Benefits of Getting A COVID-19 Vaccine

Updated Sept. 22, 2023

On June 27, 2024, the CDC Director adopted the ACIP’s recommendations for use of 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccines in people ages 6 months and older as approved or authorized by FDA. The 2024–2025 vaccines are expected to be available in fall 2024. This page will be updated at that time to align with the new recommendations. Learn more: www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/s-t0627-vaccine-recommendations.html

What You Need to Know

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

Prevents serious illness: COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States are safe and effective at protecting people from getting seriously ill, being hospitalized, and dying.
A safer way to build protection: Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is a safer, more reliable way to build protection than getting sick with COVID-19.
Offers added protection: COVID-19 vaccines can offer added protection to people who had COVID-19, including protection against being hospitalized from a new infection.

How to be best protected: As with vaccines for other diseases, people are best protected when they stay up to date.

COVID-19 Vaccines Protect Your Health

COVID 19-vaccines are effective at protecting people from getting seriously ill, being hospitalized, and dying. Vaccination remains the safest strategy for avoiding hospitalizations, long-term health outcomes, and death.

What You Can Do Now to Prevent Severe Illness, Hospitalization, and Death

Use Vaccines.gov – to find a COVID-19 vaccine near you.

CDC recommends everyone aged 5 years and older get 1 updated COVID-19 vaccine. Children aged 6 months – 4 years may need more than 1 dose of updated COVID-19 to stay up to date. People aged 65 years and older who received 1 dose of any updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Novavax) should receive 1 additional dose of an updated COVID-19 vaccine at least 4 months after the previous updated dose. For more Novavax information, click or tap here.

Severe Illness

COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective in preventing the most severe outcomes from a COVID-19 infection.

Myocarditis is a condition where the heart becomes inflamed in response to an infection or some other trigger. Myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination is rare. This study shows that patients with COVID-19 had nearly 16 times the risk for myocarditis compared with patients who did not have COVID-19.

Hospitalization

COVID-19 vaccines can help prevent you from becoming hospitalized if you do get infected with COVID-19.

Death

COVID-19 vaccines can help prevent you from dying if you do get infected with COVID-19.

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

Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is a safer, more reliable way to build protection than getting sick with COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccination helps protect people by creating an immune response without the potentially severe illness or post-COVID conditions that can be associated with COVID-19 infection.

Getting sick with COVID-19 can cause severe illness or death, even in children, but it is not possible to determine who will experience mild or severe illness from COVID-19 infection.
People may have long-term health issues after having COVID-19. Even people who do not have symptoms when they are first infected with COVID-19 can experience long-term health problems, also known as long COVID or post-COVID conditions.
Complications can appear after mild or severe COVID-19, or after multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).

While people can get some protection from having COVID-19, the level and length of that protection varies, especially as COVID-19 variants continue to emerge.

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 no antibody test available that can reliably determine if a person is protected from further infection.

After vaccination, continue to follow all current prevention measures recommended by CDC based on latest COVID-19 hospital admission levels. Learn more about protecting your family from COVID-19.