I have HIV, can I get the COVID Vaccine?

Have COVID-19 vaccines been tested on people with HIV? 

Both the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccine clinical trials recruited people with HIV (PWH); there were 196 for the Pfizer trial and 176 for the Moderna trial. However, there is not enough data to evaluate safety and effectiveness specifically for PWH. 

Other vaccines are also including PWH in clinical trials. For the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine, 44 PWH in South Africa were included. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial in the US included 2.8% PWH; this is the highest percent of PWH in a COVID-19 vaccine trials thus far.

Is the vaccine safe for people with HIV? 

The short answer? Yes! Vaccines are designed to be as safe as possible and PWH are receiving COVID-19 vaccines every day. It is true that PWH who have CD4/T-cell counts below 200 should avoid live-virus vaccines until their T cells are higher. But none of the COVID vaccines approved or in trials use live viruses in their vaccines. 

There is no reason to believe that COVID-19 vaccines pose a risk to PWH, no matter their HIV viral load or CD4/T-cell counts.  Based on this, the CDC recommends that PWH can be vaccinated for COVID-19 when it becomes available.

Last update: February 25, 2021, 15:00 ET

Science review: SGB, ERS