CT docs: Pregnant women should consider vaccine

Connecticut health professionals say pregnant women should at least consider getting the COVID vaccine, despite a warning from the World Health Organization that it’s not recommended.

On Tuesday, the WHO published a fact sheet on the Moderna vaccine, containing information about safety, proper dosage and whether it poses any health risks. The sheet mentioned that “the use of this vaccine in pregnant women is currently not recommended, unless they are at risk of high exposure” such as health care workers.

The WHO issued a sheet on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier in the month, containing similar recommendations on pregnant women.

But Connecticut doctors said there are no known risks from the vaccine to pregnant women. They said the problem is not enough pregnant women were included in the clinical trials. They also pointed out that pregnancy puts people at a higher risk for severe COVID-19.

“We know that pregnant women who get the virus are more likely ... to go to the ICU or be put on a mechanical ventilator. They are even at higher risk of death,” said Dr. Daniel Gottschall, vice president of medical affairs for the Fairfield region of Hartford HealthCare and St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport.

Gottschall, also a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist, said considering these risks, most pregnant women who are eligible to get the vaccine should at least discuss it with their physicians.

Audrey Merriam, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale University School of Medicine, agreed.

Though the WHO statement has been treated “like a big deal” in the media, Merriam said it echoed what experts had known all along — that there wasn’t enough research on the vaccine in pregnant women to recommend it, but there also weren’t specific dangers associated with it.

“‘Not recommended’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘Don’t get it,’ ” Merriam said.

Though the WHO statement specifically mentions that women who are at high-risk for getting COVID should consider getting the vaccine, Merriam pointed out that most pregnant women at low risk of getting the disease likely won’t be eligible for it until at least the summer anyway. By then, she said, “I hope we’ll have some good preliminary data on women who received the vaccine in pregnancy.”

In the meantime, Merriam said, pregnant women who are eligible for the vaccine should contact their physician.

“Talk about your risk, and then decide whether to get the vaccine,” she said.