COVID-19 mRNA VACCINE FACTS

Source: cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines

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COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly developed and distributed to help fight the pandemic, although researchers have been working with messenger RNA vaccines for decades. mRNA vaccines have been studied before for flu, Zika, rabies, and cytomegalovirus. As soon as the necessary information about the virus that causes COVID-19 was available, scientists began designing the mRNA instructions for cells to build the unique spike protein into an mRNA vaccine. Vaccines developed in the United States usually go through three phases of clinical trials to make sure they are safe and effective. For COVID-19 vaccines, these phases overlapped to speed up the process so the vaccines could be used as quickly as possible to control the pandemic. No trial phases have been skipped. The clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines have involved tens of thousands of volunteers of different ages, races, and ethnicities. Because COVID-19 continues to be widespread, the vaccine clinical trials have been conducted more quickly than if the disease were less common. The trials showed no serious safety concerns within 8 weeks following vaccination. This is an important milestone, as it is unusual for adverse effects caused by vaccines to appear after this amount of time. Results also determined that three COVID-19 vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson) met the FDA’s safety and effectiveness standards and granted those vaccines Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs), which allowed the vaccines to be quickly distributed for use while maintaining the same high safety standards required for all vaccines. The FDA has since granted full approval for Pfizer’s vaccine for people aged 16 and older. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history. The CDC and FDA use several monitoring systems - like the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), and the v-safe app - and alert the public about health problems that are reported after vaccination. Some people have no side effects. Many people have reported common side effects after COVID-19 vaccination, like pain or swelling at the injection site, a headache, chills, or fever. These reactions are common and are normal signs that your body is building protection. While many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies to trigger an immune response, viral vector vaccines (like Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 version) use a modified, harmless version of a different virus (a vector) to deliver important instructions to our cells to produce a

Hundreds of millions of people in the United spike protein. States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the mRNA vaccines most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history. (like Moderna and Pfizer) use mRNA created in a laboratory. Once injected into the arm, the mRNA enters the muscle cells and instructs them to produce a harmless piece of spike protein that is found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. After the protein piece is made, our cells break down the mRNA and remove it. The mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell where our DNA is located, so it cannot change or influence our genes. Next, our immune system recognizes that the protein doesn’t belong there. This triggers our immune system to produce antibodies and activate other immune cells to fight off what it thinks is an infection. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects us from getting inVaccine technology will continue to advance public health’s ongoing mission to promote longer life fected if the real COVID-19 virus enters our bodies. The and reduced suffering in the world. spike proteins, like the injected mRNA, don’t last long in the body and are estimated to be gone after a few weeks. At the end of the process, our bodies have learned how to protect against future infection from COVID-19 and its long term consequences. Clinical trials showed 95% effectiveness of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines in preventing COVID-19 infection in fully vaccinated (2 shots) people. Since protection may wane after several months, an additional booster shot is recommended after 6 months of completing your first shots. The booster can be any brand. Even if you experience a breakthrough infection after being vaccinated or immunity against infection wanes, COVID-19 vaccines have shown to stay remarkably effective in continuing to help prevent serious illness, hospitalization, and death. Future mRNA vaccine technology may allow for one vaccine to provide protection against multiple diseases, thus decreasing the number of shots needed for protection against common vaccine-preventable diseases. Beyond vaccines, cancer research has used mRNA to trigger the immune system to target specific cancer cells. Vaccine technology will continue to advance public health’s ongoing mission to promote longer life and reduced suffering in the world.

Source: cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines