Dr. Anthony Fauci says there were no ‘warning signs’ after tens of thousands of pregnant women received vaccines against COVID) -19.
During a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist said the months of anticipation received injections from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, with no unexpected side effects.
‘I want to point out that since the USA 9 (emergency use authorization) and under the USA, approximately 20,000 pregnant women have been vaccinated without red flags, as we say, and this is being monitored by the CDC and the FDA,’ said Fauci.
Although pregnant women have not been included in clinical trials for any of the vaccines approved in the U.S., some clinical trials including pregnant women are about to begin or are already underway, he added.
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that COVID-19 vaccines should not be used in pregnant women – and then went back on its advice and said that vaccines can be administered to pregnant women safely.
It also occurs as states like Illinois and New York expand their eligibility for vaccines to include pregnant women.
On Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci (pictured) said there were no ‘red flags’ after 20,000 pregnant women received coronavirus vaccines
Fauci said that clinical trials with pregnant women will begin or are underway, but they will not need tens of thousands, just enough volunteers to show safety and effectiveness (archive image)
WHO recommended that pregnant women not be vaccinated – and then reversed their guidelines – which would have affected more than three million pregnant women in the U.S., as the country continues to vaccinate about 1.5 million people every day. (above)
No vaccine trial to date has included pregnant women – and they are not expected to do so before the first quarter of 2021 – which means that there is no safety data, says the WHO.
The researchers want to determine whether vaccines are safe and effective in healthy, non-pregnant people, before testing them on future mothers and their future children.
‘With regard to children and pregnant women, as I mentioned in a previous discussion with this group, the fact is that we are going to start clinical trials, and some have already started. We will not need to make tens of thousands of people, ‘said Fauci.
“We will need just enough measured in hundreds to thousands for safety and whether or not we will induce an immune response that is equivalent to the immune response that has been proven to be protective in tests that have now shown to be 94% to 95% effective.”
Doctors in the United States are opposed to excluding pregnant women from vaccine recommendations due to the high risk of serious illnesses with COVID-19 and say that patients must decide for themselves whether or not they want the vaccine.
In a virtual briefing last month, WHO director of immunization Kate O’Brien emphasized that clinical trials of the Modern vaccine are needed in pregnant women.
“There is no reason to think there could be a problem with pregnancy, we are just recognizing that the data is not there at the moment,” she said.
However, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has been strongly opposed to excluding pregnant women from vaccination trials and guidelines.
In a note, the organization wrote that pregnant women must decide whether or not they want to be vaccinated and be informed of any risks.
“Pregnant individuals are more likely to have certain manifestations of serious illnesses associated with COVID-19 infection, such as admission to the ICU, mechanical ventilation and death,” says the statement.
“In addition, more than half of pregnant women also fall into another high-priority category, including frontline workers and those with underlying diseases.
‘ACOG continues to urge that, for pregnant women, the decision to vaccinate should be left to each patient, in consultation with their trusted doctor.’
Currently, there is no data on how many women became pregnant during Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine trial.
However, during the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee meeting on the recommendation of whether or not to approve the Pfizer vaccine – the only other injection approved in the United States – the researchers revealed that 23 pregnancies occurred during the study in 14 from November.
Many gynecologists are opposed to excluding pregnant women from vaccine recommendations because pregnant patients with COVID-19 are twice as likely to be admitted to ICUs and three times as likely to require mechanical ventilation (above)
Of the pregnancies, 12 were in the vaccine group and 11 were in the placebo group.
In the vaccine group, four were immunized before the last menstrual period, four within 30 days after the last menstrual period and four more than 30 days later.
In the placebo group, two were inoculated before the last menstrual period, six within 30 days after the last menstrual period and two more than 30 days later.
No results are known yet, except for a woman in the placebo group who had a miscarriage less than 20 weeks pregnant.
It is not uncommon not to include pregnant women in vaccine trials.
For example, pregnant women were never included in the flu vaccine studies, but they were encouraged by doctors to obtain it after years of data showing that the vaccine behaved normally in healthy participants.
Doctors say they are concerned that pregnant women do not receive the coronavirus vaccine because millions of pregnant or breastfeeding women make up the workforce.
In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 75 percent of the health workforce is female and about 330,000 health professionals’ may be pregnant or recently postpartum at the time vaccine implementation ‘.
Furthermore, CDC data show that pregnant patients with COVID-19 are twice as likely to be admitted to ICUs and three times as likely to need mechanical ventilation as non-pregnant women with the disease.
The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine recently called on the federal government to include pregnant and lactating women in vaccine trials.
Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, told DailyMail.com last month that she believes pregnant women need to be vaccinated
“We are completely confused by this World Health Organization statement,” said Adams Waldorf.
“And nobody really understands where this recommendation comes from. We have excellent animal safety data, we understand biologically how that [disease] works and we know the risk that pregnant patients are at risk,
“One in 80 has a chance of dying. This is real.’