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COVID-19 vaccine: Guidance from Mayo Clinic

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

COVID-19 vaccine: Guidance from Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic experts agree: You should get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it's available to you. COVID-19 cases are still widespread and shifting, and the vaccines that we're recommending have been approved for safe use. Continue practicing all safety recommendations until further guidance from public health officials.

Mayo Clinic patients: What you need to know

  • Mayo Clinic will follow vaccine eligibility criteria as directed by state health departments, which will continue to allocate all vaccine supplies.
  • Vaccine distribution is opening up, with access to anyone over age 16 in Minnesota and Arizona and anyone over age 18 in Florida.

Latest patient vaccination options by campus:

Arizona | Florida | Rochester | Mayo Clinic Health System

  • A message for Mayo Clinic patients: Continuing progress toward fair and safe vaccination

Why get vaccinated?

You get vaccines to help prevent you from getting illnesses. An example of this is the flu vaccine.

Vaccines help your body build up the ability to fight off a virus. A vaccine may not prevent you from getting the COVID-19 virus. But if you do get the virus, the vaccine may keep you from becoming seriously ill. Or it may keep you from developing complications due to the illness. And that may be a lifesaving benefit of the vaccine.

The vaccine may not be recommended for those with certain health conditions. You can find more facts about COVID-19 vaccines here.

Why you should get the COVID-19 vaccine

Poster for video

Dr. Robert Jacobson, Medical Director, Primary Care Immunization Program, Mayo Clinic Primary Care in Southeast Minnesota

Robert Jacobson, M.D., Medical Director, Primary Care Immunization Program, Mayo Clinic Primary Care in Southeast Minnesota: I'm Dr. Robert Jacobson, a physician at Mayo Clinic. Over my career, I have extensively studied vaccines and I have very good news to share with you today. There are now tested vaccines to protect against getting COVID-19. This coronavirus is a very serious, highly infectious illness. At the time we're making this video, over 16 million people in the U.S. have been infected with the virus. Over 300,000 people have died from it.

COVID-19 vaccines are one of our best opportunities to get this pandemic under control. From what we know from trials involving tens of thousands of volunteers if you are exposed to the COVID-19 virus, these vaccines can prevent you from getting the infection. That includes severe infections that can send you to the hospital.

Unfortunately, there are not yet enough of these vaccines for everyone. The CDC has set guidelines for what groups should be vaccinated first. The first group to be vaccinated is health care personnel. At Mayo Clinic, we are using our first allocation of vaccine to vaccinate our employees who are in that category so that we can serve patients. As more vaccine becomes available, other high-priority groups will become eligible to receive it, such as people at a higher risk for having serious complications. The plan is to eventually have enough vaccine that everyone can be vaccinated. To get this pandemic under control, it's important that everyone take the vaccine as soon as it’s available to them.

Given the urgency with which vaccines are being developed, you may have some concerns about being in one of the earlier groups. You may think, "I'll wait until more people have taken it and more data are available." Here are some facts that may reassure you. These vaccines have been authorized for use by the FDA. This Emergency Use Authorization is based on data from tens of thousands of people who have taken these vaccines as part of rigorously supervised trials. Studies have shown these vaccines are safe, without serious side effects, and very effective: they can prevent COVID-19 infection in 95% of people who get them. Some people wonder if the COVID-19 vaccines might actually give them COVID-19. That is simply not possible. The vaccines do not contain the virus. Instead, the vaccines contain a non-virus material that teaches your body to recognize the virus if you are exposed. As a result, your body can then fight the virus and prevent infection.

As with other vaccines, you may have temporary reactions that start a day or two after the vaccination and last for a few days. You may have pain, redness or swelling where the shot was given. You may have fever, fatigue, chills, headache, muscle pain, or joint pain for a day or two after the injection. This is your body reacting to the vaccine. These symptoms will not cause harm. As with any medicine, there is a very small chance of a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine, which could cause injury or death.

