Available Vaccines

Information provided by the PA Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control

Currently, three vaccines are authorized and recommended to prevent COVID-19:

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

  • Recommended for people aged 16 years and older.
  • 2 shots given 21 days apart.
  • Based on evidence from clinical trials, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 95% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people without evidence of previous infection.

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine

  • Recommended for people aged 18 years and older.
  • 2 shots given 28 days apart.
  • Based on evidence from clinical trials, the Moderna vaccine was 94.1% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people who received two doses who had no evidence of being previously infected.

Johnson and Johnson Janssen's COVID-19 vaccine

  • Recommended for people aged 18 years and older.
  • 1 shot is given
  • Based on evidence from clinical trials, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was 66.3% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people who had no evidence of prior infection 2 weeks after receiving the vaccine.   
  • The vaccine had high efficacy at preventing hospitalization and death in people who did get sick. No one who got COVID-19 at least 4 weeks after receiving the J&J/Janssen vaccine had to be hospitalized.

Vaccines in Phase 3 Clinical Trials

Phase 3 clinical trials are in progress or being planned for additional COVID-19 vaccines in the United States:

  • AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine
  • Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine