mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Are Safe for Pregnant People: Lancet Study

Both the mRNA COVID vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer were found to be safe for pregnant people.

This study brings attention to the fact that vaccination rates among pregnant people continue to be lower than that of non-pregnant people of reproductive age.

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mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines are safe for pregnant people finds a new study published in medical journal the Lancet on 11 August.

Based on data from the Canadian National Vaccine Safety (CANVAS) Network, the researchers assessed ‘adverse events’ (miscarriages or stillbirths) in the weeks following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination among pregnant people.

They also compared the two mRNA COVID vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer.

They noted that there was a significant lack of data associated with clinical trials of pregnant people, which was partly why they choose to conduct this research.

Key Points of The Study

The study compared data on vaccinated as well as unvaccinated pregnant people during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The study involved,

• 5567 pregnant people who had received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine

• 3108 participants who received both doses

• 1216 of these participants were vaccinated with Moderna and 1892 were vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine.

• 339 unvaccinated people were also part of the study.

What Did This Study Find?

In this large scale study, the authors found that 66 (or 4 percent) of the 5567 pregnant women who were vaccinated reported, what is known as, a ‘significant health event’ after taking the 1st dose of both the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer BioTECH (or BNT162b2) vaccine.

After the 2nd dose, 227 (7.3 percent) out of 3108 people reported significant health events.

Among them, 139 (11.4 percent) out of 1216 who took the Moderna vaccine reported significant health events while 80 (4.2percent) out of 1892 of those that took the Pfizer vaccine reported the same.

The must common health events experienced by pregnant women are malaise and migraines

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The most common significant health events experienced by pregnant women were malaise or myalgia (feeling tired for no reason) and migraines.

Only less than 1 percent of participants across all groups experienced serious health events that required hospital admission.

Researchers found that the most adverse pregnancy outcome (that of a miscarriage or stillbirth) was reported in 81 of 5597 vaccinated participants, and 7 out of the 339 unvaccinated pregnant people involved in the study.

This means that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines wouldn’t have an adverse effect on pregnant people (at least according to the limited data available to the researchers).

On the contrary, data shows that vaccinated pregnant people have reduced odds of significant adverse outcomes in the week following each dose.

Among the 1216 women vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine, only 11 (or 0.9%) reported an adverse outcome in the 7 days after being immunised.

Why is This Study Important?

Studies have shown that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are effective at reducing the risk of severe illnesses in pregnant people.

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Other than being safe for pregnant people, studies like this one also show that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are effective at reducing the risk of severe illnesses in pregnant people.

There is also evidence to suggest that when a pregnant person is vaccinated, it also reduces the risk of severe illness and hospitalisation in the baby up to 6 months after birth. This is particularly significant as there are currently no vaccines available for infants below this age.

This study brings attention to the fact that vaccination rates among pregnant people continue to be lower than that of non-pregnant people of reproductive age, mainly owing to the lack of data on its safety and efficacy in this group.

The study authors urge healthcare providers to promote the vaccination of pregnant people across all trimesters, which is of immense importance.