COVID-19 Vaccine

COVID-19 isn’t the same as the flu. It’s extremely dangerous — to you and those you come in contact with. If you develop severe symptoms from COVID-19 and survive, your recovery typically isn’t easy. You may require lengthy, difficult rehabilitation.

Now that vaccines are available, don’t take chances. Get the vaccine — to protect yourself, your family and the surrounding community.

Yes. The COVID-19 vaccines are safe. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved them under an emergency use authorization.

To be approved, the vaccines must go through a careful trial process with several phases to address safety and effectives. The COVID-19 vaccine trials did just that, and they included an extremely large number of participants. There were at least 30,000 people in both the Pfizer and Moderna trials, and 43,000 people in the Johnson & Johnson trials.

The COVID-19 vaccines were produced so rapidly not because they were rushed by cutting corners but because scientists have significant prior experience working with other coronaviruses such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome). Research on a COVID-19 vaccine did not start from scratch.

In addition, the U.S. government made vaccine development a priority once the COVID-19 coronavirus took off in the U.S.

The COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective:

• The Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective at preventing COVID-19.
• The Moderna vaccine is 94% effective at preventing COVID-19.
• The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 85% effective at preventing severe disease (hospitalization) and death at one-month post-vaccination

All three vaccine protect you from getting severely ill. No one who has tested COVID-positive after receiving any of these vaccine has died from COVID-19.

Although the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has a lower efficacy rate, it was tested on people exposed to variants that were not widely circulating when the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were tested. If all three vaccines had been tested on a similar population, the results may well have been the same. Nonetheless, efficacy rates such as these are excellent.

No. All three vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson) are excellent at protecting you against COVID-19. Take whichever vaccine is offered to you.

As with most vaccines, you may experience mild to moderate side effects. These can include fatigue, mild fever, headache, muscle aches and pain in your arm at the injection site. These side effects may last a couple days but are completely normal.

As with any medication, some people may experience an allergic reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine. This risk is extremely small. To be on the safe side, health care workers may ask you to remain for a short period after your vaccination so they can monitor you for an allergic reaction and take action should one occur.

If you do suffer an allergic reaction, contact your doctor, as you may want to skip the second dose of the vaccine. An allergic reaction is considered severe if you require epinephrine or an EpiPen for treatment or you need to go to the hospital.

No. You cannot get COVID-19 from any of the vaccines. None of the vaccines approved by the FDA contain the live coronavirus nor do they contain a weakened or dead version of the coronavirus. The vaccines have no coronavirus to pass on to you.

We don’t yet know how long the vaccines will protect you from COVID-19. It’s possible that over time more doses will be needed to provide continued protection — similar to the flu shot. Scientists are currently studying this.

None of the vaccines are 100% effective. An efficacy rate of 95%, for instance, means that some people who get vaccinated (1 in 20) may still get COVID-19.

If you are one of the many who do develop immunity, it usually takes 2-4 weeks after you complete the vaccine series to do so. You could get infected during this time, endangering your health. You might also still be able to spread the disease, both during this 2-4 week window as well as after you develop full immunity, endangering others.

Once most people are protected, restrictions may ease up. In the meantime, continue to wear your mask, practice social distancing, avoid crowds and wash your hands often.

We recommend you get the vaccine. Although rare, reinfection is possible. Some experts recommend waiting three months from when you developed COVID-19. This is because you probably have some degree of natural immunity and the vaccine supply is currently limited. Importantly, it is not clear how long natural immunity will last. If you are in this three-month window, you should discuss the best time to get the vaccine with your doctor. If you've have symptoms of COVID-19 but were never diagnosed, don't assume you had the disease and are immune. Get the vaccine.

The current vaccines may be less effective for certain strains of the virus, such as the strains from South Africa and Brazil. The degree to which the vaccines are less effective is not yet fully known but the currently available data suggests they all still offer some protection.

Although the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine was just approved, you won't have a choice as to which vaccine you receive when it's your turn. All three vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe disease. The sooner you get the vaccine, the sooner you will be protected. We recommend getting whichever vaccine is offered when it’s available.

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has information on who currently qualifies for the vaccine in Virginia. On this website, you can find out which phase you fit in and register for the vaccine. VDH is working with a number of institutions to provide the COVID-19 vaccine. You will learn where you will get the vaccine when your appointment is scheduled. .

Because of vaccine shortages, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now allows six weeks between your first and second doses. The CDC believes this extension will not alter the degree of protection you receive.

If you don’t receive your second dose within six weeks, you likely still have some protection.

No one knows for sure if, or by how much, protection will decline after 6 weeks.

Although one dose will not provide 94-95% protection, as does two doses, your risk of infection is still lower. And if you do get COVID-19, your symptoms will likely be much less severe than had you received no vaccine at all.

The medical community is doing all it can to get more vaccine as soon as possible and will let you know when appointments for your second dose are available. If this is beyond the two-week extension, you will not have to start over with dose 1. You will still need only one more dose.

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) has a great FAQ on its website with more information on the vaccine, its safety, and what to expect after you've been vaccinated. You can also check our COVID-19 vaccine news and sign up for vaccine email updates.