THE U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released new safety data to back up its recommendation that pregnant people should get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all people 12 years and older, including people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or might become pregnant in the future,” the agency said in its new guidance on Wednesday, August 11.
The CDC stressed that the benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine outweigh any known or potential risks of vaccination during pregnancy.
“There is currently no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men,” it added.
Citing a new analysis of information from the v-safe pregnancy registry, the CDC said that “scientists did not find an increased risk for miscarriage” among people who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine before 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The agency also noted that the miscarriage rates after receiving a vaccine were about 13%, which is similar to the expected rate of miscarriage among unvaccinated pregnant women.
For the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, the CDC said that no adverse pregnancy-related outcomes occurred in previous clinical trials.
“Vaccines that use the same viral vector have been given to pregnant people in all trimesters of pregnancy, including in a large-scale Ebola vaccination trial. No adverse pregnancy-related outcomes, including adverse outcomes affecting the baby, were associated with vaccination in these trials,” it explained.
In addition, the CDC said that studies in pregnant animals found that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe.
“Studies in animals receiving a Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, or Johnson & Johnson (J&J)/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy found no safety concerns in pregnant animals or their babies,” the agency maintained.
It further revealed that the COVID-19 vaccines don’t cause infection, including in pregnant people or their babies, adding that vaccination builds antibodies that might protect their baby.
“When pregnant people receive an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, their bodies build antibodies against COVID-19, similar to non-pregnant people. Antibodies made after a pregnant person received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine were found in umbilical cord blood. This means COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy might help protect babies against COVID-19,” the CDC explained.
The agency assured their new recommendations are aligned with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine. (AJPress)
