Myths and rumors about COVID-19 vaccines are spreading fast, likely in part because it’s they are a new type of vaccine and were developed quickly.

The Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines in use in Arizona have been thoroughly studied, reviewed and approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA expects manufacturers that receive an emergency use authorization to continue clinical trials in order to get more safety and efficacy data and eventually pursue final approval.

Among the high-profile people who have received these vaccines are President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ.

Studies show that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at keeping people from developing COVID-19 or from getting seriously ill from the new coronavirus even they do develop the respiratory illness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

But if participants in recent tele-town halls with Ducey and Christ are any indication, questions, suspicions, rumors and concerns about vaccines are rampant.

Misinformation about vaccine safety is a roadblock to vaccine uptake needed to beat the virus.

Experts say Arizona will need about 70% of the population or more vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to stop future outbreaks. 

Here are some common questions about COVID-19 vaccines, answered with evidence-based information from sources that include the CDC, the FDA and the Arizona Department of Health Services. 

Will the COVID-19 vaccine give me coronavirus?

No. The vaccines do not contain any of the COVID-19 virus, and they cannot make you infected with the virus. All three vaccines contain material that teaches the body how to guard against the virus if you’re infected in the future.

I already had COVID-19. I have antibodies for the new coronavirus. Do I still need to get the vaccine?

Health experts say yes. It’s still unclear how long immunity lasts just from the body’s natural response to getting infected, and it’s possible (although rare) that people can get infected with the virus a second time. 

Vaccines are recommended for longer-lasting immunity, and the CDC says the vaccine is a safer way to protect against the virus than getting COVID-19. 

“We do recommend that you get vaccinated even if you previously had COVID-19,” Christ told a caller during a recent tele-town hall. “We don’t know how long those antibodies are going to stay around from a natural infection. We do know that the vaccine produces a really strong immune response and really good antibodies, and we know that it is currently effective against the variants that we’re seeing around the world as well. So we would strongly encourage you to get the vaccine, even if you’ve had COVID-19 before.”

The only caveat here is if you were treated for COVID-19 with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma, in which case it’s recommended you wait 90 days from that treatment to get a vaccine so that the vaccine can have the greatest effect. If you got those treatments, you should still get the vaccine, the state health department says. 

Is the vaccine safe if I have underlying health conditions?

Yes. Health experts and the CDC say the vaccines are safe unless you are allergic to a specific vaccine ingredient or have had a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis or a reaction requiring hospitalization) to a vaccine ingredient in the past. 

The CDC and ADHS recommend getting a vaccine if you have certain underlying medical conditions because those conditions may put you at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness, hospitalization or death. 

Do the vaccines impact reproduction or fertility in any way?

There is no evidence of that. 

“Unfounded claims linking COVID-19 vaccines to infertility have been scientifically disproven,” says a March 4 practice advisory from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “ACOG recommends vaccination for all eligible people who may consider future pregnancy.”

The vaccines impacting reproductive health and fertility is a “myth,” Christ said during a recent call answering questions from the community.

“It’s not true that it will impact your fertility or your reproductive status. There was an article online that was going through about the structure of that protein resembled a structure of part of the reproductive proteins, but it is not long enough. It was determined not to be big enough to actually have it recognized. So there is no impact on fertility or your reproductive status if you get the vaccine,” she said.

The FDA also says there is no scientific evidence to suggest that these vaccines could cause infertility in women.

U.S. officials say infertility is not known to happen as a result of natural COVID-19 disease, which shows that immune responses to the virus, whether induced by infection or a vaccine, are not a cause of infertility.

Can I get the COVID-19 vaccine if I’m pregnant? 

ADHS says people who are pregnant or breastfeeding may decide to take a vaccine, and it may be helpful to talk to their health care provider in making the decision. 

Pregnant people can be at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 compared to non-pregnant people, the CDC says. 

But there are limited data available about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant people, the CDC says, even though they are “unlikely to pose a specific risk.” Clinical trials focused on this are underway. The CDC has more information on this topic.

What are the most common side effects after getting a COVID-19 vaccine?

The COVID-19 vaccine can cause short-term side effects such as pain, redness or swelling at the injection site, fatigue, chills, fever, nausea headache or body aches. 

For Pfizer and Moderna, those short-term side effects often arise within 24 hours to 72 hours after the shot, and most often after the second dose. Side effects should go away within a few days of the shot. 

There were no major safety concerns from the vaccines during clinical trials. 

Will the COVID-19 vaccine cause any coronavirus symptoms?

Coughing, shortness of breath and loss of smell and taste are not side effects of the vaccines. If you have those after getting the shot, you should be evaluated for possibly having COVID-19 separate from the vaccine, ADHS says. 

The CDC has a webpage with more information on possible side effects. 

Why do the COVID-19 vaccines have side effects?

Side effects are a good thing — they mean your body is building protection against COVID-19 through an immune response. Your body is not actively fighting the virus, but is building the tools to do so if you get infected in the future. Side effects are a sign your body is responding. 

I’ve heard the COVID-19 vaccine side effects are so bad that I might end up in the hospital. Is that true?

It’s unlikely that the COVID-19 vaccine will cause hospitalization.

Severe reactions to the vaccines are rare and are reported to a national system called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System so that CDC can monitor the vaccine’s safety and follow up with any studies if needed.

