Protect your health with a COVID-19 vaccine

The FDA has approved the COVID-19 vaccine for use in preventing serious illness from COVID-19 among people ages 12 and older. Certain COVID-19 vaccines are also FDA emergency-use authorized (EUA), among people age 6 months and older to help prevent serious illness from COVID-19. For people who have certain immunocompromised conditions, the FDA authorized an additional dose of the primary series COVID-19 vaccines to help maximize protection for this population. Details can be found in the chart below.

Like the flu vaccine, vaccination providers will administer the COVID-19 vaccine based on availability. Vaccination providers may not have all FDA-authorized and FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines at their location.

Important reminders on the protection COVID-19 vaccines provide: 

• Like other vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines can take several weeks after vaccination completion for full effectiveness. 
• Fully vaccinated people may carry the virus after exposure, even if they are not showing symptoms.
• The duration of protection against COVID-19 is currently unknown and being studied.

Because of this, keep following public health safety guidelines to help protect yourself and others. For the latest information, go to the CDC.

The safety of vaccines is a top priority, and millions of people have already been safely vaccinated. All FDA-authorized and FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at preventing serious illness, including hospitalization and death, from COVID-19, according to the CDC. They are key to slowing the pandemic. The U.S. vaccine safety system makes sure all vaccines go through an extensive process to confirm levels of safety. The recently FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines went through this process. Even after emergency use authorization, the FDA continues to review clinical data about the vaccines.

Approval is granted once the FDA determines the vaccine to be safe and effective at preventing serious illness from COVID-19. The FDA goes through a detailed review of clinical data and information, as submitted in the Biologics License Application (BLA).

The CDC website has additional COVID-19 vaccine safety information.

Side effects from vaccines are normal signs that your body is building protection. As with other vaccines and according to the CDC, people have reported some side effects with FDA-authorized and FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines. The most common side effect is a sore arm. Some other side effects may feel like flu and might even affect your ability to do daily activities. But they should go away in a few days. You can learn more on the CDC website.

In the event of an emergency, you should call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.

If you have side effects that bother you or do not go away, you should report them to your vaccination provider or primary care provider. You should also notify the CDC at 1-800-822-7967. This is because the CDC and FDA continue to monitor the safety of the FDA-authorized and FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines. You can also use the CDC’s v-safe mobile app, which will help you monitor side effects and get second dose reminders.

The FDA has a review process for safety and effectiveness that it completes before granting emergency use authorization (EUA) for the general public. Once the FDA authorizes a vaccine for emergency use, the Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet to vote on recommending the vaccine.

When evaluating an EUA, the FDA carefully balances the potential risks and benefits of the products based on the data currently available. During the national public health emergency period, the FDA continues to monitor both the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.

As more COVID-19 vaccines are authorized for emergency use by the FDA, ACIP will quickly hold public meetings to review all available data about each vaccine and make recommendations for their use in the United States.

The FDA approval determined that the vaccine is safe and effective at preventing COVID-19. The FDA goes through a detailed review of clinical data and information, as submitted in the Biologics License Application (BLA). In addition, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the CDC have recommended the COVID-19 FDA-approved vaccines:

• Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, also known as Comirnaty. This vaccine was approved for use in preventing COVID-19 among people age 12 and older, and continues to be authorized for emergency use to prevent COVID-19 among people six months to 15 years old.
• Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, also known as Spikevax. This vaccine was approved for use in preventing COVID-19 among people ages 18 years and older, and continues to be authorized for emergency use to prevent COVID-19 among people six months to 17 years old.

The FDA-authorized and FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines are not recommended for people with certain conditions or of different ages. The current vaccines are authorized for use among the following ages:

• Pfizer-BioNTech is not authorized or approved for children under 6 months old.
• Moderna is not authorized for children under six months old. 
• Novavax is not authorized for people under the age of 18
• Johnson & Johnson's Janssen is not authorized for people under the age of 18.

Per the FDA, women younger than 50 years old should be aware of the rare risk of blood clots with low platelets after Janssen vaccination. Other COVID-19 vaccines, such as Comirnaty and Spikevax, are available where this risk has not been seen.

There are other special considerations for when it might not be a good time to get the vaccine:

• If you've recently been exposed to COVID-19, see the CDC guidelines for getting the vaccine. 
• If you’ve had monoclonal antibody treatment or received convalescent plasma, the CDC states vaccination should not occur for at least 90 days.

Talk to your health care provider if you have questions about getting vaccinated for COVID-19.

According to the CDC, if you have ever had a severe allergic reaction to a vaccine or an injected medicine, you should ask your doctor if you should get a COVID-19 vaccine. A severe reaction is one that requires treatment at a hospital or with medications like an EpiPen (epinephrine). According to the CDC, the likelihood of severe reaction to the FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines is very low.    

The CDC recommends the people who have seasonal allergies or allergies to food, pets or oral medications, can still be vaccinated. If you have any questions, you should check with your health care provider. 

For more information, you can read the FDA’s fact sheets: Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen. Health care professionals can also look to the FDA’s health care provider fact sheets available for Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Novavax and Janssen; and the package inserts for Comirnaty and Spikevax.

If mammography is scheduled within 6 weeks after your final vaccination shot, consult with your healthcare provider or physician if it should be rescheduled.  

COVID-19 vaccination is recommended by the CDC and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for all people age 12 years and older. This includes people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future. Pregnant and recently pregnant people are more likely to get severely ill with COVID-19 compared with non-pregnant people. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine can protect you from severe illness from COVID-19.

If you have questions, a conversation with your health care provider about the COVID-19 vaccine may be helpful.  

There is no evidence that the vaccine has any effect on male or female fertility. When the vaccine is given during pregnancy, the vaccine allows the mother to create antibodies which then protect both the mother and baby from infection.

According to the CDC, COVID-19 vaccinations should be offered to people regardless of whether they have previously had COVID-19. You do not need an antibody or diagnostic test before or after you are vaccinated to learn if the vaccine worked.

Anyone currently infected with COVID-19 should wait to get vaccinated until after their illness has resolved and after they have met the criteria to discontinue isolation. Additionally, current evidence suggests that reinfection with the virus that causes COVID-19 is uncommon in the 90 days after initial infection. So, people with a recent infection may delay vaccination until the end of that 90-day period.

According to the CDC, experts are continuing to study the variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur over time. There are multiple variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 in the United States, and these variants seem to spread more easily than other variants. An increase in cases of COVID-19 can lead to more hospitalizations and potentially more deaths.

FDA-authorized and FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines help prevent the virus from spreading, which in turn can help decrease the opportunity for virus variants to develop and spread. According to the CDC, vaccines do help with protect against variants, and they continue to be closely investigated with more studies underway.

Following public health safety practices like wearing face masks, physically distancing, washing hands regularly and isolating or quarantining when sick can help protect your health and the health of those around you. To learn more, visit the CDC website. 

Masks help protect you and others from COVID-19. Learn more about when to wear a mask on the CDC site.

According to the CDC, COVID-19 vaccines can be administered without regard to timing of other vaccines, including the flu vaccine. You can get the flu vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine during the same visit. The CDC says that routine flu vaccination is an important part of preventive care for children, adolescents and adults (including pregnant people) that should not be delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Local public health agencies determine quarantine recommendations. According to the CDC, quarantine is used to keep someone who might have been exposed to COVID-19 away from others. Exposure is defined as 15 minutes or more of being within 6 feet of an individual who has tested positive or had symptoms within 2 days of exposure. By staying home or not going in public, quarantine helps prevent disease spread before a person knows they have the virus.

Learn more on the CDC website.

According to the CDC, isolation is used to separate people infected with COVID-19 from those who are not infected. People who are in isolation should stay home until it’s safe for them to be around others. At home, anyone sick or infected should separate from others, staying in a specific “sick room” and using a separate bathroom if possible. The length of the isolation period depends on several factors. Review the CDC’s recommendations for when isolation can end based on the situation.

According to the CDC, while most people get over COVID-19 within weeks of illness, some people experience post-COVID-19 conditions that continue 4 weeks or more after infection. Several recent studies show that between 27-33% of patients who get COVID-19 and were not hospitalized developed some lasting symptoms, no matter their age, prior health or severity of their infection. While much is still unknown, the CDC reports these “long COVID” conditions can come to life in a variety of ways, ranging from difficulty breathing, fatigue, joint pain or mood changes to even more serious issues like multi-organ damage or autoimmune conditions. FDA-authorized and FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines play an important role in preventing serious illness from COVID-19. Additional information on PASC is available on the CDC website.