Is Covid-19 Vaccine Safe?
Yes. The vaccines that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend are very safe and are very good at stopping COVID-19 from causing serious or fatal illnesses. There is only a very small chance that these vaccines will cause serious side effects.
COVID-19 Vaccine Safety — What You need to Know
- The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are highly recommended because they are safe and work well to stop COVID-19 from making people sick or killing them.
- About 470 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given in the U.S. between December 2020 and December 2021.
- About 12 months of data, including data from tens of thousands of people who took part in different clinical trials, came to the conclusion that the vaccines are safe and effective at stopping COVID-19 from causing serious illness or death. However, there has been a recent case of death due to covid vaccine in South Africa.
- People who meet the rules are also allowed to get more shots and boosters.
- The mRNA technology used in the vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna has been in the works for more than 15 years.
- The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines got full approval from the FDA. This means that more information is available about how well each vaccine works.
- Because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could cause blood clots, the CDC changed its recommendations in December 2021. The CDC said that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines are better than the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
In terms of safety, are there any issues with the COVID vaccines?
The CDC and FDA keep an eye on the COVID-19 vaccines to see if there are any risks or safety concerns. Because of this ongoing work, the recommendations for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been changed, and information has been found about some rare side effects of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
- Johnson & Johnson/Janssen. The CDC changed its recommendations in December 2021, saying that either of the two mRNA vaccines is better than the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC said that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are better because people who get the J&J vaccine are more likely to get rare but dangerous blood clots called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). The CDC said that a J&J vaccine could still be used in some cases, but only if the person getting the vaccine knows its risks and benefits.
- Pfizer and Moderna. After seeing very few cases of myocarditis after the second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, the CDC told the public what to do. Most of these cases of myocarditis occurred in teens and young adults, and most were mild and went away on their own.
What safeguards are there to ensure the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines?
When federal agencies work with vaccine makers and independent scientific groups to develop, study, authorize, and approve new vaccines, safety is always the most important thing. Some of the steps that are taken for COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccines are as follows:
- Careful testing. Clinical trials are done on all vaccines to make sure they are safe and work well. The FDA gave the people who made the COVID-19 vaccine strict rules about how safe it had to be.
- Permission to use in an emergency. If a vaccine or medicine is shown to be safe and effective and is needed to deal with an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA can give it an emergency use authorization (EUA). A EUA lets a vaccine, treatment, or drug be used before the FDA officially approves it.
- Always keeping an eye out for problems & side effects. Once a vaccine gets a EUA and is given to people, the FDA and CDC keep a close eye on it in case any problems come up. Over time, as more and more people get the vaccine and report how they felt and if they had any side effects, we learn more about how safe it is.