During the first month of vaccine rollout in the U.S., 13.8 million vaccine doses were administered, and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System received and processed nearly 7,000 reports of adverse events after vaccination. Of those reports, 91% were classified as non-serious and 9% (640) were classified as serious, a recent CDC report says.

The most frequent side effects were headache, fatigue and dizziness, the CDC report says. Reports of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, were “rare,” the report says, and reactions were more commonly reported after the second Pfizer vaccine dose than the first. Data from the second dose of Moderna were not available because of the timing of the study and the time required in between Moderna doses.

The research, published in the CDC’s Feb. 26 Morbidity and Mortality weekly report, found that during the first month of COVID-19 vaccine administration in the U.S., from Dec. 14 to Jan. 13, reactions to the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were common, and there were 46 reports of anaphylaxis following the Pfizer vaccine and 16 after the Moderna.

The CDC has also developed a “V-safe after vaccination health checker” smartphone-based surveillance tool for people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine to report any side effects directly to the federal agency.

Side effects should resolve within a couple of days, the CDC says. People should call their doctor if their shoulder redness or tenderness worsens after 24 hours or if their side effects are concerning or not resolving after a few days.

How common are adverse reactions?

Side effects are common, but serious adverse reactions are not.

The CDC report on vaccines, led by the CDC’s COVID-19 response team and researchers from the FDA, said 113 deaths were reported to the federal adverse events reporting system for the COVID-19 vaccine, most of them among long-term care facility residents.

The death numbers were consistent with all-cause mortality rates, CDC researchers found, “and did not indicate any unexpected pattern that might suggest a causal relationship with vaccination.”

The safety monitoring program for the COVID-19 vaccine is the most comprehensive in U.S. government history, CDC officials say.

“Cases of anaphylaxis after receipt of both authorized vaccines have been observed, though rarely; anaphylaxis rates are comparable with those reported after receipt of other vaccines,” the Feb. 26 CDC report says.

“No unexpected patterns of reactions or other safety concerns have been identified during early monitoring. CDC and FDA will continue to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines to inform vaccination policy and to maintain public confidence,” the report says.

If I have COVID-19, can I still get vaccinated? 

If you have COVID-19 and are eligible for a vaccine, the recommendation is to wait until you no longer have symptoms and are finished with your isolation period before getting vaccinated. But Christ said there’s no need to get a COVID-19 test to make sure you don’t have the virus without symptoms prior to getting the vaccine. 

Can we stop wearing masks after getting the COVID-19 vaccine?

Individuals are considered fully protected against COVID-19 about two weeks after their final vaccine dose. That means two weeks after the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna, or two weeks after the first and only dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

The CDC says if it’s been less than two weeks since the shot, you should not consider yourself fully protected against the virus and you should keep up things such as wearing masks, distancing, avoiding crowds and washing hands. 

Even when fully vaccinated, people should still take precautions such as wearing masks and socially distancing in public places until more data is collected on how vaccines impact the spread of the virus, per the CDC. 

Will I have to get the COVID-19 vaccine every year?

That’s not yet known. Researchers are still studying how long protection from the vaccines lasts, which will determine how often we need booster shots.

What are the different vaccine types? 

As of March 15, there were three approved vaccines in use in Arizona that are two different types — mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) and viral vector vaccines (Johnson & Johnson). Other vaccines are still in clinical trials.

The mRNA, or messenger RNA vaccines, are a new vaccine type that teaches cells to make proteins that spark an immune response. The immune response produces antibodies that protect the body from getting infected from COVID-19. mRNA vaccines do not contain the live virus and do not interact with DNA. 

Viral vector vaccines such as J&J use an adjusted version of a different virus, called the vector, to send messages to cells. The vector is not COVID-19, but rather is a different benign virus, and causes cells to produce a protein that matches that of COVID-19, causing an immune response that produces antibodies. The body has learned how to protect against COVID-19 in the future. Like mRNA vaccines, this kind of vaccine does not cause COVID-19 infection and does not interact with DNA.

Can I trust the COVID-19 vaccine?

The available vaccines have been through rigorous clinical trials and approval processes.

But there’s a lot of information circulating about the vaccines, whether on social media, in conversations with friends or on Clubhouse, an invitation-only audio app where conversations about the COVID-19 vaccine are taking place. Some of it’s accurate, some is not.

Asked during a tele-town hall call whether the vaccine could be trusted given past public health wrongs like the Tuskegee experiment, Christ said yes. 

“We know that there is mistrust due to historical reasons. … That is why we have been working with faith leaders and community leaders to show that this vaccine is safe and effective. And in the clinical trials, it was very effective at stopping hospitalization and death. And so we definitely want to make sure that you’re protected and you’re covered.”

There’s an adage that fears can be flattened with facts, but in some cases, patients with lingering questions and doubts may do better to speak with someone they trust, such as a primary care doctor, said Dr. Natasha Bhuyan, a family physician in Phoenix and a faculty member at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix.

“Patients have been inundated with mixed messaging about COVID, about COVID transmission, about emerging therapies and, obviously, the efficacy of masks. And now the same goes for vaccines,” Bhuyan said during a March 10 web briefing. “A conversation with a trusted clinician is a powerful tool.”

Let us know if you have other vaccine questions. Reach the reporter at [email protected] or at 602-444-4282. Follow her on Twitter @alisteinbach.

Reach health care reporter Stephanie Innes at [email protected] or at 602-444-8369. Follow her on Twitter @stephanieinnes.

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