Fauci: ‘No red flags’ for pregnant women, vaccine
Some pregnant women remain unsure about getting the COVID-19 vaccine because safety data is scarce and health agency guidelines are vague and in some cases contradictory.
But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, says about 10,000 pregnant women in the U.S. have been vaccinated since the Food and Drug Administration authorized two vaccines, and so far there have been “no red flags.”
“We had a lot of pregnant women vaccinated. The FDA followed them and will continue to follow them,” he said during a media roundtable Monday at the IAS COVID-19 Conference: Prevention. “Even though we don’t have good data on it, the data that we’re collecting on it so far has no red flags.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines say the decision to be vaccinated is up to the mother in consultation with her health care provider. Fauci said Monday the agency is sticking with that recommendation.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should be made available to pregnant women who choose to get the vaccine.
But the World Health Organization updated recommendations Friday that seem to contradict U.S. agencies and organizations. WHO guidelines say pregnant women may be vaccinated only if they’re at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus, such as working in health care, or have underlying medical conditions that put them at risk for severe disease.
“We recognize that the conflicting recommendation from the World Health Organization could be unsettling for many pregnant individuals who are currently grappling with the decision about whether to get vaccinated,” said Dr. Christopher Zahn, ACOG’s vice president of practice activities.
Zahn noted that even in the absence of safety data, early evidence from animal studies have led experts to believe that there should be no harmful effects to the fetus or female reproduction.
Additionally, mRNA vaccines such as the ones made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna do not contain live virus that could make a person sick.
“With that said, each person must make the best decision for themselves, in conjunction with their clinical care team when feasible, based on the information and data that is currently available,” Zahn said.
The reason there’s little safety data is because pregnant women were excluded from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine trials. But while data on the vaccine is scant, a handful of studies have shown the dangers of COVID-19 among pregnant women.
According to a CDC study published in November, pregnant women 35 to 44 years old with COVID-19 were nearly four times as likely to require invasive ventilation and twice as likely to die than were non-pregnant women of the same age.
A more recent study from the University of Utah Health also found that pregnant women who become severely or critically ill from COVID-19 are at a greater risk of dying and experiencing serious pregnancy complications compared to pregnant women who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.