COVID-19 resource center

Currently, we've been receiving the Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The Moderna vaccine is for people ages 18 and older and requires two injections given 28 days apart. The Pfizer vaccine is for people ages 12 and older and requires two injections given 21 days apart. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is for people ages 18 and older and is a single-dose shot.

No, there will be no cost to you for the vaccine. Under Operation Warp Speed, the vaccine doses were purchased with taxpayer dollars, and the federal government requires it be offered at no cost.

Yes. It will still be important to use all tools available to us to help stop this pandemic, like covering your mouth and nose with a mask, washing hands often, and staying at least 6 feet away from others.

The vaccine will be a vital part of all measures taken to help end this pandemic. We know it will take a long time for widespread vaccination and immunity to be achieved. Along with wearing masks, washing hands and distancing, the vaccination will help us get past this pandemic quicker and potentially with less lives lost.

The scientific community was able to utilize previous vaccine research on other coronaviruses, as well as using new methods of developing vaccines, which allowed development to move quickly. Due to the pandemic's high infection rates, the pace of clinical trials, which is usually the longest part of vaccine development, was greatly accelerated. The federal government invested significantly in the necessary manufacturing capacity to support companies as they aggressively pursued rapid development and distribution.

Before any vaccine is permitted for use in the U.S., it must be reviewed and approved by the FDA. Normally this process can take a long time, but in this case, the federal government sped up processing for the COVID-19 vaccines. An Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) is issued during public health emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure scientific innovation and medical solutions aren't held back by administrative processes, and are brought to the public more quickly. For an EUA to be issued for a vaccine, the FDA determines that the known and potential benefits outweigh the known and potential risks of the vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccines have been tested in large clinical trials that included tens of thousands of study participants to ensure that the vaccines meet safety standards and to see how they offer protection to people of different ages, races and those with different medical conditions.

Like most regularly recommended vaccines, the COVID-19 vaccine can produce some side effects in some people. Some have reported fevers, headache, fatigue, muscle aches and soreness around injection sites. These symptoms are an expected sign that the body is building immunity.

• The vaccine will not give you COVID-19; the live virus is not used in any of the COVID-19 vaccines.
• Getting vaccinated can help prevent you from getting sick with COVID-19.
• Exposure to someone sick with COVID-19 is not a protective measure against getting COVID-19 and is not the same as receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
• The vaccine is more than 90% effective.
• The vaccines do not contain DNA, and it will not change your DNA. The vaccines use messenger RNA, or mRNA, which "teach" our immune system how to recognize and fight the virus, but RNA doesn’t do anything to human DNA.
• The vaccine does not contain human tissue or fetus tissue. There are no fetal cells used in any vaccine production process in the U.S.