Basic information on how to get your vaccine from VA
As the supply of vaccine increases, we will let you know your options with our care teams. It is your choice whether you want to get a vaccine or not. Your decision will not affect your VA health care or any of your VA benefits in any way.
Where we can offer vaccines
Our VA Health Institutions offer COVID-19 vaccines to eligible veterans currently caring for VA. We base the suitability on VA and CDC risk criteria.
Urgent care facilities and retail pharmacies in our community care network also offer COVID-19 vaccines to eligible veterans. These sites follow their local, state, or area vaccine plans. Eligible veterans do not get preference over others seeking vaccinations at these sites.
If you are going to a community care facility to get a COVID-19 vaccine, download our pharmacy information card (PDF). Show the card to the provider before you get vaccinated.
Read more about how to get a COVID-19 vaccine from a community provider
Vaccine safety
The US vaccine safety system ensures that all vaccines are as safe as possible. Safety is a top priority as federal partners work to make COVID-19 vaccines available.
Before authorizing a vaccine for use, the FDA carefully examines the available safety data and clinical trial results for that vaccine. Read the FDA fact sheets in English and other languages to learn more about the safety of the three authorized COVID-19 vaccines.
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Information Fact Sheets:
Information sheet on Modern COVID-19 vaccine:
Janssen COVID-19 Information Sheet:
We will keep a close eye on everyone who gets a COVID-19 vaccine for reactions, side effects or adverse events. An adverse event is an injury or damage that happens to someone after they have received a vaccine, which may or may not have been caused by the vaccine.
We will report this information in our vaccine monitoring and vaccination system. This is the same system we use to monitor reactions to all vaccines, including for flu and shingles.
For more information on the safety of COVID-19 vaccine in different languages, visit the CDC website:
Privacy
We share the same information with the CDC as we share for other vaccines. This includes the following information:
- Demographic information (such as age, gender, race, and ethnicity) that helps the CDC understand which groups of people receive the vaccine
- Adverse reactions to the vaccine
We will not share names or street addresses.