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You are pregnant, healthy and hearing mixed messages: the secretary of health and social services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., withdrawn the cocvid vaccine In the list of vaccinations you should get.
“I could not be happier to announce that today, the cocovious vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been withdrawn from the vaccination calendar recommended by the CDC,” Kennedy said on Tuesday.
But the advice of centers for disease control and prevention and other researchers say that being pregnant always puts you in a high -risk group This should receive boosters. Science is on the side of gunshots.
Covid during pregnancy
Pregnant women who have contracted are more likely to become seriously sick and to be hospitalized than women of the same age and the same demographic data that were not pregnant, especially early in the cocovioan pandemic.
A analysis Out of 435 studies from around the world in 2019-2020, have revealed that pregnant and recently pregnant women who were infected with a covid were more likely to end up in intensive care units, invasive ventilation and die that women who were not pregnant but had a similar health profile. It was before the vaccines were available.
Doctor Neil Silverman, Professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology, directs the program of infectious diseases of pregnancy at the David Geffen School of Medicine of the UCLA. He said he saw even more bad results in pregnant patients who had a covid. The risk of severe covid has fluctuated as new variants arose and vaccinations have become available, said Silverman, but the threat is still significant.
“No matter what politics says, science is science, and we know that objectively pregnant patients present a considerably increased risk of complications,” said Silverman.
A request for comments concerning the scientific literature which supports the vaccination covid for pregnant women sent to the HHS Public Affairs Bureau caused an unconnected e-mail unrelated to the issue. The office did not respond when they were asked for a comment on the record.
There are still a lot of unknown on how Covid affects a pregnant person. The physiological relationship between the covored infections, the mothers and the fetus at different stages of a pregnancy is complex, known as Angela RasmussenVirologist at the University of Saskatchewan.
The increased risk for pregnant patients is partly because pregnancy changes the immune system, said Rasmussen.
“There is a natural immune suppression so that the mother’s body does not attack the development fetus,” said Rasmussen. “Although the mother always has a functional immune system, it does not work at full capacity,” she added.
Pregnant patients are more likely to become sick and have more difficulty fighting for any infection accordingly.
Cavid can harm the placenta
In addition to changing the functioning of the immune system, being pregnant also makes women five times most likely Have blood clots. This risk is increased if they contract in Covid says Sallie PermarPresident of the pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.
The virus that causes COVID can affect specialized cells of vascular endothelium that line blood vessels and help with blood circulation, said Rasmussen. In a healthy person, endothelium helps prevent blood clots by producing chemicals that keep the vascular system on the move. In a person infected with a cochem, the balance is eco -bodied and the production of these molecules is disturbed, which Research shows can cause blood clots or other blood disorders.
Permar said these clots can be particularly dangerous for pregnant women and the baby. Inflammation and blood clots in the placenta could be linked to an increased risk of mortinity Some coated variantsAccording to studies published in the main medical journals as well as by the CDC.
When the placenta is ignited, it is more difficult than blood transports oxygen and nutrients to go to the baby, says Mary PrahlAssociate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco University School.
“If something interrupts these functions – inflammation or coagulation or differences in the way in which blood flows – this will really affect the functioning of the placenta and to be able to allow the fetus to develop and develop appropriately,” she said.
It is logical that we see the effects of covid in the placenta, said Silverman. “The placenta is nothing more than a hyper specialized collection of blood vessels, so it’s like a magnetic target for the virus.”
The blood vessels in the placenta are smaller, thinner and more easily than in the mother’s circulatory system, he said.
Permar said more recent data suggest that Covid’s sick pregnant women still have a higher risk of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, premature births and miscarriage, even with the existing immunity of infection or previous vaccination. Covid, she said, can still land women in the hospital with complications of pregnancy.
Prahl said that the link between mortinity and gloom can change for immunity that many people have developed vaccination or an earlier infection. It is an area in which she would like to see more research.
Underground vaccines and efficiency
There is already Solid evidence The fact that the vaccines both based on mRNA and non-ARNM are sure for pregnant women.
Prahl co-written a little, early study This found no unwanted results and showed that the protection of antibodies persisted for the mother and the baby after birth. “What we have learned very quickly is that pregnant people want answers and many of them want to be involved in research,” she said. Subsequent studies, including a published in the journal Nature Medicine showing that obtaining a booster during pregnancy Cut newborn hospitalizations During the first four months of life, supported the first conclusions of his team.
Prahl expects more evidence to be available soon to support the advantages of mothers receiving a booster coche during pregnancy.
“I can say in a way behind the scenes, I see a lot of this preliminary data,” she said.
She partially blames the delay in reducing the Biden administration of federal efforts to follow COVID. “”Much of the monitoring of this data has been withdrawn, “she said. The Trump administration is Cut more money Used to follow COVID.
But because the vaccine gives a boost to a pregnant woman by increasing the neutralizing antibodies, the virologist Rasmussen is convinced that to obtain an while the pregnancy makes less likely than a pregnant woman will find herself in the hospital if she becomes cocovated.
“This will protect the pregnant person from more serious illnesses,” she said.
Obtaining a vaccine codes during pregnancy also helps protect newborns after birth. Pregnant women who are vaccinated adopt this protection to their infants.
According to recent data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 90% of babies who had to be hospitalized with COVID-19 Mothers who have not obtained the vaccine While they were pregnant. The study was carried out on medical data in 12 states, collected between October 2022 and April 2024. Of the 1,470 infants sufficiently sick to be hospitalized due to serious results, serious results occurred “frequently” according to the report.
The exclusion of newborns hospitalized at birth, approximately 1 in 5 infants hospitalized with COVID required intensive care, and almost one in 20 required a fan.
And babies too young to be vaccinated had the highest hospitalization rate of all age groups, with the exception of people aged 75 and over.
The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw the covented vaccine from the list of shots it recommends for pregnant women means that insurance companies may no longer cover it – so it can cost hundreds of dollars in their pocket.
“I don’t want to be this doctor who simply says:” Well, it’s really important. You have to vaccinate yourself and your children, whatever happens, even if you have to pay it from your pocket “, because everyone has their own priorities and budget concerns, especially in the current economic climate,” said Silverman. “”I cannot tell a family that the vaccine is more important than feeding their children. “”
But he and his colleagues will continue to advise pregnant women to try to get the photos if they can.
“The newborns will be completely naive for a covid exhibition,” he said. “Vaccination of pregnant women to protect their newborns is always a valid reason to continue this effort.”
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