Is the vaccine safe for people who are pregnant?
Pregnant people were not included in the original COVID-19 vaccine trials. But in April, the CDC began recommending the vaccine after preliminary data published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that both the Pfizer and Moderna shots were safe for pregnant women and their babies. The study followed 35,691 women.
CDC officials said last month that they are expecting data from trials testing the vaccines on pregnant women this summer. While that data is being collected, health experts say the benefits outweigh the risks.
“So far, what we see is that there’s been many women while pregnant who have received the vaccine. And while it’s unfortunate patients who were pregnant were not included in the original vaccine trials, so our data is limited in terms of their inclusion in the trials, vaccinations have started and many women who are pregnant have received the vaccination. The safety concerns theoretically were small to begin with, and since the vaccinations have happened, there has been no signal at all of any safety concerns about pregnancy and people receiving the vaccine,” Srinivas said.
Pennsylvania’s acting state physician general, Dr. Denise Johnson, said any of the three currently approved vaccines are appropriate for pregnant women.
Are there any rare vaccine risks?
Last month, Brazil’s government suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for pregnant women, after an expectant mother died from a stroke.
In general, pregnant patients also have a slightly higher risk of getting blood clots compared to non-pregnant patients.
In the United States, the federal government briefly paused administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after some non-pregnant women had serious but rare blood clots. The CDC recommended resuming the use of the vaccine, but said women under 50 should be aware of the rare risk.
Srinivas said that it’s important to remember that those incidents were extremely rare, and that the benefits of the vaccine still outweigh the risks.
“When you vaccinate millions of people, there are rare risks you might see … But in general, we feel like, even with these very rare reports, that the benefit of vaccination outweighs any of these rare risks,” she said.