- COVID-19 vaccines are effective at helping protect against severe disease and death from its Delta variants.
- If you are fully vaccinated, you can resume many activities that you did before the pandemic. However, you should wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission to maximize protection from the Delta variant and possibly spread it to others.
- You may have side effects after vaccination. These are normal and should go away in a few days.
We Are Still Learning?
- How well the vaccines protect people with weakened immune systems, including people who take medicines that suppress the immune system?
- How long do COVID-19 vaccines protect people?
- How many people have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before the population can be considered protected (population immunity)?
- How effective the vaccines are against new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19?
Availability of the Vaccine
Vaccines are widely accessible in the United States. However, everyone aged 12 years and above should get a COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible. Vaccines are widely accessible in the United States and are available for everyone at no cost. Moreover, many doctors’ offices, retail pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics offer COVID-19 vaccinations. In addition, parents should check with their child’s healthcare provider about whether they provide COVID-19 vaccination.
Find a COVID-19 Vaccine:
- Search vaccines.gov.
- Text your ZIP code to 438829.
- Call 1-800-232-0233 to find locations near you.
Cost of Vaccine
Fast, Easy, Free, and Nearby COVID-19 Vaccination Center’s. The federal government provides the vaccine free of charge to all people living in the United States, regardless of their immigration or health insurance status.
Visit this link for more info. COVID-19 Vaccines Are Free
The Effectiveness of the COVID-19 Vaccine
COVID-19 vaccines are effective at keeping you from getting COVID-19, especially severe illness and death. In addition, the vaccines reduce the risk of people spreading the virus that causes COVID-19. However, if you are fully vaccinated, you can resume activities that you did before the pandemic. Learn more about what you can do when you have been fully vaccinated.
Studies show that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at keeping you from getting COVID-19 virus. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine will also help keep you from getting seriously ill, even if you get COVID-19.
The vaccines teach our immune systems how to recognize and fight the virus that causes COVID-19. However, it typically takes two weeks after vaccination for the body to build protection (immunity) against the virus that causes COVID-19. That means it is possible a person could still get COVID-19 before or just after vaccination and then get sick because the vaccine did not have enough time to build protection. Therefore, people are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines or two weeks after the single-dose Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.
Learning about COVID-19
We are still learning how well COVID-19 vaccines protect people with weakened immune systems, including those taking medicines that suppress the immune system. However, we are also still learning how long COVID-19 vaccines protect people. If you have a medical condition or are taking medicines that weaken your immune system, you should talk to your healthcare provider. You may need to keep taking all precautions to prevent COVID-19 disease.
Safety of the COVID-19
COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. However, vaccines cannot give you COVID-19. You may have side effects after vaccination which are normal and should go away in a few days.
Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines, and these vaccines have undergone the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history. This monitoring includes using both established and new safety monitoring systems to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are safe. However, COVID-19 vaccines cannot give you COVID-19. Learn more to bust myths and learn the facts about COVID-19 vaccines.
CDC has developed a new tool, v-safe, to help us quickly find any safety issues with COVID-19 vaccines.However, V-safe is a smartphone-based, after-vaccination health checker for people who receive COVID-19 vaccines. Learn how the federal government is working to ensure the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.
Side effects after vaccination is normal
After the COVID-19 vaccination, you may have some side effects. These are normal signs that your body is building protection. The side effects from the COVID-19 vaccination, such as tiredness, headache, or chills, may affect your ability to do daily activities, but they should go away in a few days. Learn more about what to expect after getting vaccinated.
Population Immunity
Population immunity means that enough people in a community are protected from getting a disease because they’ve already had the disease or been vaccinated.
Population immunity makes it hard for a disease to spread from person to person. It even protects those who cannot be vaccinated, like newborns or people allergic to a vaccine. However, the percentage of people who need to have protection to achieve population immunity varies by disease.
What we are still learning
We are still learning how many people have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before the population can be considered protected.
As we know more, CDC will continue to update our recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
The Delta Variant
The Delta variant causes more infections and spreads faster than earlier forms of the virus that causes COVID-19. As a result, it might cause more severe illness than previous strains in unvaccinated people.
- Vaccines continue to be highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death, including against this variant.
- Fully vaccinated people with breakthrough infections from this variant appear to be infectious for a shorter period.
- Get vaccinated and wear masks indoors in public spaces to reduce the spread of this variant.
About the Delta Variant Variants in the US
What We Know
COVID-19 vaccines are effective against severe disease and death from variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 currently circulating in the United States, including the Delta variant.
- Infections happen in only a small proportion of fully vaccinated people, even with the Delta variant. When these infections occur among vaccinated people, they tend to be mild.
- If you are fully vaccinated and become infected with the Delta variant, you might be able to spread the virus to others.
- People with weakened immune systems, including people who take immunosuppressive medications, may not be protected even if fully vaccinated.
How long COVID-19 vaccines can protect people.
New variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 are spreading in the United States. Current information suggests that COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the United States offer protection against most variants. However, some variants might cause illness in some people after they are fully vaccinated if the variants are circulating in the community.