Pregnant women urged to get vaccinated amid skyrocketing US vaccination rates | Coronavirus

In the United States, only a third of pregnant adults have received Covid vaccines, less than half the vaccination rate of all American adults. And large disparities exist between different communities, with only 15.6% of black pregnant women vaccinated so far.

At the same time, pregnancy is a risk factor for serious illness from the coronavirus. Being pregnant and unvaccinated doubles the risk of needing intensive care for people with Covid, and leads to a 70% increase in the risk of death. In August alone, 22 pregnant women died from the virus.

Births are also more likely to be premature or stillborn, and newborns can fight Covid infection as well.

It is also important to vaccinate breastfeeding parents, both to form a cocoon of immunity around newborns and to pass antibodies into milk, experts say.

New research reveals that the Delta variant is hitting pregnant women more than ever. A study published this month found that the hospitalization rate of pregnant patients has more than doubled since last year, due to the Delta variant.

“Prevention is really the key here, as there is no proven or approved cure for Covid-19,” said Emily Adhikari, lead author of the study as well as maternal and fetal medicine specialist and assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

“We are very concerned that this is hitting a relatively under-vaccinated group because pregnant patients have fallen behind the rest of the population to get vaccinated. And because they’re more vulnerable to serious illness – it’s bad now, ”Adhikari told The Guardian.

Anna Euser was 32 weeks pregnant when she was given the injection late last year, and she took it immediately.

At that time, there were no data from clinical trials on the effectiveness of vaccines in pregnant women. But Euser is an obstetrician / gynecologist and associate professor of maternal fetal medicine in the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She had seen with her own eyes how Covid is wreaking havoc on pregnant people and their families.

“I felt very comfortable with the benefits of the vaccine and the importance of getting it to protect myself and my daughter because it was one of the few things I could do to protect her,” said Euser at the Guardian. “It was really the only strategy we had to try to protect ourselves and our children. “

Now, thanks to volunteers like Euster, we have data on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in pregnant and breastfeeding people. She was one of 827 participants in a study finding vaccines to be very safe.

But due to increasing cases and late vaccination rates, Euser is now having difficult conversations with some of his unvaccinated patients: what if they have to give birth early to help the parent fight. Covid? Who will make the decisions for the baby if the parent is intubated and cannot speak?

“We are really trying to do our best for our patients and recommend vaccination, but there is a lot of basic hesitation in a lot of people,” Euser said.

Part of the reason is that pregnant and breastfeeding women are frequently bombarded with disinformation and disinformation campaigns.

“We are dealing with coordinated disinformation campaigns, and they definitely target pregnant women,” Dr. Cecilia Tomori, director of global public and community health at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, told The Guardian. “Fertility, reproduction and children have been the main vaccine targets for a long time. “

Due to the lag of established data on vaccine safety and efficacy among these demographics, misinformation has had ample time to take hold, she said. And health disparities mean that some communities suffer more from low immunization and high case rates.

“It’s just devastating to see this unfold,” said Tomori. “It’s a cascade of roller coaster disasters.”

Practitioners feel very confident in recommending the vaccine as safe and effective, Euser said. “The vaccine is one of the best-studied things around. There is much more evidence on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines than, for example, on experimental treatments such as monoclonal antibodies and other drugs, as well as on the use of ECMO, a type of vital assistance machine, during pregnancy.

Today, amid the wave of cases and deaths, experts are pleading with pregnant and breastfeeding women to speak with reliable sources of information, like their doctors, about immunization.

“We have again seen, with this latest surge, younger and younger patients arriving extremely sick, and it tells us that we are not reaching all the patients,” Adhikari said. But vaccines “could really potentially save lives.”