Doc’s caution on blanket jabs for pregnancies

VACCINATING all pregnant women against Covid-19 should be approached with an “abundance of caution”, a senior HSE doctor has said.

Obstetrician Professor Peter Mckenna added they should protect themselves even more than the general population.

The doctor, who heads the HSE’S National Women’s Infants programme, was speaking about six cases of stillbirth this year in which Covid-placentitis has been linked to infected women.

The condition is where the placenta gets infected and in turn can impact the unborn baby.

Prof Mckenna told RTE: “The current advice that if you’re in a high-risk category, and you’re pregnant, you should be vaccinated because if you do get Covid it poses a real risk to that mother never mind to the baby.

“I think that it’s a very big step in saying that if you’re high risk, you should be vaccinated, to going on and saying all pregnant women should be vaccinated.

“The reason I say this is that the condition that I’m talking about Covid placentitis - the disease has been here for 15 months, and we’re only beginning to become aware of this possible complication.

“So it’s difficult to see how we can extrapolate that to saying that for all pregnant women the vaccine couldn’t possibly have any complications.

“So out of an abundance of caution I would say it’s a big step from saying, pregnant women at risk should be vaccinated, to all pregnant women should be vaccinated.”

Prof Mckenna added 60,000 babies have been born in Ireland since the pandemic began, with just six stillbirths linked to condition.