Want to send the best of VICE News directly to your inbox? Sign in here.
When Vicki Singer posted a photo of her sticker claiming she was ‘COVID-19 VACCINATED’ on Twitter, she did not expect to be attacked. At a little over thirteen weeks pregnant, she just wanted to spread awareness and information about the vaccination while she was expecting.
Then came the trolls.
“This poor expectant mother thinks it’s important to throw the dice and experiment on her and her baby’s DNA,” a stranger wrote. Another responded with a suggestion that pregnant women should not be vaccinated at all.
Singer, an administrative assistant to epidemiologists at Washington University in St. Louis. Louis, decided to get vaccinated after talking to her OB-GYNs. Her husband personally teaches high school, and Singer said cerebral palsy and asthma, which warned her OB-GYNs, would put her at greater risk if she got COVID-19. Pregnant people are also more likely to get very sick and die if they catch COVID-19, research has found.
For other expectant mothers who spoke to VICE News, the decision to vaccinate was less clear.
Neither Modern nor Pfizer-BioNTech knowingly included pregnant women in their trials, and until recently the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control did not even discuss whether pregnant women should be vaccinated. The lack of consensus has led to confusion about the possible dangers of the chance to get the chance compared to the fact that it was not vaccinated for a pregnant person and their baby. And even when expectant parents finally decide, they are often judged.
“Of course I can not guarantee that nothing will happen. “I can guarantee that it is much less than if I were to get COVID,” Singer told VICE News. “Getting people on the Internet like ‘You’m doing it wrong’ – I’m like, ‘What? I am sorry? What?'”
It is common for pregnant women to be excluded from biomedical research in the US, but some evidence suggests that vaccination is safe for them. Twenty-three people who participated in Pfizer’s vaccine study either became pregnant after being vaccinated or were too early to be detected. Of the 23, 12 received the right vaccine in addition to a placebo; although more follow-up is needed, none of the women reported serious side effects.
Yet the WHO originally recommended that pregnant women not get the Moderna or Pfizer vaccinations (unless they run the risk of catching COVID-19). Other major medical groups – including the CDC and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – disagree. Instead, they appealed to providers to let pregnant people decide for themselves whether to roll up their sleeves.
“Getting people on the Internet like ‘You’m doing it wrong’ – I’m like, ‘What? I am sorry? What?'”
After a great outcry and great confusion as to why doctors could not reach an agreement, the WHO reversed its opinion at the end of January. “We have no specific reason to believe that there will be specific risks that will outweigh the benefits of vaccination for pregnant women,” the organization said in a statement.
Even as a Columbia University doctor specializing in infectious diseases, Emily Miller was initially unsure if he should get the vaccine. After treating his patients through the overwhelming COVID-19 cases in the spring wave in New York, she knew first-hand how devastating the disease can be. But her pregnancy made the decision difficult.
‘I remember asking a lot of the women I work for, who were not only pregnant but also moms [infectious disease] doctors, ‘What would you do? Would you wait? Would you get the vaccine? ” Remember Miller. Miller’s OB-GYN pointed out that she still had a high risk of catching the virus because she still saw COVID-19 patients.
“For me, it just made sense to go ahead and do it,” Miller said. “The scientist in me could not think of a reasonable way to harm the vaccine to the baby.”
Vaccinations are usually safe and pregnant women have been vaccinated regularly against various diseases since the 1960s. But it can take years or even decades before the full effects of the rapidly evolving coronavirus vaccines become known. The ghost of thalidomide also haunts the medical profession: the drug was prescribed for the treatment of nausea of pregnant women in the fifties and sixties, and caused thousands of children severe congenital disorders.
To date, about 10,000 pregnant people have been vaccinated with the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines in the US. Last Monday, Anthony Fauci, the leading doctor in the US, said there were ‘no red flags’.
One study recently published in JAMA Pediatrics also suggests that pregnant women can transmit coronavirus antibodies to their children. The study found that 87 percent of the umbilical cords of their newborns have antibodies among 83 new mothers in Pennsylvania, which could provide the children with protection against the virus. In an editorial accompanying the study, a researcher suggested that ‘maternal vaccination’ may help newborns obtain antibodies.
“No one really knows the right answer in this scenario,” said Danya Roshdy, a clinical pharmacy specialist dealing with infectious diseases in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is also pregnant. “And many pregnant people go to their providers and ask these questions and do not get a straight answer.”
Because Roshdy helps care for COVID patients, she knew exactly how much damage the virus could cause. She already knew she wanted to be vaccinated by the time she spoke to her own doctor, who had no qualms.
“The COVID cases in my area were on the rise, and the risk of getting COVID at that point was pretty high,” Roshdy said. “I felt that I was more worried about the fact that I was getting COVID and that I was getting really sick from COVID and that it would badly affect the COVID virus itself versus the vaccine.”
After her two shots, Roshdy had only mild side effects. About 24 hours after her second dose, she developed a cold fever and joint pain.
Miller received her first dose of vaccination and in January her second dose after her healthy daughter was born. When she posted a photo of her pregnant self, mid-shot, on Facebook, a handful of pregnant friends and colleagues asked for advice on whether they should be vaccinated as well.
‘I think I was a good person for many of my pregnant doctor friends, because I’m also pregnant [infectious disease] doctor, and many of them experienced the same problems, ”Miller said. “For every woman, it’s a different kind of risk-benefit analysis.”
Emily Miller, a Columbia University doctor who specializes in infectious diseases, is getting her COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo courtesy of Emily Miller)