Vaccine FAQs

Yes – children can receive routine vaccines at the same time as the COVID-19 vaccine. Talk with your child’s pediatrician about the vaccines that your child needs and make a plan about how she or he will receive all needed vaccines.

Common side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine include:

• Pain, redness or swelling at the injection site
• Tiredness
• Headache
• Muscle pain
• Chills
• Fever
• Nausea/vomiting

Most of the time, these side effects will go away in a few days.

Pain at the injection site (where the shot went into the arm) is also a common reaction. If your child feels pain or discomfort in the spot where they got their COVID‑19 vaccine, try placing a cool, wet washcloth on the area. You can also give them pain or fever-reducing medications following vaccination. It is not recommended that you give your child any over-the-counter pain reliever before vaccination to prevent side effects.

Contact your child’s pediatrician or health care provider if:

• The redness or pain at the injection site gets worse after 24 hours
• Their side effects worry you, or do not go away after a few days

Even if your child already had COVID-19, they should still receive the vaccine once they have recovered from the illness if they are eligible. While there is some evidence that people who have been infected with COVID-19 develop immunity for several months after infection, it is unclear if that immunity is fully protective and how long any protection may last. It's recommended that most individuals delay getting their COVID-19 vaccine for three months after an acute COVID-19 infection, some high-risk individuals may want to get vaccinated sooner. A vaccine will add to your child’s immunity to the virus and protect your child from getting the virus again.

Patients who had MIS-C were not included in mRNA (Pfizer and Moderna) COVID-19 vaccine trials in children. However, consensus among the healthcare field is that it is safe and beneficial for children with a history of MIS-C living in areas with high risk for exposure/transmission to receive the vaccine if they have clinically recovered (especially their heart function) and it's been at least 90 days since their diagnosis. If you have specific concerns about your child's individual history, we recommend reaching out to their doctor/specialist for best recommendations.

Yes. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and the American Association of Family Physicians recommend COVID-19 vaccination for all pregnant women during any trimester.

Because people who are pregnant or recently pregnant are more likely to get severely ill with COVID-19 compared with people who are not pregnant, getting a COVID-19 vaccine can help protect them from severe illness from COVID-19. Vaccination during pregnancy also builds antibodies that can protect the baby.

COVID-19 vaccines are now approved primarily for adults aged 65 and older, and individuals 6 months and older with at least one health condition that puts them at higher risk for severe illness. According to the FDA, examples of high-risk conditions include (but are not limited to):

• Asthma
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• Obesity
• Pregnancy

If you have questions about whether your child is eligible for the vaccine, please reach out to your child’s healthcare provider.

View the AAP website for more information about the vaccine.

The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. Millions of people in the United States have received these vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history.

You may have some side effects, which are normal signs that your body is building protection. These side effects may affect your ability to do daily activities, but they should go away in a few days. Some people have no side effects.

Some people have expressed concerns that the Pfizer vaccine may have long-term side effects. Although it is always important to consider the risks and benefits of any medical choice we make, there is no vaccine that has caused late-onset side effects (beginning more than 2 months after receiving the vaccine). All vaccines are made to disintegrate safely in your body. Vaccines introduce a non-harmful ingredient that looks like the true virus or bacteria, allowing your body to build antibodies against the virus/bacteria without getting infected.

For the Pfizer vaccine, the non-harmful ingredient is mRNA. This acts like a recipe that our body uses to build protein. This protein is harmless but does look exactly like the protein on the outside of the novel COVID-19, so our antibodies can be prepared if it sees the real virus. mRNA, however, is literally used up as it is read by the body. In fact, the end of the mRNA recipe has instructions to break down the mRNA and stop the production of the protein.