COVID-19 vaccination will help keep you from getting COVID-19
- COVID-19 vaccines are being carefully evaluated in clinical trials and are authorized or approved only if they make it substantially less likely you’ll get COVID-19 and are safe.
- Based on what we know about vaccines for other diseases, experts believe that getting a COVID-19 vaccine may help keep you from getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID-19.
- Getting vaccinated yourself may also protect people around you, particularly people at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
- Experts continue to conduct more studies about the effect of COVID-19 vaccination on severity of illness from COVID-19, as well as its ability to keep people from spreading the virus that causes COVID-19.
COVID-19 vaccination will be a safer way to help build protection
- COVID-19 illness can have serious, life-threatening complications, and there is no way to know how COVID-19 will affect you. And if you get sick, you could spread the disease to friends, family, and others around you.
- Clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines must first show they are safe and effective before any vaccine can be authorized or approved for use. The known and potential benefits of a COVID-19 vaccine must outweigh the known and potential risks of the vaccine for use under what is known as an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Watch a video on what an EUA is.
- Getting COVID-19 may offer some natural protection, known as natural immunity. But experts don’t know how long this protection lasts, and the risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 far outweighs any benefits of natural immunity. COVID-19 vaccination will help protect you by creating an antibody response without having to experience illness.
COVID-19 vaccination will be an important tool to help stop the pandemic
- The COVID-19 vaccine will lead to a future where we don't need to wear masks because there will be underlying immunity in case of exposure. That day is not here yet and will not be until we reach a certain threshold of immunization and achieve herd immunity, therefore, people should continue to mask and social distance.
- The combination of getting vaccinated and following CDC’s recommendations to protect yourself and others will offer the best protection from COVID-19.
- Stopping a pandemic requires using all the tools we have available.
Source: CDC