Vaccinate pregnant women now

Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador should immediately extend their COVID-19 vaccination rollouts to include pregnant women.

Both provinces are being too conservative in the face of compelling evidence of potential harm to pregnant, unvaccinated individuals.

All other provinces, except Manitoba, now immunize pregnant women. Quebec began April

28. In Ontario, they are given highest priority for vaccinations.

In Atlantic Canada, P.E.I. and New Brunswick added pregnant women to COVID-19 vaccination eligibility lists last week.

The pressure to immunize pregnant individuals comes as doctors in Canada — as well as internationally — report relatively high numbers of pregnant women infected by COVID-19 needing to be hospitalized, including intensive care.

Last summer, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported pregnant women were up to five times more likely than non-pregnant women to be hospitalized if infected with COVID-19.

With more virulent, infectious virus variants now driving infections, there's likely an increased danger to pregnant women.

How urgent is the situation? Last week, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada called for all pregnant people to be immediately eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination.

Pregnant individuals with COVID face an “increased risk for hospitalization, ICU admission, mechanical ventilation and death,” the SOGC said in an April 20 statement. For many pregnant women, “the risk of being unvaccinated and susceptible to COVID-19 is substantial.”

Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador's stance has been that they're following the advice of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization. The NACI's most recent update states COVID-19 vaccines may be offered to pregnant women in authorized age groups if a risk assessment concludes benefits outweigh risks for mother and baby.

NACI holds that safety and efficacy of authorized COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant individuals “have not yet been established.”

It's accurate that pregnant individuals were not part of clinical trials done for any of the authorized vaccines in Canada.

However, we now have real-world, global data that has shown no increased risk to pregnant women after vaccination.

In fact, COVID-19 vaccinations appear beneficial to both mother and child in terms of protection from the coronavirus.

A study published last month in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found the new mRNA vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna) not only lead to robust immune responses in pregnant and lactating women, but also that protective antibodies produced by the mother are passed to offspring via placenta and breast milk.

The study was done by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.

Canada's national society of obstetricians and gynecologists says pregnant women infected by COVID-19 have a one-in-10 chance of hospitalization and one-in-100 chance of needing intensive care.

Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador should join other provinces and make pregnant individuals eligible to be vaccinated.