About 20% of the most severely ill coronavirus patients in England are unvaccinated and pregnant, according to England’s National Health Service.
- “Since July, one in five covid patients receiving treatment through a special lung-bypass machine were expectant mums who have not had their first jab,” the health service said in a statement.
Pregnant women make up about one-third of all the women from 16 to 49 years old who are receiving Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation therapy, which is “used only when a patient’s lungs are so damaged by the virus that a ventilator cannot maintain oxygen levels,” according to The Washington Post.
- Only 6% of pregnant women needed that therapy at the start of the pandemic, per The Washington Post.
The health service said it hopes these statistics will encourage pregnant women to become vaccinated against the coronavirus.
In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an urgent warning for pregnant women to get vaccinated.
- “Pregnancy can be both a special time and also a stressful time — and pregnancy during a pandemic is an added concern for families,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, said in a statement. “I strongly encourage those who are pregnant or considering pregnancy to talk with their health care provider about the protective benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine to keep their babies and themselves safe.”
- The vaccine was also recommended to those “who might become pregnant in the future to prevent serious illness, deaths and adverse pregnancy outcomes,” according to the CDC.
The CDC said in August that pregnant women should get the vaccine as soon as possible after a number of hospitals reported seeing scores of pregnant women with severe COVID-19, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- Since the beginning of the pandemic, pregnant women have been at risk for severe illness from COVID-19, per The Associated Press.