covid19 has affected many lives over the past year fortunately several highly effective vaccines have been developed and as of december 2020 two have been authorized by the fda for use in the united states early results from clinical trials of the pfizer and moderna vaccines show they are about 95 effective at preventing symptomatic cases when the recommended two doses are received coven 19 vaccines do not include any live virus and recipients are not being infected with covin 19. the vaccine utilizes a genetic code from the virus called messenger rna or mrna for short to instruct our cells on how to make a harmless protein that triggers an immune response our bodies then develop antibodies to fight these inactive proteins so we are better prepared in case we are ever exposed to the live virus because of the presence of our newly developed antibodies the severity of the disease if infected should be significantly reduced with most being asymptomatic the most common side effects from the vaccine have included headache fatigue and pain at the injection site side effects seem to be more common after the second dose while many have expressed concern with how quickly the vaccine was developed it is important to note that no steps in the normal vaccine development process have been skipped or shortened there are other coronaviruses that you may have heard of such as sars which led researchers to begin developing mrna vaccines around 2003 this allowed the covin-19 vaccine to be developed much more quickly consider getting the covet 19 vaccine when it is offered to you to potentially reduce the risk of severe disease for you and those around you who may have increased risk of exposure or increased risk for severe illness from covid19