After you receive your vaccination – be sure to register for V-Safe , an ‘after vaccination’ health checker.
V-safe is a smartphone-based tool that uses text messaging and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins after you receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Through v-safe, you or your patients can quickly tell CDC if there have been any side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Depending on the answers, someone from CDC may call to check on and get more information. V-safe will also remind you or your patients to get the second COVID-19 vaccine dose if you need one.
Note: V-safe cannot schedule vaccine appointments, including second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. If there is a need to schedule, reschedule, or cancel a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, contact the location that set up the appointment or a vaccine provider in your area. This may be your state or local health department, employer, or vaccine provider.
If you have experienced a side effect after COVID-19 vaccination, you can report it to:
VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System)
Established in 1990, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a national early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines. VAERS is co-managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). VAERS accepts and analyzes reports of adverse events (possible side effects) after a person has received a vaccination. Anyone can report an adverse event to VAERS. Healthcare professionals are required to report certain adverse events and vaccine manufacturers are required to report all adverse events that come to their attention.
VAERS is a passive reporting system, meaning it relies on individuals to send in reports of their experiences to CDC and FDA. VAERS is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem, but is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse event reporting that might indicate a possible safety problem with a vaccine. This way, VAERS can provide CDC and FDA with valuable information that additional work and evaluation is necessary to further assess a possible safety concern. More about VAERS…