The death of a pregnant woman and her fetus at COVID-19 over the weekend highlighted the growing number of expectant mothers infected by the virus and again called on Sunday for them to be vaccinated.
According to data published by Israeli television networks, a significant increase in pregnant women infected with the virus has been seen in recent months, something that officials blame to the more aggressive British variant.
In total, about 7,415 pregnant women have been infected since the onset of the pandemic. But the numbers have risen in recent months from 288 in November to 1,238 in December and then doubled to 2,629 in January, according to figures from the Ministry of Health quoted by Channel 12.
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Channel 13 reported that there are currently 50 pregnant women admitted to the hospital, of whom 19 are in a serious condition and 8 in a critical condition. None of them were vaccinated.
According to reports, only a third of pregnant women in Israel have been vaccinated. However, the Ministry of Health first recommends that they get the vaccine since 20 January.
Clinical trials for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that Israel uses for its mass vaccination campaign did not include pregnant or lactating women, and the companies said there was insufficient data to show if there was any risk involved.
However, due to the prevalence of pregnant women who became seriously ill, the Ministry of Health changed its mind.
“There is no evidence of harm due to vaccination throughout the pregnancy,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement that also included a warning.
“In pregnant women who become infected and become ill with the coronavirus, there is a higher incidence of a serious onset of the disease than in a similar elderly population,” the ministry said.
Channel 13 said that a month after the change in the protocol, there were no incidents of side effects harming a pregnant mother or fetus.
The situation is strongly illustrated when a pregnant woman dies overnight from COVID-19, who was not vaccinated against the disease because she feared it could endanger her fetus, which is also dead.
Osnat Ben Shitrit. (Instagram)
Osnat Ben Shitrit’s mother and sisters spoke in the media on Sunday, urging people to take the vaccine, while her brother-in-law, who admitted to being behind a social media group against vaccination, left the group. but said he remains wary of vaccination.
Ronit Sianni said her daughter wanted to be vaccinated but was concerned about its safety for pregnant women.
“Get vaccinated, don’t wait,” Sianni told Channel 13. “It’s not a game. It’s a matter of life and death. ”
Ben Shitrit, 32, a mother of four, died at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem in Jerusalem. Doctors could not save her 30-week-old fetus in an emergency C-section. The fetus was not infected with the virus but was born in a critical condition and did not survive, Hadassah said.
Ben Shitrit’s brother-in-law told Kan’s public broadcaster that he had set up a Facebook group against vaccination that had swelled thousands of members, and that he was still a member of several other groups.
Screenshot from video of Osnat Ben Shitrit’s brother-in-law speaking to the media. (Twitter)
The man, who was not identified in the report, said he suspended his own group after Ben Shitrit’s death but remained in the other.
‘When it comes to your backyard, you understand the need to think differently. Now we understand the cost of the coronavirus, ‘he said, but he was careful to advise taking the vaccinations.
The national vaccination campaign is ‘coercive’, he said, apparently referring to government plans to restrict participation in some aspects of public life for those who have not been vaccinated or have not recovered from the disease.
“I’m not saying you should go out because you have to, but if you want to prevent death in your home, you can be vaccinated,” the man said.
He advised people to have other tests done first to determine if they already had antibodies that could be produced during asymptomatic infection with the virus.
Ben Shitrit’s two sisters told the station that the expectant mother had been in a serious condition for several days, but that she refused to be admitted to hospital.
The nurses said Ben Shitrit was already in critical condition when Ben Shitrit reached the hospital. Recognizing their mother, they appealed to the public to be vaccinated.
Ben Shitrit was healthy until she recently contracted the coronavirus and had previously had four smooth pregnancies that ended in straight births, a spokeswoman for the Hadassah Medical Center told The Times of Israel.
A Jerusalem area resident, Ben Shitrit, was admitted to hospital last Tuesday due to respiratory distress and deteriorated rapidly on Saturday night. Doctors noticed damage to several of her organs, and a large team, including cardiologists and gynecologists, was assembled at her bedside.
According to a statement from Hadassah, medics made “very prolonged” resuscitation efforts and performed an emergency caesarean section. But the mother died, and ‘despite tremendous efforts to save the fetus’ life in the premature intensive care unit’, it did not survive.
Ben Shitrit was laid to rest in Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon.
The news of her death echoed across the Israeli healthcare system, while doctors warned that it illustrated the increased danger posed to pregnant women and fetuses by the so-called British variant, which now accounts for almost all Israeli COVID cases.
As of Sunday, more than 4.3 million citizens had at least the first dose of the two-stroke Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine used by Israel in its mass immunization process, which represents nearly half of the population. More than 2.9 million also had the second, according to figures from the Ministry of Health.