The Ministry of Health considers priority vaccination of pregnant women

The health ministry will likely recommend that pregnant women get vaccinated, according to its deputy managing director Itamar Grotto.

“We know that pregnancy” puts women at high risk for severe cases of coronavirus, Grotto said in an interview with KAN News. “We recommend that pregnant women get vaccinated.”

Sources at the ministry reportedly said a decision on the matter would be finalized the next day, likely a decision giving preference to pregnant women. So far, neither the World Health Organization nor Pfizer have recommended allowing pregnant women to receive the vaccine because the company’s clinical trials have not included pregnant women.

Grotto’s remarks came shortly after Dr Gili Regev-Yochay, head of the infectious disease epidemiology unit at Sheba Medical Center, said she was also encouraging pregnant women to be vaccinated, as more of them appear in the country’s coronavirus intensive care units in serious condition.

“To all pregnant women who are reluctant to go for a COVID vaccine, I personally really recommend it,” she said. “I think getting COVID while you’re pregnant is worse than getting a vaccine that doesn’t seem to endanger pregnant women in any way. We administer the flu and pertussis vaccine during pregnancy. An mRNA vaccine shouldn’t be more dangerous in any way, and COVID infection is definitely “that kind of vaccine”.

More than 30 pregnant women are hospitalized with the virus, including a dozen in serious or critical condition. There have been several premature cesarean deliveries in recent days for women who needed intubation.

LATE MONDAY evening, Beilinson reported that a 35-year-old woman infected with the virus in her 31st week of pregnancy was admitted to hospital after her condition deteriorated. Upon arrival, it was decided to intubate and deliver the baby, who is now in stable condition and ventilated at Schneider Children’s Medical Center.

The Israeli Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, together with the National Council of Gynecology and Genetics and the Israel Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine, sent a letter to the Ministry of Health on Monday morning calling on the ministry to approve the vaccination of women. pregnant and breastfeeding.

“There is no scientific basis or facts that indicate infertility as a result of the vaccine,” the company wrote. “The coronavirus can be harmful during pregnancy, causing more serious illness and premature birth.”

Likewise, Professor Yariv Yogev, director of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department in Sheba, told the Puah Institute’s annual conference earlier this month that pregnant women should receive the vaccine, especially if they have any symptoms. risk factors.

He said the vaccine does not cause abortions or fetal malformations, and it does not pass into the milk of nursing women.

However, at the conference, fertility specialists noted that there is a lack of in-depth research on the subject and that great uncertainty remains around the vaccine’s effects on fertility, pregnancy, childbirth and more. genetic.

WHEN it comes to clinical trials, children and pregnant women are generally considered special populations and therefore were not included in Pfizer trials.

“When it comes to this particular vaccine, people have to remember that it is not an approved vaccine per se. It is an authorized vaccine in case of emergency and the main reason is that we are convinced that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks ”, explained Professor Cyrille Cohen, head of the laboratory of immunotherapy at Bar-Ilan University. “When it comes to these populations – children and pregnant women – we have to ask ourselves if this premise is still true.

He said that with children, the answer is likely no, as there are few or no cases of children who develop severe cases of COVID-19.

In the first wave, Israel saw very few pregnant women contract the virus or experience severe cases, which has changed in this recent wave, especially with the UK mutation.

“It’s a violent wave and more severe [of coronavirus] than its predecessors, ”said Professor Arnon Wiznitzer, obstetrician and gynecologist at Beilinson. “It also affects the population of young pregnant women.”

Cohen said the risk of developing severe symptoms is increased in pregnant women.

“Is it 1% or 15% more? We don’t know, ”he noted. But he said providing treatment to pregnant women is also more complicated, often resulting in the need to give birth prematurely. It also puts babies at risk.

“Two hours ago, I was at Schneider’s nursery. There are four babies there whose mothers are in the coronavirus intensive care unit in Beilinson, 100 meters from us, ”said hospital rabbi Rabbi Asher Laby. “I know one of the families. The baby came in and I looked out the nursery window. He’s so cute and sweet – this baby lying in bed and his mother in critical and potentially fatal circumstances. She is on a ventilator and is living on drugs. “

He said he cried for the baby and “I prayed to God, ‘That this boy, when he cries, may receive a kiss and a hug from his mother.”

“It’s a call to humanity,” the rabbi continued, “Follow the rules. These babies haven’t done anything wrong.