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When Vicki Singer posted a photo of her sticker proclaiming she had been “VACCINATED WITH COVID-19” on Twitter, she did not anticipate being attacked. At just over thirteen weeks pregnant, she just wanted to spread awareness and information on how to get the vaccine while waiting.
Then came the trolls.
“This poor mom-to-be thinks it’s important to roll the dice and experiment on herself and her baby’s DNA,” wrote one stranger. Another responded by suggesting that pregnant women should not be vaccinated at all.
Singer, an administrative assistant to epidemiologists at Washington University in St. Louis, had decided to get the vaccine after talking to her OB-GYNs. Her husband teaches high school in person, and Singer suffers from cerebral palsy and asthma, which her OB-GYNs warn could put her at risk if she caught COVID-19. Pregnant people also have an increased risk of becoming seriously ill and dying if they catch COVID-19, research shows.
For other pregnant women who spoke to VICE News, the decision to get the vaccine was less clear.
Neither Moderna nor Pfizer-BioNTech knowingly included pregnant women in their trials, and until recently, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control disagreed on whether pregnant women had to be vaccinated. The lack of consensus has led to confusion about the potential dangers of the vaccine versus not being vaccinated, for both a pregnant person and their baby. And even when future parents finally make a decision, they are often judged.
“Of course, I can’t guarantee that nothing will happen. I can guarantee you it’s a lot less than if I had COVID, ”Singer told VICE News. “For people on the Internet to come and say, ‘You’re doing this wrong’ – I’m like, ‘What? I am sorry? What?'”
It’s common for pregnant women to be excluded from biomedical research in the United States, but there is some evidence to suggest that getting the vaccine is safe for them. Twenty-three people who took part in Pfizer’s vaccine study became pregnant after being vaccinated or had pregnancies too early to be detected. Of these 23, 12 received the real vaccine other than a placebo; although further follow-up is needed, none of these women reported serious side effects.
Yet the WHO initially recommended that pregnant women not receive Moderna or Pfizer vaccines (unless they are at high risk of catching COVID-19). Other major medical groups – including the CDC and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – disagreed. Instead, they urged providers to let pregnant women make their own decisions about whether to roll up their sleeves.
“For people on the Internet to come and say, ‘You’re doing this wrong’ – I’m like, ‘What? I am sorry? What?'”
After mass outcry and rampant confusion over why doctors could not come to an agreement, the WHO backed down at the end of January. “We have no specific reason to believe that there will be any specific risks that outweigh the benefits of vaccination for pregnant women,” the organization said in a statement.
Even as a Columbia University physician specializing in infectious diseases, Emily Miller was initially unsure of getting the vaccine. After treating patients in the overwhelming COVID-19 cases of the Spring Wave in New York City, she knew firsthand just how devastating the disease could be. But her pregnancy complicated the decision.
“I remember asking a lot of women I work with who weren’t pregnant either but who were mothers and who were also [infectious disease] doctors, what would you do? Would you wait? Would you like to receive the vaccine? Miller recalls. Miller’s OB-GYN pointed out that because she still sees COVID-19 patients, she still has a high risk of catching the virus.
“For me, it made sense to go ahead and do it,” Miller said. “The scientist in me couldn’t find a reasonable way that the vaccine could harm the baby.”
Vaccines are generally safe, and pregnant women have been routinely vaccinated against a variety of diseases since the 1960s. But it can take years, even decades, for the full effects of the coronavirus vaccines to develop rapidly – if at all. – are known. The specter of thalidomide haunts the medical profession as well: prescribed to treat nausea in pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s, the drug has caused serious birth defects in thousands of children.
But so far, around 10,000 pregnant women have been vaccinated with Moderna or Pfizer vaccines in the United States Last Monday, Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease physician in the United States, said there had had “no alarm signal”.
A study recently published in JAMA Pediatrics also suggests that pregnant women may be able to pass antibodies to the coronavirus to their children. The study found that, among 83 new mothers in Pennsylvania, 87% of their newborn’s umbilical cords had antibodies, which may offer children some protection against the virus. In an editorial alongside the study, a researcher proposed that “maternal vaccination” could help newborns acquire antibodies.
“No one really knows the right answer in this scenario for sure,” said Danya Roshdy, a clinical pharmacy specialist who deals with infectious diseases in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is also pregnant. “And a lot of pregnant women turn to their providers and ask these questions without receiving a clear answer.”
Because Roshdy helps take care of COVID patients, she was well aware of how much damage the virus could cause. She already knew she wanted to be vaccinated by the time she spoke to her own doctor, who had no reservations.
“The cases of COVID in my area were on the rise and the risk of contracting COVID seemed to be quite high at this point,” said Roshdy. “I felt I was more worried about getting COVID and getting really sick from COVID and having bad effects on my baby from the COVID virus itself, compared to the vaccine.”
After her two injections, Roshdy had only mild side effects. For about 24 hours after her second dose, she developed chills and joint pain.
Miller received his first dose of the vaccine in December and the second in January, after the birth of his healthy daughter. When she posted a mid-take photo of his pregnant wife on Facebook, a handful of pregnant friends and colleagues asked for advice on whether they should get the shot as well.
“I think I was sort of the go-to person for a lot of my pregnant doctor friends, because I’m also pregnant. [infectious disease] doctor, and a lot of them had those same difficulties, ”Miller said. “For every woman, it’s a different kind of risk-benefit analysis.”
Emily Miller, a Columbia University physician specializing in infectious diseases, receives her COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo courtesy of Emily Miller)
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