistent. For instance, if an L.A. resident received one of their two-shot vaccines outside of the state, the state's digital record likely won't reflect that.
L.A. County's Vaccine Proof
L.A. County partnered with Healthvana, a company that once focused on providing digital HIV results to users on its platform, to send L.A. County residents a link to their digital record of their vaccination via text or email. If you were inoculated in the county, you can download that record and store it in your Apple Wallet or Google Pay apps for future reference. Here's how:
- If you are on an iPhone, go to the link Healthvana emailed or texted and click "Add the Apple Wallet".
- If you didn't receive an email or are unable to find it, visit healthvana.com/contact and ask to receive your digital vaccination.
- On an Android, navigate to the Healthvana link, hit "Save to Phone", and choose "Google Pay." You do not need to have Google Pay installed to do this.
Those who received their second dose outside of the county can upload verification of that inoculation to Healthvana's app themselves. Here's how:
- Create an account at Healthvana via the first vaccination link sent.
- Go to "Vaccinations" and click "Add 2nd Dose".
- Take a photo of your vaccination record.
- After Healthvana processes the photo, which takes a few minutes, your second dose will be added.
As to why the app allows you to upload proof of a second dose, but not the first, Healthvana founder and CEO Ramin Bastani said it's a matter of trust.
"If you got the first dose, you're not likely to lie about getting your second dose," he said. But if a resident got their first dose outside of L.A. County and their second dose in the county, they won't be able to upload their first dose.
"They may have gotten back in another county, or they lived in another county," Bastani said. "So that's why it's got to really be up to the person to share that."
Do You Have to Prove an Exemption?
The city has not decided how businesses could verify religious or medical exemptions. If this mandate goes forward, it's not yet clear if those who can't be vaccinated would even be allowed in indoor venues.
"We're kind of building a bridge as we're moving along it," Burke said. "These are a bunch of questions we need to address as they come up…the issue is the virus isn't waiting."
We'll update this post as L.A.'s plans for requiring vaccination proof come into focus. Follow us on Twitter for updates and email us if you have suggestions for questions to add.
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Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
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California Debates Data Privacy as SCOTUS Allows Abortion Bans
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
The United States Supreme Court called a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks constitutional on Friday, overturning the country’s founding abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court also upheld that there cannot be any restriction on how far into a pregnancy abortion can be banned.
When Politico first broke the news months before SCOTUS’s final ruling, a slew of bills entered Congress to protect data privacy and prevent the sale of data, which can be triangulated to see if a person has had an abortion or if they are seeking an abortion and have historically been used by antiabortion individuals who would collect this information during their free time.
Democratic lawmakers led by Congresswoman Anna Eshoo called on Google to stop collecting location data. The chair of the Federal Trade Commission has long voiced plans for the agency to prevent data collection. A week after the news, California Assembly passed A.B. 2091, a law that would prevent insurance companies and medical providers from sharing information in abortion-related cases (the state Senate is scheduled to deliberate on it in five days).
These scattered bills attempt to do what health privacy laws do not. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, was established in 1996 when the Internet was still young and most people carried flip phones. The act declared health institutions were not allowed to share or disclose patients’ health information. Google, Apple and a slew of fertility and health apps are not covered under HIPAA, and fertility app data can be subpoenaed by law enforcement.
California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (or CMIA), goes further than HIPAA by encompassing apps that store medical information under the broader umbrella of health institutions that include insurance companies and medical providers. And several how-tos on protecting data privacy during Roe v. Wade have been published in the hours of the announcement.
But reproductive rights organizations say data privacy alone cannot fix the problem. According to reproductive health policy think tank Guttmacher Institute, the closest state with abortion access to 1.3 million out-of-state women of reproductive age is California. One report from the UCLA Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy estimates as many as 9,400 people will travel to Los Angeles County every year to get abortions, and that number will grow as more states criminalize abortions.
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
LA Tech ‘Moves’: Adtech Firm OpenX Lures New SVP, Getlabs and DISQO Tap New VPs
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.
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Advertising technology company OpenX Technologies appointed Geoff Wolinetz as senior vice president of demand platforms. Wolinetz was most recently senior vice president of growth at Chalice Custom Algorithms.
Remote health care infrastructure provider Getlabs hired Jaime LaFontaine as its vice president of business development. L.A.-based LaFontaine was previously director of business development for Alto Pharmacy.
Customer experience platform DISQO tapped Andrew Duke as its vice president of product, consumer applications. Duke previously served as Oracle’s senior director of strategy and product.
Media company Wheelhouse DNA named Michael Senzer as senior manager of Additive Creative, its newly launched digital talent management division. Senzer was previously vice president of business development at TalentX Entertainment.
Fintech lending platform Camino Financial hired Dana Rainford as vice president of people and talent. Rainford previously served as head of human resources at Westwood Financial.
Kourtney Day returned to entertainment company Jim Henson’s Creature Shop as senior director of business development. Day mostly recently served as business development manager for themed entertainment at Solomon Group.
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
This Week in ‘Raises’: Miracle Miles Lands $100M, Fintech Startup Tapcheck Hauls $20M
Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
In this week’s edition of “Raises”: An L.A.-based footwear company closed $100 million to boost its expansion into the global market, while there were Series A raises for local fintech, biotech and space startups.
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Venture Capital
Miracle Miles Group, an L.A.-based footwear company, raised a $100 million Series A funding round co-led by IDG Capital and Sequoia Capital China.
Deno, a San Diego-based software development startup, raised a $21 million Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
Tapcheck, an L.A.-based financial wellness startup that helps workers access their paycheck before payday, raised a $20 million Series A funding round led by PeakSpan Capital.
Gemelli Biotech, an L.A.- and Raleigh, N.C.-based biotech startup focused on gastrointestinal diseases, raised a $19 million Series A financing round led by Blue Ox Healthcare Partners.
Epsilon3, an L.A.-based space operations software startup, raised a $15 million Series A funding round led by Lux Capital.
Global Premier Fertility, an Irvine-based fertility company, raised an $11 million Series C funding round led by Triangle Capital Corporation.
Vamstar, an L.A.- and London-based medical supply chain platform, raised a $9.5 million Series A funding round co-led by Alpha Intelligence Capital and Dutch Founders Fund.
System 9, an L.A.-based digital asset market-making firm focused on the crypto altcoin market, raised a $5.7 million Series A funding round led by Capital6 Eagle.
Myria, an L.A.-based online marketplace of luxury goods and services, raised a $4.3 million seed round from Y Combinator, Backend Capital, Cathexis Ventures and other angel investors.
Binarly, an L.A.-based firmware cybersecurity company, raised a $3.6 million seed round from WestWave Capital and Acrobator Ventures.
Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Decerry Donato (decerrydonato@dot.la).
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Decerry Donato is dot.LA's Editorial Fellow. Prior to that, she was an editorial intern at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.