How Safe Are Covid Vaccines? Here’s What We Know Now

In the largest public health campaign in history, more than 13.5 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been injected into people’s arms globally. The effort beginning in late 2020 has saved millions of lives and prevented many more cases of severe illness and persistent symptoms after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Like all pharmaceuticals, the shots carry a risk of side effects.

Most are mild and go away in a couple of days. A sore arm, muscle pain, fever and chills were reported in clinical trials that established the safety and efficacy of Covid vaccines among tens of thousands of people. After millions of people were immunized, complications — sometimes deadly — emerged, though these have proved rare, as confirmed by the largest global vaccine safety study to date, published in the journal Vaccine in February. The benefits of getting a jab have been shown to far outweigh the risks. Still, lingering safety concerns have driven some people to spurn the life-saving shots.