The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an urgent warning Wednesday for pregnant women to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The warning extended to those who are pregnant, recently pregnant or who are trying to become pregnant in the near future. It’s also recommended to those “who might become pregnant in the future to prevent serious illness, deaths, and adverse pregnancy outcomes,” according to the CDC.
- “Pregnancy can be both a special time and also a stressful time — and pregnancy during a pandemic is an added concern for families,” said Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the CDC. “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.”
Getting the vaccine is recommended for pregnant women “because the benefits of vaccination for both pregnant persons and their fetus or infant outweigh known or potential risks,” the CDC said.
- There have been more than 125,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases among pregnant women, which includes 22,000 hospitalizations and 161 deaths, per The Washington Post.
The CDC has been pushing this for awhile. Back on Aug. 11, the CDC said all pregnant women should get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- ’’The vaccines are safe and effective, and it has never been more urgent to increase vaccinations as we face the highly transmissible delta variant and see severe outcomes from COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people,” Walensky said in a statement in August.
The CDC said hospitals across the country were seeing surges of COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated pregnant women, as I wrote for the Deseret News
- Pregnant women are often at risk for severe illness from the coronavirus, per The Associated Press.