
To reduce pain and discomfort where you got the shot, you can apply a clean, cool, wet washcloth over the area.

You may also experience fever, chills, tiredness, and headache. Common feelings include pain and swelling on the arm that you got the shot. When this happens, you may feel this response happening. The approved COVID-19 vaccines are designed to get your body to have an immune response. You can read more about the many strategies for ensuring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in the United States at the CDC’s website: įor every vaccine approved for use by the FDA and ACIP, the site provides information on safety, effectiveness, recommended populations to receive the vaccine, and side effects, if any. If an unexpected adverse event is observed, experts quickly study it further to assess whether it was caused by the vaccine and whether it is a true safety concern. That means that the scientific data from the research on each of these vaccines has been reviewed by two independent teams of experts.Įven after this approval, vaccine safety monitoring systems watch for adverse events (possible side effects).

These studies generate scientific data and other information that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses to determine vaccine safety and effectiveness.Īfter the FDA makes its determination, an independent group of scientific experts – the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) – reviews available data before making vaccine recommendations to the CDC.īoth of these processes have been completed for three different vaccines: Clinical trials involving many thousands of participants are used to investigate possible COVID-19 vaccines.
