The COVID vaccines available to kids and teens have been through rigorous testing and thorough review by the FDA and CDC. Thousands of children and teens ages 6 months through 17 years were in the clinical trials, and the vaccines were shown to be safe among those who received them. Also, continued safety monitoring of the millions of children who’ve already been vaccinated confirms that the vaccines are safe.

Although COVID-19 vaccines were developed quickly, research and development on vaccines like these have been underway for decades. All vaccine development steps were taken to ensure COVID-19 vaccine safety and effectiveness, including:

• Clinical Trials – All vaccines in the United States must go through three phases of clinical trials to ensure they are safe and effective. The phases overlapped to speed up the process, but all phases were completed.
• Authorization or Approval – Before vaccines are available to people, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviews data from clinical trials. The FDA has determined COVID-19 vaccines meet their standards and has granted those vaccines emergency use authorizations (EUAs) or full FDA approval.
• Tracking Safety Using Vaccine Monitoring Systems – Like every other vaccine approved for use in the United States, COVID-19 vaccines continue to be monitored for safety and effectiveness. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States have safely received COVID-19 vaccines. CDC and FDA continue to provide updated information on the safety of U.S.-authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines using data from several monitoring systems. Learn more about developing COVID-19 vaccines.

Even if you don’t get severely ill, you can still spread the virus to someone who might – like a grandparent, someone at church, a teacher at school or anyone in your community.  

We’re also learning more about the long-term effects of COVID. Even if you don’t get severely ill right now, or even have serious symptoms, you could still have long-term damage that causes health problems down the road.

Some people even develop long COVID, where they have symptoms that last for weeks or months.

Getting and staying up to date with your COVID vaccine can reduce the risk that you’ll:

• Get seriously ill, need hospital care, or die from COVID.
• Develop long COVID.
• Spread the disease to others, putting their health and lives at risk.

In most cases, patients who sought medical care for myocarditis or pericarditis (heart inflammation) have responded well to medications and rest and had prompt improvement of symptoms. Reported cases have occurred predominantly in male adolescents and young adults age 16 and older. Onset was typically within several days after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, and cases have occurred more often after the second dose than the first dose. CDC and its partners are investigating these reports of myocarditis and pericarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.

CDC continues to recommend COVID vaccination for everyone 6 months or older, given the risk of COVID and related, possibly severe complications, such as long-term health problems, hospitalization, and even death.

Go to the CDC’s website for more information on the clinical considerations on myocarditis and pericarditis after receipt of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines among adolescents and young adults.

Scientists are monitoring how long COVID-19 vaccine protection lasts. COVID-19 vaccines work well to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death. However, public health experts are seeing decreases in the protection COVID-19 vaccines provide over time, especially for certain groups of people. Due to this, CDC recommends COVID-19 vaccines for everyone ages 6 months and older. Learn more about COVID-19 booster recommendations, including recommendations for people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.

CDC continues to review evidence and updates guidance as new information becomes available.

No. COVID-19 vaccines that are currently available do not use the live virus that causes COVID-19. These vaccines work by using a harmless piece of spike protein from the virus causing COVID-19 to teach the body how to fight the virus that causes it. The body then gets rid of the harmless spike protein within a few days after vaccination.

There is no federal legal requirement for a parent, guardian or caregiver to consent for COVID-19 or any other vaccination.  However, depending on each state or local law, this does not mean that consent is not required for select age groups.  State or local laws and policies, as well as vaccine provider policies, around minor consent for vaccinations have existed for a long time and will also apply to COVID-19 vaccination of children.

Vaccine ingredients vary by manufacturer. None of the vaccines contain eggs, gelatin, latex or preservatives. All COVID-19 vaccines are free from metals, such as iron, nickel, cobalt, lithium and rare earth alloys. They are also free from manufactured products such as microelectronics, electrodes, carbon nanotubes and nanowire semiconductors. None of the COVID-19 vaccines authorized or approved in the United States contain any live virus.

To learn more about the ingredients in authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines, see:

• Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Overview and Safety
• Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Overview and Safety
• Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine Overview and Safety
• Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine Overview and Safety
• Ingredients Included in COVID-19 Vaccines

You should get a COVID-19 vaccine even if you already had COVID-19.

Getting a COVID-19 vaccine after you recover from COVID-19 infection provides added protection against COVID-19. You may consider delaying your vaccine by three months from when your symptoms started or, if you had no symptoms, when you received a positive test.

People who already had COVID-19 and do not get vaccinated after their recovery are more likely to get COVID-19 again than those who get vaccinated after their recovery.

Learn more about the benefits of getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

There is no recommended waiting period between getting a COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines. You can get a COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines, including a flu vaccine, at the same visit. Experience with other vaccines has shown that the way our bodies develop protection, known as an immune response, and possible side effects after getting vaccinated are generally the same when given alone or with other vaccines. 

Results from recent research studies show that people who menstruate may observe small, temporary changes in menstruation after COVID-19 vaccination, including:

• Longer duration of menstrual periods
• Shorter intervals between periods
• Heavier bleeding than usual
• Despite these temporary changes in menstruation, there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause fertility problems.

Yes, COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to get pregnant now, as well as people who might become pregnant in the future. People with COVID-19 during pregnancy are more likely to deliver a preterm (earlier than 37 weeks) or stillborn infant and may also be more likely to have other pregnancy complications.

COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy helps:

• Prevent severe illness and death in people who are pregnant
• Protect babies younger than 6 months old from hospitalization caused by COVID-19

Learn more about vaccination considerations and the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccinations for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

If you are pregnant and have received a COVID-19 vaccine, we encourage you to enroll in v-safe, CDC’s smartphone-based system that provides personalized health check-ins after vaccination. A v-safe pregnancy registry has been established to gather information on the health of pregnant people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine.