Information on COVID-19 Pfizer (Comirnaty) vaccine
About the vaccine
Comirnaty (Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd) is a vaccine that can prevent people from becoming ill from COVID-19. Comirnaty does not contain any live virus, and it cannot give you COVID-19. It contains the genetic code for an important part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called the spike protein. After getting the vaccine, your body makes copies of the spike protein, and your immune system will learn to recognise and fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.
To prevent COVID-19, everyone aged 16 years and older should get vaccinated, with a few exceptions specified in this information sheet. Vaccination is voluntary.
You can discuss any concerns or questions you have about COVID-19 vaccination with your immunisation provider and/or your GP before you receive the vaccine.
Benefits of the vaccine
A very large clinical trial showed that Comirnaty is effective in preventing COVID-19 in people aged 16 years and older. People who had two doses of Comirnaty were about 95 per cent less likely to get COVID-19 than people who did not get the vaccine. It was equally effective in people over the age of 65 years, and as people with some stable pre-existing medical conditions.
Protection against COVID-19 starts from about 2–3 weeks after the first dose. While one dose may give some protection, it may only last for the short-term. Two doses will give optimal protection. No vaccine is 100 per cent effective, so it is possible that you can still get sick from COVID-19 after vaccination. We do not know how long the protection from Comirnaty will last. We will learn more about this over time.
We currently do not know how effective COVID-19 vaccines are at preventing spread of the virus. This means that SARS-CoV-2 could potentially still infect a vaccinated person. Even if they have no symptoms or only mild symptoms they could still pass it on to others.
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