COVID-19 Vaccine: What You Need to Know [2025]

Details

• Alternative Title:
  COVID-19 Vaccine: What You Need to Know [2025] [English] ; Vaccine Information Statement: COVID-19 Vaccine: What You Need to Know [2025]
• Corporate Authors:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
• Description:
  A VIS or Vaccine Information Statement is a document, produced by CDC, that informs vaccine recipients – or their parents or legal representatives – about the benefits and risks of a vaccine they are receiving. All vaccine providers, public or private, are required by the National Vaccine Childhood Injury Act (NCVIA – 42 U.S.C. § 300aa-26) to give the appropriate VIS to the patient (or parent or legal representative) prior to every dose of specific vaccines. The appropriate VIS must be given prior to the vaccination, and must be given prior to each dose of a multi-dose series. It must be given regardless of the age of the recipient: from https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/about-vis/index.html.
  
  VISs have been translated into about 40 languages. These can be found on the website of CDC's partner, https://www.immunize.org/vis/. Not every VIS has been translated into every language.
  
  Why get vaccinated? COVID-19 vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease. Vaccination can help reduce the severity of COVID-19 disease if you get sick. COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 that spreads easily from person to person. COVID-19 can be mild to moderate, lasting only a few days, or it can be severe, requiring hospitalization, intensive care, or a ventilator to help with breathing. COVID-19 can also result in death. COVID-19 symptoms may appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus. A person can have mild, moderate, or severe symptoms. Symptoms can include fever; chills; cough; shortness of breath or difficulty breathing; fatigue (tiredness); muscle or body aches; headache; new loss of taste or smell; sore throat; congestion or runny nose; nausea; vomiting; and diarrhea.
  
  More serious symptoms can include trouble breathing; persistent pain or pressure in the chest; new confusion; inability to wake or stay awake; and pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds (depending on skin tone). Older adults and people of any age with certain underlying medical conditions (like heart or lung disease or diabetes) are more likely to get very sick with COVID-19. After COVID-19 illness, some people get Long COVID, a chronic condition with symptoms lasting 3 months or longer. Symptoms of Long COVID may get better, get worse, or stay the same. People who are up to date with COVID-19 vaccination have a lower risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19 than people who are not up to date. COVID-19 vaccination is the best way to prevent Long COVID. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine helps the body learn how to defend itself from the disease and reduces the risk for severe illness and complications. Additionally, COVID-19 vaccines can offer added protection to people who have already had COVID-19, including protection against being hospitalized if they become infected with COVID-19 again.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Coronavirus COVID-19 COVID-19 / Prevention & Control COVID-19 Vaccines COVID-19 Vaccines / Adverse Effects Vaccines
• Series:
  Vaccine Information Statement
• Subseries:
  COVID-19 Vaccine
• Publisher:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (U.S.)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Fact Sheet ; Patient Education Handout
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Rights:
  Public Domain
• Topic:
  Diseases & Conditions
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  2 pdf pages
• Collection(s):
  Infectious Diseases
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:31c0ab6f383dbd04c228d3f12b78dba7982d52a6348680666acf80a4595f9cb4ad6a9e4e548928f246820aec35b0c6afcd1a930ced1d519f475926ddebfb413b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/253470/cdc_253470_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 307.90 KB ]