In the United States, everyone age 12 and up is currently eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend that everyone in this group get vaccinated as soon as they can.

At this time, children and teens aged 12 and up are eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine. Those younger than 12 years of age are not.

Before the COVID-19 vaccines were authorized by the FDA, clinical trials showed vaccines to be remarkably safe and effective for adults and teens age 16 and up. Trials involved tens of thousands of volunteers.

After getting more safety data for younger teens, the FDA broadened authorization to include children and teens age 12 and older. Clinical trials are underway for children as young as six months.

Getting a COVID-19 vaccine will help keep children and teens from getting seriously ill even if they do get COVID-19.

COVID-19 vaccines are effective and are a critical tool to bring the pandemic under control. The risk of infection, hospitalization, and death are all much lower for people who are vaccinated, compared to unvaccinated people.

However, no vaccine is 100% effective at preventing illness. Some fully vaccinated people will get sick, and some will even be hospitalized or die from COVID-19. The chances of dying from COVID-19 after being vaccinated are extremely rare. Breakthrough infections are expected because no vaccine is 100% effective.

When we get a vaccine, it activates our immune response. This helps our bodies learn to fight off the virus without the danger of an actual infection. If we are exposed to the virus in the future, our immune system “remembers” how to fight it. All authorized COVID-19 vaccines provide strong protection against serious illness and hospitalization due to COVID-19.

The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use messenger RNA, or mRNA. mRNA vaccines do not contain a live virus. They give our bodies “instructions” for how to make and fight the spike-shaped proteins that will protect against a COVID-19 infection. While these vaccines use new technology, researchers have been studying them for decades.

Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine is a viral vector vaccine and also does not contain a live virus. It uses a harmless adenovirus to create a spike protein that the immune system responds to, creating antibodies to protect against COVID-19.

None of these vaccines can give you COVID-19.

It takes time for your body to build immunity after vaccination, so you won’t have full protection until 2 weeks after your final dose.

You may have short-term side effects after vaccination. These are normal and should go away in a few days.

You may feel soreness or experience some swelling in your arm. You may also feel tired, have a headache, fever, or chills. These symptoms do not mean you have COVID-19 — it’s not possible to get COVID-19 from the vaccine.

These side effects may impact your daily activities, but they shouldn’t last more than 2-3 days. If they continue or get worse, call your doctor, nurse, or clinic.

Even if you have these types of effects after your first shot, it’s important to make sure you get the second one, unless a vaccination provider or your doctor tells you not to get a second shot or you get the vaccine that only requires one dose. Ask your doctor if you have questions. Your body takes time to build immunity. You will not be fully protected against COVID-19 until 1-2 weeks after your final shot.

In most cases, discomfort from fever or pain is normal. Contact your doctor or healthcare provider:

• If the redness or tenderness where you got the shot increases after 24 hours

• If your side effects are worrying you or do not seem to be going away after a few days

• If you develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within the first three weeks.

• If you get a COVID-19 vaccine and you think you might be having a severe allergic reaction after leaving the vaccination site, seek immediate medical care by calling 911. Learn more about COVID-19 vaccines and rare severe allergic reactions.

More than 180 million people in the United States, including 96% of medical doctors, are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. These vaccines have been through the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history.

Vaccines are approved and authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including full approval for the Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) which was granted in August 2021. The FDA sets strict standards for clinical trials and carefully reviews scientific data from vaccine developers. Once vaccines are made available to the public, the FDA continues to monitor them very closely.

Researchers began developing vaccines for COVID-19 in January 2020, based on decades of work on immune responses and vaccine technology. Thousands of volunteers took part in the clinical trials that started that spring to ensure the vaccines are safe and effective.

Based on the results, the FDA authorized multiple vaccines for public use. In December 2020, the FDA authorized the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for the American public. Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine was added in February 2021 and is currently available for use in the United States after a pause in April 2021. In August 2021, the Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) became the first vaccine to be fully approved by the FDA based on extensive data on safety and effectiveness.

Doctors and medical experts with many years of experience regulating vaccines looked at information about the safety, effectiveness, and quality of the vaccines before making their decision.

After a vaccine is approved or authorized by the FDA and made available to the public, experts continue to closely monitor it for safety and to help us learn more about questions like how long vaccines provide protection.