Benefits of Getting A COVID-19 Vaccine

What You Need to Know

There are many benefits of getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

• COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States are effective at protecting people from getting seriously ill, being hospitalized, and even dying—especially people who are boosted.
• As with vaccines for other diseases, people are protected best when they stay up to date with the recommended number of doses and boosters.
• COVID-19 vaccines can offer added protection to people who had COVID-19, including protection against being hospitalized from a new infection.
• COVID-19 vaccines are safe—much safer than getting COVID-19.

COVID-19 Vaccination Is a Safer, More Reliable Way to Build Protection

Getting sick with COVID-19 can have serious consequences.

• Getting sick with COVID-19 can cause severe illness or death, even in children, and we can’t reliably predict who will have mild or severe illness.
• You may have long-term health issues after having COVID-19. Even people who do not have symptoms when they are first infected can have these ongoing health problems, also known as long COVID or post-COVID conditions.

While people can get some protection from having COVID-19, the level and length of that protection varies.

• Immunity (protection) from infection can vary depending on how mild or severe someone’s illness was and their age.
• Immunity from infection decreases over time.
• Importantly, there is still not an antibody test available that can reliably determine if a person is protected from further infection.

COVID-19 Vaccines Are Effective

The protection COVID-19 vaccines provide decreases over time, especially for certain groups of people. For this reason, CDC recommends everyone ages 6 months and older stay up to date with their vaccines, which includes everyone 5 years and older getting boosters if eligible, for the best protection against COVID-19.

People who have certain medical conditions or who are taking medications that weaken their immune system are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness and death. Additionally, their immune response to COVID-19 vaccination may not be as strong as in people who are not immunocompromised. People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised have specific recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters.

Vaccines Help Protect Children from Serious Complications

Just like adults, COVID-19 can make children of any age very sick and can sometimes require treatment in a hospital. Some children have even died from COVID-19. Children and teens who get COVID-19 can develop serious complications like multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a condition where different body parts become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. After getting COVID-19, children can also experience a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems known as long COVID or post-COVID conditions.

Getting eligible children and teens vaccinated against COVID-19 can help keep them from getting really sick if they do get COVID-19. Vaccinating children can also help relieve the strain on families by providing greater confidence in children participating in childcare, school, and other activities. Learn more about Why Children and Teens Should Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19.

COVID-19 Vaccines Are Safe for Children and Adults

While COVID-19 vaccines were developed quickly, all steps have been taken to ensure their safety and effectiveness.

• COVID-19 vaccines were developed using science that has been around for decades.
• Before COVID-19 vaccines were recommended, scientists conducted clinical trials with thousands of children and adults and found no serious safety concerns.
• Hundreds of millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the most intensive safety monitoring program in U.S. history.
• Serious side effects that could cause a long-term health problem are extremely unusual following any vaccination, including COVID-19 vaccination.
• The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks.

In most situations, mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) are preferred over the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine for primary and booster vaccination due to the risk of serious adverse events.