You should talk with your health care provider before getting vaccinated if you currently have COVID-19 or have symptoms that suggest you might, if you feel moderately or severely ill for any reason, if you have life-threatening allergies or a condition that weakens your immune system or if you are pregnant. Please review the appropriate Vaccine Information Statement to learn more.

If you've already had COVID-19, you may wonder, "Didn't having it make me immune?" The fact is, we don't know. We don't know if having COVID-19 provides immunity or, if it does, how long the immunity lasts. In fact, we don't know if the protection provided by these vaccines is permanent, or if you may need a booster in the future. But now that vaccines that have been shown to be safe and effective are available, it makes sense to protect yourself by getting vaccinated.

You may know people who tested positive for COVID-19 and had no symptoms or became only mildly ill. But there is no way to know how COVID-19 would affect you. People of all ages, including people not considered to be in a high-risk category, have become seriously ill with COVID-19, have had serious and long-lasting complications, and have died. We recommend you take the vaccine as soon as it becomes available to you.

The vaccination is given in a series of two injections, separated by at least three weeks. As with many vaccines, it typically takes a few weeks for your body to build immunity after you've been vaccinated. The sooner you get your vaccination, the better. We need to use every tool available to us to fight COVID-19. We need to wear masks, we need to wash our hands, we need to practice social distancing and we need to take a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it becomes available to us. Protect yourself. Protect your loved ones. If you're a health care provider, protect your patients.

Help us stop COVID-19 by getting vaccinated.

Thank you.

What to know about the different COVID-19 vaccines

Find out more about the different vaccines, how they work, how many doses are needed, possible side effects and who shouldn’t get the vaccine.

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccines

  • COVID-19 vaccine: Get the facts
  • Different types of COVID-19 vaccines: How they work
  • COVID-19 vaccine: Will it affect my mammogram
  • Continue to wear a mask, practice social distancing after being vaccinated for COVID-19
  • Screening mammograms and COVID-19 vaccine
  • Side effects — or lack of side effects — after being vaccinated for COVID-19
  • Nervous about getting vaccinated for COVID-19?
  • Don’t hesitate, dive into data for COVID-19 vaccine (podcast)
  • Answering questions about COVID-19 vaccines (podcast)
  • Common questions about COVID-19 vaccinations answered
  • COVID-19 vaccine myths debunked
  • What parents should know about COVID-19 vaccines and children
  • Reducing infection from asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers?
  • Mayo Clinic expert answers questions about new COVID-19 vaccine
  • Why you should get the first COVID-19 vaccine offered to you
  • A race between vaccines, the virus and variants (podcast)
  • What studies show about pregnancy, COVID-19 vaccines
  • When will kids be eligible to be vaccinated for COVID-19?

Patient education about COVID-19 vaccines

  • COVID-19 vaccine: Patient education (PDF)
  • FDA: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
  • The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine: What you need to know (PDF)
  • FDA: Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
  • The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine: What you need to know (PDF)
  • FDA: Janssen COVID-19 vaccine
  • The Johnson & Johnson Janssen COVID-19 vaccine: What you need to know (PDF)
  • COVID-19 vaccine reactions: The difference between common and allergic reactions (PDF)

See Mayo Clinic experts discuss COVID-19 vaccines in videos

  • Can I infect someone after I’ve received the COVID-19 vaccine? (video)
  • Do I still need to get vaccinated if I’ve already had COVID-19? (video)
  • Can children get the COVID-19 vaccine? (video)
  • mRNA vaccines and immunity (video)
  • COVID-19 vaccine doses and immunity (video)
  • Are the new COVID-19 vaccines safe? (video)
  • What is a COVID-19 variant strain? (video)
  • What should I know about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? (video)
  • The Johnson & Johnson adenovirus vaccine explained (video)
  • How does COVID-19 affect people with diabetes? (video)

Find out more about COVID-19 vaccine safety

  • After COVID-19 vaccination: Is it OK to visit with friends and loved ones?
  • Will fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccines be safe?
  • Answers to common questions about whether vaccines are safe, effective and necessary
  • Are COVID-19 vaccines safe and effective?
  • What does the CDC's new guidance for people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 mean?
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