12/02/2020

Fighting the Pandemic With the COVID-19 Vaccine

Healthwise Communications Team

The COVID-19 vaccine is one of the best ways to help stop the coronavirus pandemic. Getting vaccinated as soon as you can will help protect you from the virus. It will also help make sure you aren’t accidentally spreading the virus to other people—people who could really be hurt.

There isn’t a COVID-19 vaccine available yet, but there will be soon. And that’s very exciting. Like a lot of people, you may have questions about when you can get the vaccine and what will be involved. We’ll know more about those details in the coming weeks and months.

Here are some things we know now:

• You can’t get COVID-19 from the vaccine. And the sooner you get vaccinated, the sooner you’ll have protection from getting COVID-19 from somebody else.
• The vaccine will be safe. Any vaccine given to the public will be very well-tested. It also has to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA has very high standards for safety.
• Any side effects from the vaccine will probably be a lot like common side effects from other vaccines. They include things like a slight fever, muscle aches, and soreness. And these side effects can be treated if they bother you.
• The risk of serious problems from COVID-19 is higher than the risk of serious problems from a vaccine. Even if you’re young and healthy, COVID-19 could make you very sick. It could even kill you. But serious problems from vaccines are rare. Side effects are usually mild and only last a couple of days. And they’re a sign that your body is doing what it should to build protection against disease.

The COVID-19 vaccine will be a powerful tool in the fight to end the pandemic.

Getting the vaccine to as many people as we can, as soon as we can, will help protect everyone. When you get your own COVID-19 vaccine, you can feel proud of doing your part to help your community stay safe and take steps toward getting back to normal life.