Preteens & Teens

To Find a COVID-19 Vaccine for Your Preteen/Teen:

• Check with your child’s healthcare provider about whether they will offer COVID-19 vaccination.
• Check your local pharmacy’s website to see if vaccination walk-ins or appointments are available.
• Contact your state or local health department for more information.
• Check vaccines.gov to find COVID-19 vaccine appointments

More Information

• Find more answers to your COVID-19 vaccine questions on our COVID-19 Vaccine Q&A page.
• FDA’s Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Fact Sheet for Caregivers and Patients
• AAP, CDC recommend COVID-19 vaccine for ages 12 and older (American Academy of Pediatrics)
• Getting Your Child Ready for the COVID-19 Vaccine (AAP’s Healthy Children)
• The Science Behind the COVID-19 Vaccine: Parent FAQs (AAP’s Healthy Children)
• Questions & Answers about COVID (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)

Yes. The CDC says that it is OK for your preteen and teen (12 years old or older) to get their routine vaccines at the same time as the COVID-19 vaccine.

Ask your healthcare provider what vaccines your preteen & teen needs or see the recommended vaccine schedule on this page.

It depends on which state you live in.

Learn more about this issue in an episode of PBS’ Above the Noise with host Myles Bess. In this video, Myles investigates the trend of teens wanting to get vaccinated without parental consent, in addition to the history of vaccines and the movement against them. He also speaks with Kelly Danielpour, a high school senior who founded VaxTeen – an organization that provides resources for teens to learn more. Watch now.

More Info

• Read Ethan’s informed choice story
• Paying for Vaccines Online Tool

Vaccines approved for use in the United States are required to go through three phases of clinical trials and years of extensive safety testing before they are approved (or authorized) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

After approval or authorization, each vaccine continues to be continuously monitored for any safety by CDC and FDA . This monitoring looks for any rare or new problems that may happen after vaccination.

In the U.S., there are four different vaccine safety surveillance systems in place to watch routine vaccines AFTER they are approved by FDA and recommended for use by CDC.

• Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)
• Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD)
• Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment Project (CISA)
• Post-Licensure Rapid Immunization Safety Monitoring System (PRISM)

Any serious safety problems found with these vaccines will be reported to health officials, healthcare providers, and the public.

What about the Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines?

While COVID-19 vaccines were developed faster than other vaccines, safety was (and still is) a top priority.

Before being authorized for use by FDA:

• Each COVID-19 vaccine was tested through three phases of clinical trials.
  • To test the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in kids between 12 and 15 years old, there was a clinical trial with more than 2,000 children in this age group.
    • Among the 1,000 adolescents who got the COVID-19 vaccine, there were no cases of COVID-19.  The vaccine was shown to be 100% effective at preventing COVID-19 with symptoms. In the kids that didn’t get the vaccine, 16 of them got COVID.
    • Children’s immune systems responded to the COVID vaccine in a way similar to those of older teens and young adults.
    • No safety concerns were identified in the clinical trials.
• After the clinical trials, the data was carefully reviewed by the FDA and their advisory committee (VRBPAC), and the CDC and their advisory committee (ACIP). The FDA and CDC agree that the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the risks of the vaccines.

Since they were authorized for emergency use by the FDA:

• Millions of people in the U.S. have received COVID-19 vaccines.
• COVID vaccines continue to be monitored for safety using both established systems like VAERS and new safety monitoring systems like V-Safe. Learn more about COVID-19 vaccines and how they monitored for safety on our COVID Vaccine Q&A page.
• According to CDC, “these vaccines have undergone and will continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history. “

Learn More

Yes, the HPV vaccine is very safe and effective at preventing HPV. Before the three HPV vaccines were licensed for use in the U.S. by the FDA, each went through years of testing in thousands of people through clinical trials to make sure they were safe. After being licensed, the the CDC and FDA continued to monitor the safety of the HPV vaccines through the four post-licensure vaccine safety surveillance systems in the U.S. to look for rare or new problems that may happen after vaccination. Since HPV vaccine became available in 2006, there have been many large safety studies conducted in the U.S. and other countries, and over 100 million doses of HPV vaccines were distributed in the United States. HPV vaccines have continued to have good safety records, and careful safety monitoring has not shown any problems. No deaths have been shown to be caused by HPV vaccinations.

Of course, vaccines, like any medicine, can have side effects. Many people who get the HPV vaccine have no side effects at all, while others report having very mild side effects, like a sore arm from the shot. The most common side effects of HPV vaccine include:

• Pain, redness, or swelling in the arm where the shot was given
• Fever
• Headache or feeling tired
• Nausea
• Muscle or joint pain

There have been some reports of fainting after HPV vaccination, which is not usual. Sometimes people, especially teens, faint after they get shots. To make sure your child doesn’t get injured if they fall from fainting, your healthcare provider might ask your child to stay seated after getting the vaccine to help protect him/her.

No, there is no evidence that HPV vaccination causes fertility or reproductive problems. In fact, getting HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer, can help ensure a woman’s ability to get pregnant and have healthy babies.

For example, a woman who develops cervical cancer later in life due to HPV infection may require serious treatments that could leave her unable to have children. It’s also possible that treatment for cervical pre-cancer could put a woman at risk for problems with her cervix, which could cause preterm delivery or other problems. HPV vaccination can help prevent these complications.

There have actually been scientific studies that have looked at this issue, and they show that there is no correlation between receiving the HPV vaccine and increased rates of, or earlier engagement in, sexual activity.

Like all vaccines, we want to give HPV vaccine earlier rather than later – before your child is exposed to HPV. Preteens should receive all recommended doses of the HPV vaccine series long before they begin any type of sexual activity. Even if your child delays sexual activity until marriage, or only has one partner in the future, he or she could still be exposed to HPV if his/her partner has been exposed to HPV. Studies have shown that the HPV vaccine is most e­ffective in preventing the virus, and therefore, HPV-related cancers, when given at age 11 or 12.

There are two types of meningococcal vaccines available in the United States. Each type helps protect your child against different serogroups (strains) of meningococcal disease. Meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY) is routinely recommended for preteens and teens to protect against four serogroups (A, C, W, and Y).

Serogroup (B) meningococcal vaccine (MenB) protects against serogroup B and is available for adolescents and young adults 16 through 23 years old. Currently, there is not a meningococcal vaccine that offers protection against all common serogroups in one shot.

Ask your child’s doctor about BOTH meningococcal vaccinations (MenACWY and MenB).

Learn more.