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Page 8 The Skanner Portland & Seattle April 21, 2021 News New Data Reassuring for COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy O ne of the largest re- ports on COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy bolsters evidence that it is safe although the authors say more comprehensive re- search is needed. The preliminary re- sults are based on re- ports from over 35,000 U.S. women who re- ceived either the Moder- na or Pfizer shots while pregnant. Their rates of miscarriage, premature births and other compli- cations were comparable to those observed in pub- lished reports on preg- nant women before the pandemic. The new evidence from researchers at the fed- eral Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was published Wednes- day in the New England Journal of Medicine. None of the women involved received John- son & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine, which became available after the study, and is now in limbo as U.S. authorities examine reports of blood clots in a handful of women. Separately, the Amer- ican Society for Repro- ductive Medicine on Tuesday endorsed vac- cination in pregnancy, based on evidence it has “ Everyone, including pregnant women and those seeking to become pregnant, should get a COVID-19 vaccine. been evaluating for over a year. ‘’Everyone, including pregnant women and those seeking to become pregnant, should get a COVID-19 vaccine. The AP PHOTO/CHARLES KRUPA By LINDSEY TANNER AP Medical Writer In this Thursday, May 7, 2020 file photo, a pregnant woman wearing a face mask and gloves holds her belly as she waits in line for groceries with hundreds during a food pantry sponsored by Healthy Waltham for those in need due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak, at St. Mary’s Church in Waltham, Mass. One of the largest reports on Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy bolsters evidence that it is safe although more rigorous research is needed. The new evidence from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was published Wednesday, April 21, 2021, in the New England Journal of Medicine. Johnson & Johnson’s now paused vaccine was not included. vaccines are safe and ef- fective,’’ the society said in a statement. A society representa- tive said the group has not evaluated the latest evidence on Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine. An American College of Obstetricians and Gy- necologists representa- tive said the CDC report is promising but that longer-term follow-up is needed. That group has said previously that COVID-19 vaccination should be available to pregnant women and to those who are breast- feeding, and many preg- nant U.S. women have chosen to be vaccinated. Although pregnant women were excluded from studies that led to emergency authoriza- tion for the vaccines, ev- idence showed no harms in women who were unknowingly pregnant when they enrolled. Dr. Laura Riley, ob-gyn chair at New York’s Wei- ll Cornell Medicine, said the new results are reas- suring. ‘’It is great to have data to share with our pa- tients who continue to weigh the risks and ben- efits of vaccination,” she said. “They know the po- tential complications of COVID infection in preg- nancy and now there is some safety data in hu- man pregnancies.’’ Pregnant women who become infected with the coronavirus face elevated risks for com- plications including in- tensive-care hospitaliza- tion, premature births and death. The study authors, led by the CDC’s Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, said con- tinued monitoring and more evidence is needed including on women who get COVID-19 vaccina- tions in the early stages of pregnancy. Their study included information on 35,691 pregnant U.S. wom- en who participated in a voluntary smart- phone-based vaccination surveillance system and who received Moderna or Pfizer vaccines be- tween mid-December 2020 and late February. It also included reports on pregnancy complica- tions from almost 4,000 women enrolled in a U.S. vaccine safety regis- try. Of these, 86% or 712 resulted in a live birth, mostly among women vaccinated in the third trimester. Most women in the sur- veillance group reported injection site pain but more serious reactions were less common. Preg- nant women seemed more prone to injection site pain with both vac- cines but less likely to experience other reac- tions than non-pregnant women. In the vaccine registry, about 13% of pregnant women reported mis- carriages, less than 1% stillbirths, 9% premature births and 2% birth de- fects. Those rates are all within the same range observed in reports in pregnant women before the pandemic.
