Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic that has created a global health crisis and upended conventional methodologies, both in the governance and clinical structures of Health Care Systems. The spread of COVID-19 has necessitated a coordinated public health response in an effective, extensive and expedited vaccination rollout strategy with the ultimate aim of limiting all nidi of infection for the pathogen. For this goal to be realised, pregnant women, as a cohort, cannot reasonably be excluded from this initiative, despite the initial reluctance to include them in clinical trials for various ethical and legal reasons. Weighing the detrimental complications of COVID-19 on maternal and perinatal outcomes against the hypothetical risk of vaccination in the context of promising, albeit indirect, safety and efficacy data, this report argues that all pregnant women should be offered the choice of whether or not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine based on the available evidence and their individualised risk-benefit ratio.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic that has created a global health crisis that necessitated a public health response to limit all nidi of infection
South African data from 2020 demonstrated a 30% increase in maternal deaths since the pandemic started.[1]. Whilst most of these excess deaths are likely from the indirect effects of COVID-19 on maternal care,[1] various women’s health organisations such as the ‘International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO)’ and the ‘Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have deemed pregnancy a risk factor for severe COVID-19.2,3 This report argues that all pregnant women should be offered the choice of whether or not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine based on the available evidence and their individualised risk-benefit ratio
Delaying pregnancy because of vaccination or testing for pregnancy prior to vaccine administration is not recommended.[16,17,18]
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic that has created a global health crisis that necessitated a public health response to limit all nidi of infection.
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