Study shows pregnant women are at much higher risk of progressing to Covid

 Pregnant women who are vaccinated against the coronavirus are almost twice as likely to contract COVID-19 as non-pregnant women, according to a new study that provides the most comprehensive evidence yet of the risks of infection in women vaccinated with different vaccines. Conditions.

The analysis, based on the medical records of nearly 14 million US patients since the coronavirus vaccine became available, found vaccinated pregnant women have the highest risk of contracting Covid, including organ transplant recipients and cancer, among a dozen states.

The findings add to research showing that people who are pregnant or have recently given birth and who have been infected are particularly likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19. And Covid has been found to increase the risk of pregnancy complications like preterm birth.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus before or during pregnancy in a bid to allay widespread fears in some communities without any scientific basis that such vaccines could be harmful. According to federal data, as of March nearly 70% of pregnant women had been vaccinated before or during pregnancy, although racial and ethnic differences remain.

The new study goes beyond previous understanding and suggests that even fully vaccinated pregnant women tend to have less protection from the virus than many other patients with serious medical conditions.

"If you're fully immunized, that's great," said study lead author David R. Little, a physician and researcher at Epic, a Wisconsin company that maintains electronic health records for nearly 1,000 hospitals and more than 20,000 clinics. Across the country. "But if she is fully vaccinated and becomes pregnant, there is still a higher risk of contracting Covid."

Little said the findings support CDC recommendations that extra precautions against the virus, such as wearing masks and maintaining safe distances, should be taken during pregnancy. He said the study also suggests health workers should "keep an eye out" for symptoms and encourage testing to catch the virus early, when it's easier to treat.

According to public health officials and pregnancy experts, the data also raises scientific questions that warrant further research into how best to protect pregnant women and their babies from infection.

"For me, the biggest question raised by the new study is whether there is an increased rate of serious illness and death in pregnant patients some time after vaccination," said Brenna L. Hughes, vice chair of obstetrics and quality at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University School of Medicine.

“I did not bring a single vaccinated patient to the intensive care unit. They haven't all been vaccinated," Hughes said. "Of course we're concerned because the boosts are fading." There's no research to know if the protection afforded by coronavirus vaccines lasts just as long and in pregnant women lasts longer than others.

The study did not assess how sick patients became when they contracted COVID after vaccination.

Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said Epic's findings underscore the need to understand whether it's more helpful to get vaccinated before or shortly after pregnancy, the most useful time interval between injections and dose. better. These issues, he said, apply to the well-being of pregnant patients and their babies.

"There's a lot of good science here," Benjamin said. But for now, he added: "People shouldn't panic. Vaccination does not make you sick. He argues that he probably needs a little more vaccine.

The analysis was based on Epic medical records of 13.8 million patients between January 2021, when the first people in the United States were fully vaccinated and given adequate time to develop immunity, and late January this year. Little and his colleagues examined the risk of 12 comorbidities over this period. The study included delta and omicron rises but did not differentiate the rate of breakthrough infections during these rises.