The Covid-19 vaccination campaign takes place in several stages. Initially, it was residents of nursing homes as well as professionals over 65 or suffering from co-morbidities who worked there who were able to benefit from the vaccine. From January 18, vaccination was also open to people aged 75 and over as well as to people at high risk. In the list of people at risk of severe forms of Covid-19, we find pregnant women. However, the latter are not a priority for vaccination. How to explain this discrepancy? Can pregnant women get vaccinated against Covid-19?
Vaccination and pregnancy: a lack of data
Faced with a lack of data on the issue, the High Authority of Health (HAS) advises against vaccination during pregnancy and breastfeeding. "In the absence of robust data on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine (…) during pregnancy, the HAS recalls in accordance with the SPC that its use in pregnant women should be considered only if the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks to mother and fetus. It is advisable not to vaccinate during breastfeeding ", can we read in a document published on January 7.
This means that only pregnant women with comorbidities, such as diabetes or obesity, can a priori benefit from priority access to the vaccine. The reality would however be somewhat different: "In practice this is not the case because we obviously have not enough doses to be able to meet that demand today. They are not the highest priority of the priority ones ", explains to Franceinfo Philippe Deruelle, head of the obstetric gynecology center of the Strasbourg university hospitals.
Covid-19 vaccine: pregnant women excluded from clinical trials
Another reason why pregnant women are not on the list of vulnerable people who could benefit from the vaccine is that they have been excluded from clinical trials. "In bioethics, pregnant women are described as a complex population. Nowhere else do you have two entities at the same time, both of which are objects of moral concern.", explains to the BBC Dr. Ruth Faden, bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University, specializing in the rights and health of pregnant women.
It is therefore as a precautionary principle that the vaccine is not currently recommended during pregnancy. In the absence of data on the question, Belgium and the United Kingdom made the same choice. The United States has taken another decision and leaves the choice of vaccination to the main concerned. Result: 10,000 pregnant women have already been vaccinated.
Covid-19: gynecologists in favor of vaccination of pregnant women
Despite the lack of information on the subject, the National Council of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (Cngof) is in favor of the vaccination of pregnant women. "As with any population at risk, pregnant women should be able to choose whether to benefit (as a precaution) from the protection offered by vaccines", especially since vaccines "do not contain living attenuated organisms that could potentially be transmitted to the baby", explains to Figaro Cyril Huissoud, deputy head of gynecology and obstetrics at the Hospices Civils de Lyon and secretary general of the Cngof.
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