COronavirus

(COVID-19)

Virginia Cooperative Extension is committed to helping people make informed vaccine decisions for themselves and their families.

Vaccination is a safe and effective tool for protecting the health and wellbeing of children and adults from life-threatening disease and long-term disability. Vaccination is crucial for protecting the health of the most vulnerable in our communities, babies, older adults, and those with compromised immune systems by preventing disease from spreading throughout communities. Virginia Cooperative Extension provides trusted, evidence-based information delivered through two Land Grant Universities, County Extension Agents, community partnerships, and public outreach and education.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a respiratory virus caused by exposure to the SARS CoV 2 virus, a member of the coronavirus family of diseases. It spreads in three main ways:

  • An infected person breathes out droplets and particles containing the virus. These droplets and particles can be breathed in by people standing close to the infected person.

  • The infected droplets and particles containing the virus land on another person’s eyes, nose, or mouth, especially when the infected person sprays droplets by coughing or sneezing

  • Touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with your hands if your hands have the virus on them, either because an infected person spread virus droplets to your hands directly, or in some circumstances, you’ve touched a contaminated surface.

COVID-19 can affect anyone, and symptoms range from mild to severe.

Boosters

Vaccine Eligibility

Just The Facts

How COVID-19 Vaccines Work

COVID-19 vaccines help our bodies develop immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 without us having to get the illness.

Different types of vaccines work in different ways to offer protection. But with all types of vaccines, the body is left with a supply of “memory” T-lymphocytes as well as B-lymphocytes that will remember how to fight that virus in the future.

It typically takes a few weeks after vaccination for the body to produce T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes. Therefore, it is possible that a person could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination and then get sick because the vaccine did not have enough time to provide protection.

Sometimes after vaccination, the process of building immunity can cause symptoms, such as fever. These symptoms are normal signs the body is building immunity.

COVID-19 Vaccines Available in the United States

There are three different types of Covid-19 vaccine. These are: viral vector, protein subunit, and mRNA.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a viral vector vaccine which introduces modified, weakened, and/or inactive variants of a virus (antigens) to teach your body how to build an immune response (antibodies) to prevent Covid-19 infection. 

The NovaVax vaccine is a protein subunit vaccine which contains small pieces (spike proteins) of the Covid-19 virus. The vaccine also contains a prompt (adjuvant) that tells your body to fight against the spoke proteins in the future.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the result of decades-long research and are made up of a technology called the mRNA vaccines. These vaccines don’t have any version of the Covid-19 virus! Not even inactive virus or parts of a virus like in traditional vaccines. The mRNA vaccines work by teaching your cells how to make a protein that triggers the antibody manufacturing process.

All of these vaccines work differently, but they all help your body practice to fight off viruses! This means when you come into contact with the real virus, your body is better prepared to fight off infection.

Johnson and Johnson

Moderna

Novavax

Pfizer