Most pregnant women should not get the Covid-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech unless there is a high risk of exposure or serious illness, the WHO said.
Photograph:
Bing Guan / Bloomberg News
The World Health Organization released a new guideline on the Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna Inc. this week, generally recommending against using the vaccine during pregnancy, except for those at high risk of exposure or having a severe case.
“In the meantime, the WHO recommends not to use mRNA-1273 in pregnancy unless the benefit of vaccination for a pregnant woman outweighs the potential risks of the vaccine, such as in health professionals at high risk of exposure and pregnant women with comorbidities that put them in a high-risk group for serious Covid-19, ”says the guide. The agency said its recommendations would be updated as more data became available.
The recommendation echoes guidelines for Pfizer Inc.
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and BioNTech SEin
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vaccine launched earlier this month. The WHO said it does not recommend pregnancy testing before vaccination, nor does it recommend delaying pregnancy after vaccination. WHO recommends that vaccines be offered to breastfeeding women, saying that vaccines are unlikely to pose a risk to breastfeeding children.
Covid-19 mRNA vaccines are not made from live viruses, and mRNA, or messenger RNA – in honor of the molecular messengers that deliver genetic instructions – does not enter the cell’s nucleus and is degraded quickly, the WHO said. Studies of reproductive and developmental toxicology in animals have shown no harmful effects, the WHO added.
At the same time, there is insufficient data on actual pregnant women to assess the vaccine’s effectiveness or risk in pregnancy, the agency said. Pregnant women should receive information and advice on the lack of safety and efficacy data, he said.
Neither Moderna nor Pfizer enrolled pregnant women in their Covid-19 vaccine trials. Moderna says it plans to establish a registry to study pregnancy outcomes in mothers and babies. Pfizer says it plans to start a maternal vaccine study in the future.
Research has shown that pregnant women are at greater risk of having a severe case of Covid-19 than those who are not pregnant, and Covid-19 may be associated with an increased risk of premature birth. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that pregnant women can choose to be vaccinated if they wish, adding that a conversation with the patient’s clinical staff can help.
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Published in the print edition of January 28, 2021 as ‘Pregnant women advised to avoid modern injection’.