Getting your young child vaccinated against COVID-19 will help slow the spread of COVID-19 and its variants and also help prevent severe illness, hospitalization & death.
The COVID-19 vaccine is the best way to protect children from getting very sick from the virus. Even if your child has had COVID-19, they should still get vaccinated. Children as young as 6 months old are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts.
Young children can become very sick from COVID-19. They can also spread the virus.
- COVID-19 can make children very sick. It can potentially result in hospitalization, long-term health complications, or even death. Tens of thousands of children and teens with COVID-19 have had to be hospitalized, and long COVID does occur among kids.
- Children can also spread the virus to other people, including older family members.
Clinical trials have shown that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective.
- Vaccine safety was studied in over 10,000 children ages 6 months to 5 years. Some children had mild side effects like tiredness or fever, but this did not last long and all of them got better quickly.
- The COVID-19 vaccine for children is a type of vaccine called an mRNA vaccine, which has been studied in animal and human trials for years, without long-term effects.