The death of a pregnant woman and her fetus of COVID-19 over the weekend highlighted the growing number of pregnant women who were infected with the virus and saw new calls on Sunday for them to go and get vaccinated.
According to data published by Israeli television networks, in the last few months there has been a significant increase in pregnant women infected with the virus, something that the authorities attributed to the most aggressive variant in the United Kingdom.
In total, 7,415 pregnant women have been infected since the start of the pandemic. But the numbers have soared in recent months, from 288 in November to 1,238 in December and doubling to 2,629 in January, according to data from the Ministry of Health cited by Channel 12.
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Channel 13 reported that there are currently 50 hospitalized pregnant women, 19 in serious condition and 8 in critical condition. None of them were vaccinated.
The reports noted that only a third of pregnant women in Israel were vaccinated. However, the Ministry of Health only recommends that they get the vaccine since January 20.
The clinical trials for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that Israel is using in its mass vaccination campaign did not include pregnant or lactating women and the companies said there was not enough data to show whether there is any risk involved.
However, due to the incidence of pregnant women becoming seriously ill, the Ministry of Health changed its orientation.
“There is no evidence of damage from vaccination throughout the pregnancy,” said the Ministry of Health in a note that also included an alert.
“In pregnant women who are infected and become ill with the coronavirus, there is a higher incidence of severe onset of the disease than in a population of similar age,” said the ministry.
Channel 13 said that a month after the protocol change, there were no incidents of side effects that hurt a pregnant mother or fetus.
The situation was clearly illustrated when a pregnant woman died on Saturday night in COVID-19, who was not vaccinated against the disease because she feared she could put her unborn baby at risk.
Osnat Ben Shitrit. (Instagram)
Speaking to the media on Sunday, Osnat’s mother and sisters Ben Shitrit asked people to get the vaccines, while his brother-in-law, who admitted to being behind an anti-vaccination social media group, left the group but said he remains cautious regarding immunization.
Ronit Sianni said his daughter wanted to be vaccinated, but was concerned about safety for pregnant women.
“Go get vaccinated, don’t wait,” Sianni told Canal 13. “It’s not a game. It is a matter of life and death. “
Ben Shitrit, 32, a mother of four, died at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem. Doctors were unable to save her 30-week fetus in an emergency cesarean section. The fetus had not been infected with the virus, but was born in a critical condition and did not survive, Hadassah said.
Ben Shitrit’s brother-in-law told public broadcaster Kan that he has set up an anti-vaccination group on Facebook that has reached thousands of members and is still a member of several other groups.
Screen capture of the video of Osnat’s brother-in-law Ben Shitrit speaking to the media. (Twitter)
The man, who was not identified in the report, said that after Ben Shitrit’s death, he suspended his own group, but remains in the others.
“When you arrive at your yard, you understand the need to think differently. Now we understand the cost of coronavirus, ”he said, but he remained cautious when advising on vaccination.
The national vaccination campaign is “coercive,” he said, apparently referring to government plans to restrict participation in some aspects of public life for those who have not been vaccinated or have not recovered from the disease.
“I’m not saying to run and get vaccinated because you need to, but simply, if you want to prevent death in your home, you have the ability, you have the option of being vaccinated,” said the man.
He advised people to do other tests first to determine if they already had antibodies that could have been produced during asymptomatic infection with the virus.
Ben Shitrit’s two sisters told the station that the future mother had been in serious condition for a few days, but refused to be hospitalized.
The sisters said that when Ben Shitrit arrived at the hospital, she was already in critical condition. Echoing the mother, they call on the public to be vaccinated.
Ben Shitrit was healthy until he recently contracted the coronavirus and previously had four mild pregnancies that ended in simple births, a Hadassah Medical Center spokeswoman told The Times of Israel.
A resident of the Jerusalem area, Ben Shitrit was admitted to the hospital last Tuesday due to breathing problems and started to get worse quickly on Saturday night. Doctors noticed damage to several of his organs, and a large team, including specialists in cardiology and gynecology, was set up beside his bed.
According to a statement by Hadassah, doctors made “very prolonged” resuscitation attempts and performed an emergency cesarean section. But the mother died and “despite enormous efforts to save the fetus’ life in the intensive care unit for preterm infants”, he did not survive.
Ben Shitrit was buried on Sunday afternoon in Jerusalem.
News of his death reverberated throughout the Israeli health system, with doctors warning that this illustrates the increased danger that the so-called British variant, which now accounts for almost all Israeli COVID cases, poses to pregnant women and fetuses.
As of Sunday, more than 4.3 million citizens have received at least the first dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine that Israel is using in its mass immunization campaign, representing almost half the population. More than 2.9 million also had the second, according to data from the Ministry of Health.