Severe COVID-19 in pregnancy is almost exclusively limited to unvaccinated women – time for policies to change
Hilde Engjom, Thomas van den Akker, Anna J. M. Aabakke, Outi Äyräs, Kitty W.M. Bloemenkamp, Serena Donati, Danilo Cereda, Evelien Overtoom, Marian Knight
Abstract
Pregnant women continue to be excluded from most clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines and medication, despite very clear pre-pandemic guidance.1 There appears little incentive amongst regulators or pharmaceutical companies to change this. Compounded by their exclusion, there is considerable vaccine hesitancy amongst pregnant women.2 Such hesitancy persists, even though at present adverse outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection are increasing among pregnant and postpartum women in many countries,3 while these are improving in most other groups. The impact of the omicron variant is, as yet, unknown.