While most children have mild to moderate symptoms from COVID-19, it can sometimes lead to death and may cause long term damage to organs even in mild cases. Currently 30% of COVID cases are in children as schools have reopened.

Currently only Pfizer is authorized for use by the FDA in kids 5 and older. Moderna is awaiting its authorization at this time.

Even before getting FDA emergency use authorization, clinical trials​ showed COVID-19 vaccines to be remarkably safe and effective for adults and teens age 12 and up. Trials involved tens of thousands of volunteers.

The FDA recently gave full approval of the first mRNA vaccine for older teens and adults. Clinical trials for both types of U.S. vaccines are underway for children as young as six months old.

The vaccines continue to be monitored very closely. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that COVID-19 vaccines will have "the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history."

Yes the Pfizer and Moderna (once approved) vaccines will be the same one that millions of adults have received but in lower doses. These doses have been tested to be the safest low amount that still is 100% effective in protecting children.  

COVID-19 vaccines are safe, but there are some short-term side effects your child may experience similar to any other vaccine. In clinical trials, some adolescents had no side effects, and some had side effects similar to those reported by adults. These reactions are just the body’s way of ramping up to fight and can be pain, redness, and swelling where the injection was given, Fever, Chills, Headache, Fatigue, Nausea, Pain in the muscles.

While also rare, some people have had serious allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine. This is why your child will need to wait for 15 to 30 minutes after they have a vaccination. If your child has a reaction, there are medications to quickly treat it.

As for long-term side effects, the CDC says this is unlikely. We have years of research and monitoring on other vaccinations that show side effects almost always happen within six weeks of getting a vaccine.

Pericarditis and myocarditis are medical terms for irritation of the heart. This can happen when there is inflammation from the body ramping up because of the vaccine. This is very rare and actually up to 6,000 times more likely to occur from COVID-19 itself. The treatment of this is usually just ibuprofen which decreases the inflammation.