As coronavirus cases continued to spike worldwide through the beginning of 2021, the CDC and other informative sources have been regularly sharing updated information involving the vaccine and some new restrictions/guidelines.

Since the vaccine has started being distributed to people who have certain careers and risks, some people wonder when it will be available to them, and where/how can they get it. People worldwide and locally could even be deciding whether or not they want the vaccine based on the ingredients and effects it has on certain people. There are currently three types of vaccines open to the public called: Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. Each type specifies an age group with different health-related issues while attempting to fight the virus in the best way possible; however, it is not guaranteed that a person will not get COVID-19 even if they are vaccinated.

According to the CDC, they provided each government with recommendations as to who should get the vaccine first while having specific goals in mind “to decrease death and serious disease as much as possible, preserve functioning of society, and reduce the extra burden COVID-19 is having on people already facing disparities.” With this, as they recommend the three different types to certain people, here is the information, ingredients, safety, and effectiveness for each:

• Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine: 2 shots, 21 days apart, given in the muscle of the upper arm, does not contain eggs, preservatives, or latex, is recommended for people ages 16 and older, but is not recommended to people who are allergic to anaphylaxis. (95% effective)
• Moderna vaccine: 2 shots, one month (28 days) apart, given in the muscle of the upper arm, does not contain eggs, preservatives, or latex, is recommended for people ages 18 and older, but is not recommended to people who are allergic to anaphylaxis. (94.1% effective)
• Johnson & Johnson vaccine: 1 shot, given in the muscle of the upper arm, does not contain eggs, preservatives, or latex, is recommended for people ages 18 and older, but is not recommended to people who are allergic to anaphylaxis or polysorbate. (66.3% effective)

Overall, no matter what type of vaccine a person would get, it is proven to be less likely for someone to spread or receive the coronavirus when getting one of the types of vaccines. However, even though vaccines our being distributed more quickly and to a larger variety of people, cases continue to sky rocket worldwide, in the United States as a whole, and in our state of Pennsylvania. According to Google News, there are 123,799, 328 cases total and 104,124,037 people fully vaccinated worldwide, but there are 29,898,613 cases total and 44,910,946 people fully vaccinated just in the U.S. (while Pennsylvania makes up 993,622 cases and 1,639,030 vaccinations.) As everyone continues to become vaccinated, wear masks, and return to work/school, numbers are expected to fluctuate and hopefully begin decreasing.